Chance, however, has at last furnished me with the original to which Shakespeare was indebted for his fable; nor does this discovery at all dispose me to retract my former opinion; and I would refer the reader, who is desirous to examine the whole structure of the piece, to Six old Plays on which Shakespeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, at Charing-Cross. Beaumont and Fletcher wrote what may be called a sequel to this comedy, viz. The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tam'd; in which Petruchio is subdued by a second wife. STEEVENS. Among the books of my friend the late Mr. William Collins of Chichester, now dispersed, was a collection of short comic stories in prose, printed in the black letter under the 66 year 1570: sett forth by maister Richard Edwards, mayster of her Majesties revels." Among these tales was that of the INDUCTION OF THE TINKER in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew; and perhaps Edwards's story-book was the immediate source from which Shakespeare, or rather the author of the old Taming of a Shrew, drew that diverting apologue. If I recollect right, the circumstances almost tallied with an incident which Heuterus relates from an epistle of Ludovicus Vives to have actually happened at the marriage of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, about the year 1440. That perspicuous annalist, who flourished about the year 1580 says, this story was told to Vives by an old officer of the Duke's T. WARTON. court. Our author's Taming of the Shrew was written, I imagine, in 1594. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, VOL. II. MALONE. A Lord. PERSONS REPRESENTED. CHRISTOPHER SLY, a drunken tinker. Hostess, Page, Players, Huntsmen, and other Servants attending on the Lord. BAPTISTA, a rich gentleman of Padua. VINCENTIO, an old gentleman of Pisa. Persons in the Induc tion. LUCENTIO, son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca. PETRUCHIO, a gentleman of Verona, a suitor to Kath PEDANT, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio. KATHARINA, the shrew, daughters to Baptista. BIANCA, her sister, Widow. Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants, attending on Bap tista and Petruchio. SCENE-sometimes in Padua; and sometimes in Petruchio's house in the country. TAMING OF THE SHREW. INDUCTION. SCENE I. Before an Alehouse on a Heath. Enter Hostess and SLY. I'LL pheese1 you, in faith. Sly. Host. A pair of stocks, you rogue! Sly. Y'are a baggage; the Slies are no rogues: Look in the chronicles, we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide; Sessa! Host. You will not pay for the glasses you have burst ?3 Sly. No, not a denier: Go by, says Jeronimy ;-Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.1 Host. I know my remedy: I must go fetch the thirdborough. [Exit. Sly. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer him by law I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him come, and kindly. [Lies down on the ground, and falls asleep. [1] To pheese or fease, is to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken, like teaze or toze, for to harass, to plague. Perhaps, I'll pheeze you, may be equivalent to I'll comb your head, a phrase vuigarly used by persons of Sly's character, on like occasions. JOHNSON. To pheeze a man, is to beat him; to give him a pheeze, is, to give him a knock, M. MASON 12] Sly, as an ignorant fellow is purposely made to aim at languages out of his knowledge, and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards say, pocas pallabras, i. e. few words; as they do likewise, Cessa, i. e. be quiet. THEOBALD [3] To burst and to break were anciently synonymous. Falstaff says, that ["John of Gaunt burst Shallow's head for crowding in among the marshal's men." STEEVENS. [4] All the editions have coined a saint here, for Sly to swear by. But the poet had no such intentions. The passage has particular humour in it, and must have been very pleasing at that time of day. But I must clear up a piece of stage history to make it understood. There is a fustian old play called Hieronymo ; or The Spanish Tragedy: which I find was the common butt of raillery to all the poets in Shakespeare's time: and a passage, that appeared very ridiculous in that play, is here humourously alluded to. THEOBALD. Wind horns. Enter a Lord from hunting, with Huntsmen and Servants. Lord. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds: Brach Merriman,-the poor cur is emboss'd,* And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach. Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good At the hedge corner, in the coldest fault? I would not lose the dog for twenty pound. 1 Hunt. Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord; He cried upon it at the merest loss, And twice to-day picked out the dullest scent: Lord. Thou art a fool; if Echo were as fleet, I would esteem him worth a dozen such. But sup them well, and look unto them all ; To-morrow I intend to hunt again. 1 Hunt. I will, my lord. Lord. What's here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe? 2 Hunt. He breathes, my lord: Were he not warm'd with ale, This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly. Lord. O monstrous beast! how like a swine he lies! And brave attendants near him when he wakes, 1 Hunt. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot choose. 2 Hunt. It would seem strange unto him, when he wak'd Lord. Even as a flattering dream, or worthless fancy. Then take him up, and manage well the jest : Carry him gently to my fairest chamber, And hang it round with all my wanton pictures: To make a dulcet and a heavenly sound; [4] Emboss'd is a hunting term. When a deer is hard run, and foams at ine mouth, he is said to be emboss'd. A dog also when he is strained with hard running (especially upon hard ground,) will have his knees swelled, and then he is said to be emboss'd: from the French word bosse, which signifies a tumour. T. WARTON |