"-two and thirty,—a PIP out?"-" This passage has escaped the commentators; yet it is more obscure than many they have explained. Perhaps it was passed over because it was not understood? The allusion is to the old game of Bone-ace,' or 'One-and-thirty.' A 'pip' is a spot upon a card. The old copy has it peepe. The same allusion is in Massinger's Fatal Dowry,' act ii. scene ii.:-'You think, because you served my lady's mother [you] are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out, you know.' There is a secondary allusion (in which the joke lies) to a popular mode of inflicting punishment upon certain offenders. For a curious illustration of this, the reader may consult Florio's Italian Dictionary,' in v. Trentuno."-SINGER. "what HE 'LEGES in Latin"-Grumio is supposed to mistake Italian for Latin; for though Italian were his native language, as Monck Mason observes, he speaks English, and Shakespeare did not mean to treat him otherwise than as an Englishman. Tyrwhitt's suggestion for reading be leges, instead of "he 'leges," is, however, ingenious. "Where small experience grows, but in a few." With Collier we preserve the old reading, the meaning being, that only a few have the power to gain much experience at home. The common reading is, "But in a few," meaning, as Johnson says, "in a few wordsin short." "Be she as foul as was Florentius' love”—The story of Florentius, or Florent, is told in Gower's "Confessio Amantis," lib. i.; and also in Lupton's "Thousand Notable Things," the earliest edition of which was printed in 1586. Florentius married over-night, for the sake of wealth, and next morning found his wife-the lothest wighte That ever man caste on his eye. "Were she as rough As are the swelling Adriatic seas." "The Adriatic, though well land-locked, and in summer often as still as a mirror, is subject to severe and sudden storms. The great sea-wall which protects Venice, distant eighteen miles from the city, and built, of course, in a direction where it is best sheltered and supported by the islands, is, for three miles abreast of Palestrina, a vast work for width and loftiness; yet it is frequently surmounted in winter by the swelling Adriatic seas,' which pour over into the Lagunes."KNIGHT. "— or an AGLET-baby"-Aglets, or properly aiguillettes, Fr., were the ends or tags of the strings used to fasten or sustain dress. In the "Twenty-fifth Coventry Play," edited by Mr. Halliwell, the Devil, disguised as a gallant, says that he has Two doseyn poyntys of cheverelle, the aglottes of sylver feyn. These aglets not unfrequently represented figures; and hence Grumio's joke about "an aglet-baby." "—he'll rail in his ROPE-TRICKS"-A blunder on the eyes to see withal than a CAT"-The learned efforts to explain this seem to be lost labour. Mr. Boswell justly remarks, that nothing is more common in ludicrous or playful discourse than to use a comparison where no resemblance is intended." - half so great a blow to THE EAR"-The old copies have to hear; which, with Hanmer, Stevens, and others, I think is a natural misprint for "the ear,"-a more probable as well as poetical phrase, and one familiar to the Poet: as, in KING JOHN Our ears are cudgelled; not a word of his "FEAR boys with BUGS"-i. e. Frighten boys with hobgoblins. Douce has given us a curious passage from Mathews's Bible, Psalm xci. 5, "Thou shalt not nede to be afraied for any bugs by night." The English name of the punaise was not applied till late in the seventeenth century, and is evidently metaphorical. "Hark you, sir: you mean not her to-" In the old copies there is a dash after "to," as if Gremio were interrupted by Tranio, who appears to have anticipated that Gremio meant to conclude by the word woo. "AND if you break the ice, and do this SEEK"-Rowe substituted feat for "seek," but unnecessarily. Tranio refers to Petruchio's enterprise to "seek" and ": "achieve the elder." Modern editors have here abandoned the ancient authorities. "And do this seek" is equivalent to" and do this one seek." "we all rest generally BEHOLDING"-"Such was the language of the time, though modern editors have substituted beholden. Shakespeare employs the active participle, and it was the universal practice of his contemporaries."-Collier. "Please ye we may CONTRIVE this afternoon"—i. e. Spend the afternoon, or wear out the afternoon: from the Latin contero. The word is used in this sense in the novel of Romeo and Juliet," in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure:"-" Juliet, knowing the fury of her father, etc., retired for the day into her chamber, and contrived that whole night more in weeping than sleeping." "And do as ADVERSARIES do in LAW"-" By 'adversaries in law,' our author meant, not suitors, but barristers; who, however warm in their opposition to each other in the courts, live in greater harmony and friendship in private than those of any other of the liberal professions. Their clients seldom eat and drink with their adversaries as friends.'"