Tra. Sir, what are you that offer to beat my servant? Vin. What am I, sir! nay, what are you, sir? O immortal gods! O fine villain! A silken doublet! a velvet hose! a scarlet cloak! and a copatain hat! O, I am undone! I am undone while I play the good husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at the university. Tra. How now! what's the matter? Tra. Sir, you seem a sober ancient gentleman by your habit, but your words show you a madman. Why, sir, what 'cerns it you if I wear pearl and gold? I thank my good father, I am able to maintain it. 79 Vin. Thy father! O villain! he is a sailmaker in Bergamo. Bap. You mistake, sir, you mistake, sir. Pray, what do you think is his name? Vin. His name! as if I knew not his name: I have brought him up ever since he was three years old, and his name is Tranio. Ped. Away, away, mad ass! his name is Lucentio; and he is mine only son, and heir to the lands of me, Signior Vincentio. 89 Vin. Lucentio! O, he hath murdered his master! Lay hold on him, I charge you, in the duke's name. O, my son, my son! Tell me, thou villain, where is my son Lucentio ? Tra. Call forth an officer. Enter one with an Officer. Carry this mad knave to the gaol. Father Bap tista, I charge you see that he be forthcoming. Vin. Carry me to the gaol! Gre. Stay, officer: he shall not go to prison. Bap. Talk not, Signior Gremio: I say he shall go to prison. 100 Gre. Take heed, Signior Baptista, lest you be cony-catched in this business: I dare swear this is the right Vincentio. Ped. Swear, if thou darest. Tra. Then thou wert best say that I am not Lucentio. [centio. Gre. Yes, I know thee to be Signior LuBap. Away with the dotard! to the gaol with him! 110 Vin. Thus strangers may be hailed and abused: O monstrous villain! Re-enter BIONDELLO, with LUCENTIO anȧ BIANCA. Bion. O! we are spoiled and-yonder he is deny him, forswear him, or else we are al undone. Luc. [Kneeling] Pardon, sweet father. Bian. Pardon, dear father. How hast thou offended? Luc. Here's Lucentio, Right son to the right Vincentio ; That have by marriage made thy daughter mine, While counterfeit supposes blear❜d thine eyne Gre. Here's packing, with a witness to de ceive us all! Vin. Where is that damned villain Tranio That faced and braved me in this matter so? Bap. Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio Bian. Cambio is changed into Lucentio. Luc. Love wrought these miracles. Bianca' love Made me exchange my state with Tranio, While he did bear my countenance in the town; 130 And happily I have arrived at the last Vin. I'll slit the villain's nose, that would have sent me to the gaol. Bap. But do you hear, sir? have you mar ried my daughter without asking my good will? Vin. Fear not, Baptista; we will content you, go to: but I will in, to be revenged for this villany. [Erit. 110 Bap. And I, to sound the depth of this knavery. [Erit Luc. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not frown. [Exeunt Lucentio and Bianc Gre. My cake is dough; but I'll in among the rest, Out of hope of all, but my share of the feast. [Erit Kath. Husband, let's follow, to see the end of this ado. Pet. First kiss me, Kate, and we will Pet. Why, then let's home again. Come, sirrah, let's away. Kath. Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay. [Kate Pet. Is not this well? Come, my sweet Better once than never, for never too late. [Exeunt SCENE II. Padua. LUCENTIO's house. Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, &= Pedant, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO, and Widow, TRANIO, BIONDELLO, and GRUMIO: the S ving-men with Tranio bringing in a banquet Luc. At last, though long, our jarring notes agree: And time it is, when raging war is done, Brother Petruchio, sister Katharina, Pet. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! Bap. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. [kind. Pet. Padua affords nothing but what is Hor. For both our sakes, I would that word were true. [widow. Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his Wid. Then never trust me, if I be afeard. Pet. You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense: I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you. Wid. He that is giddy thinks the world turns round. Pet. Roundly replied. Kath. 20 Mistress, how mean you that ? Wid. Thus I conceive by him. Pet, Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that? Hor. My widow says, thus she conceives her tale. you. Pet. To her, Kate! Hor. To her, widow! Pet. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. Hor. That's my office. Pet. Spoke like an officer; ha' to thee, lad! [Drinks to Hortensio. Bap. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? [well. Gre. Believe me, sir, they butt together Bian, Head, and butt! an hasty-witted body Fould say your head and butt were head and horn. Vin. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you ? Bian. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again. Pet. Nay, that you shall not: since you have begun, ave at you for a bitter jest or two! Bian, Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush; nd then pursue me as you draw your bow. Ju are welcome all. [Exeunt Bianca, Katharina, and Widow. Pet. She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio, Tra. 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for your'Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay. Bap. O ho, Petruchio! Tranio hit you now. Luc. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. Hor. Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here ? Pet. A' has a little gall'd me, I confess ; 60 And, as the jest did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright. Bap. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all. Pet. Well, I say no: and therefore for as surance Hor. And so it is: I wonder what it bodes. Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love and quiet life, And awful rule and right supremacy; And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy? 110 Bap. Now, fair befal thee, good Petruchio! The wager thou hast won; and I will add Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns; Another dowry to another daughter, For she is changed, as she had never been. Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet And show more sign of her obedience, Her new-built virtue and obedience. See where she comes and brings your froward wives As prisoners to her womanly persuasion. 120 Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA and Widow. Katharina, that cap of yours becomes you not: Off with that bauble, throw it under-foot. Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh, Till I be brought to such a silly pass! Bian. Fie what a foolish duty call you this? Luc. I would your duty were as foolish too: The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper[duty. time. Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women 130 What duty they do owe their lords and husbands. Wid. Come, come, you're mocking: we will have no telling. Pet. Come on, I say; and first begin with her. And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fa buds, 14 And in no sense is meet or amiable. And for thy maintenance commits his body safe; 13 And craves no other tribute at thy hands are. Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, And place your hands below your husban foot: In token of which duty, if he please, Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad; for t Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed. We three are married, but you two are s [To Luc.] 'Twas I won the wager, thoug hit the white; And, being a winner, God give you good n. [Exeunt Petruchio and Kath Hor. Now, go thy ways; thou hast t a curst shrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leav will be tamed so. [E THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. (WRITTEN ABOUT 1598.) INTRODUCTION. This is an offshoot from the comedy of King Henry IV., while King Henry V. is the direct contintion of the history. Dennis, in 1702, reports a tradition that this play was written in fourteen daye, by order of the Queen; and Rowe adds: "She was so well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff, in the two parts of Henry IV., that she commanded him to continue it for one play more, 2d to show him in love." This may have been the cause why Shakespeare does not fulfill the prommade in the Epilogue of Henry IV., that Falstaff should re-appear with Henry V. in France; but, indeed, among the great deeds of the victor of Agincourt there would be small room for a Fal#aff. The choice of Windsor as the scene, and the compliments to the owner of Windsor Castle, and to the wearers of the Order of the Garter, suggest that the play was meant especially for Elizabeth and her courtiers. An early sketch of The Merry Wives was published in quarto, 1602; some Caches in the play, as given in the folio, were evidently made after the accession of James I. (1603); the word “council is altered to "king" (Act I., Sc. I., L. 113); "these knights will hack," exclaims Mrs. Page (Act II., Sc I., L. 52), and the allusion to James's too liberal creation of knights in 1604 was obably appreciated. Some critics have held that the first sketch of The Merry Wives was written as early as 1592. A German duke is spoken of by Bardolph as about to visit Windsor, and his genhemen ride off with mine host of the Garter's horses unpaid for. In the early sketch (Act IV., Sc. v., of the revised play), instead of "cousin-germans," where Evans puns upon the words cozen and Ger, occurs the strange "cosen garmombles." Now, Count Frederick of Mömpelgard had visited England and accompanied the Queen to Windsor, Aug. 1592; and in the passport which he received or his journey back to the Continent, we read that he shall be furnished with post-horses, and shall ay nothing for the same. Next year the Count became Duke of Wirtemberg, and in 1595 he craved at, in accordance with a promise given, Elizabeth would confer upon him the Order of the Garter, h Elizabeth, on various pretexts, declined. "Garmombles" obviously reverses the true name Mompelgard;" but the inference that the date of the play is 1592, because it refers to the visit of be Germans, is unwarrantable, for such an event would be remembered, and the more so because of e Duke's subsequent unavailing attempt to obtain the honor of the Garter. If we try to make out taet relations between the characters of The Merry Wives and the same characters as they appear the historical plays, we shall fail. The comedy has a certain independence of the histories, and annot be pieced on to them in any way: the persons are the same and not the same. Mrs. Quickly, ervant of Dr. Caius, has a different history from the Mrs. Quickly of the Boar's Head Tavern. Nor Falstaff conceived in quite the same manner as the Falstaff of Henry IV. Here the knight is ous, his genius deserts him; the never-defeated hangs his head before two country dames; the k-basket, the drench of Thames water, the blows of Ford's cudgel, are reprisals too coarse upon e most inimitable of jesters. Yet the play is indeed a merry one, with well-contrived incidents nd abundance of broad mirth. A country air breathes over the whole; nowhere else has Shakeare represented English middle-class life in the country, and he has here done it with a vigorous, ealthy pleasure. It is not, however, a poetical play, unless comely English maidenhood, in the erson of pretty Anne Page, lend it something of poetry. There is a propriety in the fact that this medy is written almost wholly in prose. The merry wives are a delightful pair, with "their sly ghing looks, their apple-red cheeks, their brows the lines whereon look more like the work of rth than of years;" and Slender, most brainless of youths, most incapable of lovers, is dear for ke of the laugh at him which pretty Anne Page must have when alone. Altogether, if we can cept Falstaff's discomfitures, it is a merry play to laugh at if not to love. } two gentlemen dwelling at Windsor. WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Page. is daughter to Master Thomas Page, which is pretty virginity. Slen. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman. Evans. It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as you will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and gold and sil ver, is her grandsire upon his death's-bedGot deliver to a joyful resurrections !-give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years old it were a goot motion if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page. Slen. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound? 60 Evans. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts. Evans. Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is goot gifts. Shal. Well, let us see honest Master Page Is Falstaff there ? Evans. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do despise one that is false, or as despise one that is not true. The knight, S John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door for Master Page. [Knocks. What, hoa! Got pless your house here! Page. [Within] Who's there? Enter PAGE. Evans. Here is Got's plessing, and you friend, and Justice Shallow; and here your Master Slender, that peradventures shall te you another tale, if matters grow to your li ings. Page. I am glad to see your worships well I thank you for my venison, Master Shallow Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see yo much good do it your good heart! I wishe your venison better; it was ill killed. Ho doth good Mistress Page ?-and I thank yo always with my heart, la! with my heart Page. Sir, I thank you. Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, do. Page. I am glad to see yon, good Mast Slender. Slen. How does your fallow greyhour sir? I heard say he was outrun on Cotsail Page. It could not be judged, sir. Sten. You'll not confess, you'll not confe |