I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exeunt Petruchio, Katharina, and Grumio. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing.

249

Tra. Of all mad matches never was the like.
Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister?
Bian. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated.
Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbors and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants

For to supply the places at the table,

You know there wants no junkets at the feast. Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place;

And let Bianca take her sister's room.

Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? Bap. She shall, Lucentio. Come, gentlemen, let's

go.

[Exeunt.

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

Petruchio's country house.

Enter Grumio.

Gru. Fie, fie on all tired jades, on all mad masters, and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed? was ever man So weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me: but I, with blowing the fire, shall warm 10 myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold.

tis!

Holla, ho! Cur

Enter Curtis.

Curt. Who is that calls so coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice: if thou doubt it, thou mayst
slide from my shoulder to my heel with no
greater a run but my head and my neck.
fire, good Curtis.

neck. A

Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Gru

mio?

20

Gru. O, aye, Curtis, aye: and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water.

Curt. Is she so hot a shrew as she 's reported? Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou knowest, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.

Curt. Away, you three-inch fool! I am no

beast.

Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am I at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand, she being now at hand, thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office? Curt. I prithee, good Grumio, tell me, how goes the world?

Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but

30

thine; and therefore fire: do thy duty, and 40
have thy duty; for my master and mistress
are almost frozen to death.

Curt. There's fire already: and therefore, good
Grumio, the news.

28. "And myself, fellow Curtis"; Grumio calls himself a beast, and Curtis one also by inference in calling him fellow: this would not have been noticed but that one of the commentators thought it necessary to alter myself in Grumio's speech to thyself. Grumio's sentence is proverbial: "Wedding, and ill-wintering, tame both man and beast."-H. N. H.

31. “Am I but three inches?"; Curtis contemptuously alludes to Grumio's diminutive size; and he in return calls Curtis a cuckold.— H. N. H.

Gru. Why, Jack, boy! ho! boy!' and as much
news as thou wilt.

Curt. Come, you are so full of cony-catching!
Gru. Why, therefore fire; for I have caught ex-

treme cold. Where's the cook? is supper
ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, 50
cobwebs swept; the serving-men in their new
fustian, their white stockings, and every offi-
cer his wedding-garment on? Be the jacks
fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets
laid, and every thing in order?

Curt. All ready; and therefore, I pray thee,

news.

Gru. First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out.

Curt. How?

Gru. Out of their saddles into the dirt; and

thereby hangs a tale.

Curt. Let 's ha 't, good Grumio.

60

Gru. Lend thine ear.

Curt. Here.

Gru. There.

[Strikes him.

Curt. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. Gru. And therefore 'tis called a sensible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech listening. Now I begin: Im- 70 primis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress,

Curt. Both of one horse?

Gru. What's that to thee?

Curt. Why, a horse.

Gru. Tell thou the tale: but hadst thou not

crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her
horse fell and she under her horse; thou
shouldst have heard in how miry a place, how
she was bemoiled, how he left her with the 80
horse upon her, how he beat me because her
horse stumbled, how she waded through the
dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore, how
she prayed, that never prayed before, how
I cried, how the horses ran away, how her
bridle was burst, how I lost my crupper, with
many things of worthy memory, which now
shall die in oblivion and thou return unex-
perienced to thy grave.

Curt. By this reckoning he is more shrew than 90
she.
Gru. Aye; and that thou and the proudest of
you all shall find when he comes home. But
what talk I of this? Call forth Nathaniel,
Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop
and the rest: let their heads be sleekly
combed, their blue coats brushed, and their
garters of an indifferent knit: let them
curtsy with their left legs, and not presume
to touch a hair of my master's horse-tail till 100
they kiss their hands. Are they all ready?
Curt. They are.

Gru. Call them forth.

Curt. Do you hear, ho? you must meet my master to countenance my mistress!

Gru. Why, she hath a face of her own.

99. "curtsy," this mark of respect (also called making a leg) was used by both sexes.-C. H. H.