-MALONE. ACT II.-SCENE I. In "For shame, thou HILDING"-A mean-spirited person. "BACKARE: you are marvellous forward"-This is a word of doubtful etymology and frequent occurrence: it is possibly only a corruption of "Back there!" for it is always used as a reproof to over-confidence. "Ralf Roister Doister," act i. scene 2, we meet with it: Ab, sir! Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow. And this expression is introduced by old John Heywood into his "Proverbs." The mode of employing the word is uniform. "And this small packet of Greek and Latin books." "It is not to be supposed that the daughters of Baptista were more learned than other ladies of their city and their time. "Under the walls of universities, then the only centres of intellectual light, knowledge was shed abroad like sunshine at noon, and was naturally more or less enjoyed by all. At the time when Shakespeare and the Univer sity of Padua flourished, the higher classes of women were not deemed unfitted for a learned education. Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, the daughters of Sir Thomas More, and others, will at once occur to the reader's recollection in proof of this. 'Greek, Latin, and other languages,' 'the mathematics,' and 'to read philosophy,' then came as naturally as 'music' within the scope of female education. Any association of pedantry with the training of the young ladies of this play is in the prejudices of the reader, not in the mind of the Poet."-KNIGHT. "As morning roses newly wASH'D with dew"-Milton has honoured this fine image by adopting it in his “Il Allegro :" And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew. "Good-morrow, Kate, for that's your name, I hear." This is founded upon a similar scene in the old play. Our readers may compare Shakespeare and his prede cessor: "Alf. Ha, Kate, come hither, wench, and list to me: Use this gentleman friendly as thou canst. Fer. Twenty good-morrows to my lovely Kate. Kate. You jest, I am sure; is she yours already? Fer. I tell thee, Kate, I know thou lov'st me well. Kate. The devil you do! who told you so? Fer. My mind, sweet Kate, doth say I am the man, Must wed, and bed, and marry bonny Kate. Kate. Was ever seen so gross an ass as this? Fer. Ay, to stand so long, and never get a kiss. Kate. Hands off, I say, and get you from this place; Or I will set my ten commandments in your face. Fer. I prithee do, Kate; they say thou art a shrew, And I like thee the better, for I would have thee so. Kate. Let go my hand for fear it reach your ear. Fer. No, Kate, this hand is mine, and I thy love. Kate. I'faith, sir, no, the woodcock wants his tail. Fer. But yet his bill will serve if the other fail. Alf. How now, Ferando? what, my daughter? Fer. She's willing, sir, and loves me as her life. Kate. 'Tis for your skin, then, but not to be your wife. Alf. Come hither, Kate, and let me give thy hand To him that I have chosen for thy love, And thou to-morrow shalt be wed to him. Kate. Why, father, what do you mean to do with me, To give me thus unto this brainsick man, That in his mood cares not to murder me? [She turns aside and speaks. And yet I will consent and marry him, (For I, methinks, have liv'd too long a maid,) And match him too, or else his manhood's good. Alf. Give me thy hand; Ferando loves thee well, And will with wealth and ease maintain thy state. Here, Ferando, take her for thy wife, And Sunday next shall be our wedding-day. did I not tell thee I should be the man? Father, I leave my lovely Kate with you, Provide yourselves against our marriage-day, For I must hie me to my country house Fer. Why so, In haste, to see provision may be made To entertain my Kate when she doth come. Alf. Do so; come, Kate, why dost thou look So sad? Be merry, wench, thy wedding-day's at hand; Son, fare you well, and see you keep your promise. [Exit ALFONSO and KATE." "Should be? should? buz"-This has been ordinarily printed Should be? Should buz. We follow the original with Knight, understanding with him, "buz" to be an interjection of ridicule; as, in HAMLET: Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. "you crow too like a CRAVEN"-"A 'craven' cock, and a 'craven' knight were each contemptible. The knight who had craven, or craved, life from an antagonist, was branded with the name which he had uttered in preferring safety to honour. The terms of chivalry and cock-fighting were synonymous in the feudal times, as those of the cock-pit and the boxingring are equivalent now. To show a white feather is now a term of pugilism, derived from the ruffled plumes of the frightened bird."