Kath. A very mean meaning.

Wid. Right, I mean you.

Kath. And I am mean, indeed, respecting 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? Gre. Believe me, Sir, they butt together well. Bian. Head, and butt? An hasty-witted body Would 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,

Have at you for a bitter jest or two.

Bian. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, And then pursue me as you draw your bow:You are welcome all. [Exeunt Bianca, Katharina, and Widow.

Pet. She hath prevented me.-Here, signior

Tranio,

This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not;
Therefore, a health to all that shot and miss'd.
Tra. O, Sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his grey-
hound,

Which runs himself, and catches for his master.
Pet. A good swift simile, but something currish.
Tra. Tis well, Sir, that you hunted for yourself;
'Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay.
Bap. O ho, Petruchio, Tranio hits you now.
Luc. I thank thee for that gird,t, good Tranio.
Hor. Confess, confess; hath he not hit you here?
Pet. 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess ;
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, say no and therefore, for assur

ance,

Let's each one send unto his wife;

And he, whose wife is most obedient

* Witty.

+ Sarcasm.

To come at first when he doth send for her,
Shall win the wager which we will propose.
Hor. Content';-What is the wager?

Luc. Twenty crowns.

Pet. Twenty crowns!

11 venture so much on my hawk, or hound, But twenty times so much upon my wife. Luc. A hundred then.

Hor. Content.

Pet. A match; 'tis done.

Hor. Who shall begin?

Luc. That will I. Go,

Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.

Bion. I go.

[Exit.

Bap. Son, I will be your half, Bianca comes. Luc. I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.

Re-enter BIONDELLO.

How now! What news?

Bion. Sir, my mistress sends you word That she is busy, and she cannot come,

Pet. How! She is busy, and she cannot come! Is that an answer?

Gre. Ay, and a kind one too:

Pray God, Sir, your wife-send you not a worse.
Pet. I hope, better.

Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go, and entreat my wife To come to me forthwith.

Pet. 0, ho! entreat her!

Nay, then she must needs come.
Hor. I am afraid, Sir,

[Exit Biondello.

Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.

Re-enter BIONDELLO.

Now, where's my wife?

Bion. She says, you have some goodly jest in hand;

She will not come; she bids you come to her..
Pet. Worse and worse; she will not come ! O vile
Intolerable, not to be endured!

Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress;
Say, I command her come to me.
Hor. I know her answer.

Pet. What?

Hor. She will not come.

[Exit Grumio.

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.

Enter KATHARINA.

Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Kathia

rina:

Kath. What is your will, Sir, that you send for me? Pet. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife! Kath. They sit conferring by the parlour fire. Pet. Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to

come,

Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands; Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.

[Exit Katharina. Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. Hor. And so it is; I wonder what it bodes. Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet

life,

An awful rule, and right supremacy;

And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy.
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 shew more sign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA, and WIDOW. See, where she comes; and brings your froward wives

As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.

Katharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
O with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[Katharina pulls off her Cap, and
throws it down.

Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh, Til 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-time. Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty. Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell these head

strong women

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.
Wid. She shall not.

Pet. I say, she shall;-and first begin with her.
Kath. Fie, fie! Unknit that threat'ning unkind

brow:

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,

To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty, as frosts bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds;
And in no sense is meet, or amiable.

A woman moved, is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience ;-
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such, a woman oweth to her husband:
And, when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And, not obedient to his honest will,
What is she, but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?-
I am ashamed, that women are so simple

To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,

When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world;
But that our soft conditions and our hearts,
Should well agree with our external parts ?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great; my reason, haply, more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown:
But now, I see our lances are but straws;

Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,-
That seeming to be most, which we least are.
Then vail your stomachst, for it is no boot;
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,

My hand is ready, may it do him ease.

Pet. Why, there's a wench !-Come on, and kiss me, Kate..

Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad; for thou shalt

ha't.

Gentle temper.

Abate your spirits.,

Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are

toward.

Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward.

Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to-bed :

We three are married, but you two are sped. 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white. [To Lucentio. And, being a winner, God give you good night! [Exeunt Petruchio and Katharina. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tamed a curst

shrew.

Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be [Exeunt.

tamed so.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.]-Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly be called two, without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. The attention is entertained. with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents.

The parts between Katharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca, the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting.

JOHNSON.