-KNIGHT. "And bring you from a WILD KATE to a Kate This is the original text. Doubtless, a play on words was meant, which anciently, when a was more broadly sounded than now, would be obvious-" wild Kate" and wild cat. This, however, does not authorize our printing it wild cal, as Stevens and others have done. "-she will prove a second GRISSEL"-Alluding to the story of "Griselda," so beautifully related by Chauand taken by him from Boccaccio. It is thought to be older than the time of the Florentine, as it is to be found among the old fabliaux, according to Douce. cer, "She VIED so fast"-To "vie" was a term at cards, and sometimes we meet with revie; outvie occurs in this play afterwards. It meant to challenge, or stake, or brag; and the phrases were used in the old games of Gleek and Primero, superseded by the Brag of the present day. "-'tis a WORLD to see"-The meaning is--It is worth a world to see. So, in B. C. Rydley's "Brief Declaration," (1555,) quoted by Collier:-" It is a world to see the answer of the Papists to this statement of Origen." "A MEACOCK wretch"-i. e. A cowardly wretch. "Meacock" has been derived by some from meek and cock, (but mes coq, Fr., Skinner,) and it is used by old writers both as an adjective and as a substantive. "I will unto Venice, To buy apparel 'gainst the wedding-day.” * * * * * 11 my house within the city Is richly furnished with plate and gold," etc. "If Shakespeare had not seen the interior of Italian houses when he wrote this play, he must have possessed some effectual means of knowing and realizing in his imagination the particulars of such an interior. Any educated man might be aware that the extensive commerce of Venice must bring within the reach of the neighbouring cities a multitude of articles of foreign production and taste. But there is a particularity in his mention of these articles, which strongly indicates the experience of an eye-witness. The cypress chests,' and ivory coffers,' rich in antique carving, are still existing, with some remnants of Tyrian tapestry,' to carry back the imagination of the traveller to the days of the glory of the republic. The 'plate and gold' are, for the most part, gone, to supply the needs of the impoverished aristocracy, who (to their credit) will part with everything sooner than their pictures. The 'tents and canopies,' and Turkey cushions 'boss'd with pearl,' now no longer seen, were appropriate to the days when Cyprus, Candia, and the Morea were dependencies of Venice, scattering their productions through the eastern cities of Italy, and actually establishing many of their customs in the singular capital of the Venetian dominion. After Venice, Padua was naturally first served with importations of luxury, “Venice was, and is still, remarkable for its jewellery, especially its fine works in gold. Venice gold' was wrought into 'valence'-tapestry-by the needle, and was used for every variety of ornament, from chains as fine as if made of woven hair, to the most massive form in which gold can be worn. At the present day, the traveller who walks round the Piazza of St. Mark's is surprised at the large proportion of jeweller's shops, and at the variety and elegance of the ornaments they contain, the shell necklaces, the jewelled rings and tiaras, and the profusion of gold chains."-KNIGHT. "we will be married o' Sunday"-" Parts of these lines read as if from a ballad. If any such be in print, it has never been pointed out by the commentators; but the following, from the recitation of an old lady, who heard it from her mother, (then forty,) at least sixty years ago, bears a strong resemblance to what Petruchio seems to quote: To church away! We will have rings And fine array, With other things, For I'm to be married o' Sunday. There are other ballads with the same burden, but none so nearly in the words of Petruchio."-COLLIER. "Shall have MY Bianca's love"-Malone and Stevens omit "my," without any reason; the line, being a hemistich, could require no amendment. "BASONS and EWERS, to lave her dainty hands”— These were articles formerly of great account. They were usually of silver, and probably their fashion was much attended to, because they were regularly exhibited to the guests before and after dinner, it being the custom to wash the hands at both those times. "COUNTERPOINTS"-i. e. Counterpanes, as we now call them; and thus named originally because composed of contrasted points, or panes, of various colours. They were a favourite article of ancient pomp. Among the other complaints against Wat Tyler's men was, their having destroyed in the royal wardrobe at the Savoy, a counterpane worth a thousand marks. "Costly apparel, TENTS, and CANOPIES"-"Tents" were hangings,-tentes, Fr., probably being so named from the tenters upon which they were hung; tenture de tapisserie signified a suit of hangings. The following passage shows that a "canopy" was sometimes a tester: "A canopy properly, that hangeth aboute beddes to keepe away gnattes; sometimes a tent or pavilion; some have used it for a testorne to hange over a bed."— Baret, in voce. "PEWTER and brass"-" Pewter" was considered as such costly furniture, that we find in the Northumberland household-book, vessels of pewter were hired by the year. "-is lying in MARSEILLES' road"-This name is spelled Marcellus in the old copy, and was probably pronounced as a trisyllable. "with a CARD OF TEN"-This expression seems to have been proverbial: cards "of ten" were the highest in the pack. At the end of this act, Mr. Pope introduced the following speeches of the Presenters, as they are called, from the old play : Slie. When will the fool come again? Sim. Anon, my lord. Slie. Give's some more drink here; where's the tapster? Here, Sim, eat some of these things. Sim. I do, my lord. Slie. Here, Sim, I drink to thee. ACT III.-SCENE I. "REGIA CELSA SENIS"-The lines are from Ovid's "Epist. Her. Penelope Ulyssi," v. 33. "To CHANGE true rules for ODD inventions"-The reading of the folio, 1623, is, "To charge true rules for old inventions." The folio, 1632, reads "change" for charge, and Theobald altered old into "odd." Old would be inconsistent with the meaning of the speaker, who has already said, "Old fashions please me best." Both errors were mere misprints. "and CHAPELESS"-i. e. Without a hook to the scabbard; according to Todd. "— with TWO BROKEN POINTS"-Johnson says, “How a sword should have two broken points I cannot tell." The points were among the most costly and elegant parts of the dress of Elizabeth's time; and to have two broken was certainly indicative of more than ordinary slovenliness. "his horse HIPPED with an old mothy saddle" — Shakespeare (says Knight) describes the imperfections and unsoundness of a horse with as much precision as if he had been bred in a farrier's shop. In the same way, in the VENUS AND ADONIS, he is equally circumstantial in summing up the qualities of a noble courser:— Round hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostrils wide, High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttocks, tender hide. "-infected with the FASHIONS"-i. e. Farcins, a well-known disease in horses, often mentioned by old writers; as in Rowland's "Looke to it, for I'll Stabbe you," 1604: "— NE'ER-LEGGED before"-The folio has it "neere legged;" which some editors have given as here, and others near-legged. Malone thus supports the first:"Ne'er-legged before, i. e. foundered in his forefeet; having, as the jockeys term it, never a fore leg to stand The subsequent words-which being restrained to keep him from stumbling'-seem to countenance this interpretation. The modern editors read near-legged before; but to go near before is not reckoned a defect, but a perfection, in a horse." on. Lord Chadworth (an accomplished and unfortunate nobleman, of whose taste and acquirements many traces are to be found in the literature of his times) thus maintains the other reading:-"I believe near-legged is right; the near leg of a horse is the left, and to set off with that leg first is an imperfection. This horse had (as Dryden describes old Jacob Tonson) two left legs; i. e. he was awkward in the use of them; he used his right leg like the left." "—an old hat, and the humour of forty fancies' prick'd in't for a feather"-It seems likely that this humour of forty fancies" was either a ballad so called, or a collection of ballads, stuck in the "lackey's" hat instead of a feather. "And yet not many"-This is undoubtedly a scrap of some old ballad, which Biondello was led to recollect by his mention of "the humour of forty fancies" just before. "quaff'd off the muscadel"-T. Warton and Reed have shown, from numerous quotations, that the custom of having wine and sops distributed immediately after the marriage ceremony in the church, is very ancient. It existed even among our Gothic ancestors, and is mentioned in the ordinances of the household of Henry VII. "For the Marriage of a Princess:"-" Then pottes of Ipocrice to be ready, and to bee put into cupps with soppe, and to be borne to the estates; and to take a soppe and drinke." It was also practised at the marriage of Philip and Mary, in Winchester Cathedral; and at the marriage of the Elector-Palatine to the daughter of James I., in 1612-13. It appears to have been the custom at all marriages. In Jonson's "Magnetic Lady" it is called a knitting cup: in Middleton's "No Wit like a Woman's," the contracting cup. The kiss was also part of the ancient marriage ceremony, as appears from a rubric in one of the Salisbury Missals. "I must away to-day, before night come." We subjoin the parallel scene in the earlier play :"Fer. Father, farewell, my Kate and I must home. Sirrah, go make ready my horse presently. Alf. Your horse! what, son, I hope you do but jest; I am sure you will not go so suddenly. Kate. Let him go or tarry, I am resolved to stay, And not to travel on my wedding-day. Fer. Tut, Kate, I tell thee we must needs go home. Villain, hast thou saddled my horse? San. Which horse-your curtall? Fer. Zounds! you slave, stand you prating here! Saddle the bay gelding for your mistress. Kate. Not for me, for I will not go. San. The ostler will not let me have him; you owe tenpence For his meat, and sixpence for stuffing my mistress' saddle. Fer. Here, villain, go pay him straight. San. Shall I give them another peck of lavender? Fer. Out, slave! and bring them presently to the door. Alf. Why, son, I hope at least you'll dine with us. San. I pray you, master, let's stay till dinner be done. Fer. Zounds, villain, art thou here yet? [Exit SANDER. Come, Kate, our dinner is provided at home. Kate. But not for me, for here I mean to dine: I'll have my will in this as well as you; Though you in madding mood would leave your friends, Despite of you I'll tarry with them still. Fer. Ay, Kate, so thou shalt, but at some other time: In better sort than now we can provide; [Exeunt FERANDO and KATE." - the oats have eaten the horses"-Grumio, (according to Stevens,) means to disparage Petruchio's horses by saying that they are not worth the oats they have eaten, ACT IV.-SCENE I. "—was ever man so RAYED"-i. e. Bewrayed, or made dirty. "-fire, fire: cast on no water"-This is an allusion to an old popular catch, consisting of these lines:Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth. Fire, fire-Fire, fire; Cast on some more water. "I am no beast"-Grumio impliedly calls Curtis a beast by calling him his fellow, having first called himself a beast. "Jack, boy! ho boy!"- "The commencement of an old drinking-round: jack' was the name for the black-leather jug in which drink was served."-COLL. "Come, you are so full of coNY-CATCHING"-"Conycatching" means cheating or deceiving, and is a word of common occurrence. Its etymology has reference to the facility with which coneys, or rabbits, are caught. "the CARPETS LAID"-To cover the tables. The floors were strewed with rushes. "Both or one horse"-With Collier we here preserve the phraseology of the time, which other editors have modernized to "both on one horse." They take the same liberty later in this play, (act v. scene 2,) where Petruchio says, "I'll venture so much of my hawk, or hound." "how she was BEMOILED"-Bemired. 66 "-and their garters of an INDIFFERENT kaif”— Grumio is not accurate enough in his diction to deserve the critical pains that learned annotators have taken to explain this phrase. Malone, on no very clear authority, maintains it to mean party-coloured garters;" while Johnson and others assert that the garters ought to correspond, and that "indifferent" here meant not different. A more obvious sense is that intimated by Nares, in his Glossary:"-" Tolerable, or ordinary.” Then-"Let their garters (which were worn outside) be decent." 66 "Where be these knaves"-This scene is one of the most spirited and characteristic in the play; and we see a joyous, revelling spirit shining through Petruchio's affected violence. The Ferando of the old "Taming of a Shrew' is a coarse bully, without the fine animal spirits and the real self-command of our Petruchio. The following is the parallel scene in that play; and it is remarkable how closely Shakespeare copies the incidents: "Enter FERANDO and KATE. Fer. Now welcome, Kate. Where's these villains Here? what, not supper yet upon the board, Nor table spread, nor nothing done at all? Where's that villain that I sent before? San. Now, adsum, sir. Fer. Come hither, you villain, I'll cut your nose. You rogue, help me off with my boots; will 't please You to lay the cloth? Zounds! the villain Hurts my foot: pull easily, I say, yet again! [He beats them all. [They cover the board, and fetch in the meat. Zounds, burnt and scorch'd! Who dress'd this meat? Wil. Forsooth, John Cook. [He throws down the table, and meat, and all, and beats them all. Fer. Go, you villains, bring me such meat! Out of my sight, I say, and bear it hence: Come, Kate, we'll have other meat provided. Is there a fire in my chamber, sir? San. Ay, forsooth. [Exeunt FERANDO and KATE. [Manent Serving-men, and eat up all the meat. Tom. Zounds! I think of my conscience my master's mad since he was married. Wil. I laughed, what a box he gave Sander for pulling off his boots, Enter FERANDO again. San. I hurt his foot for the nonce, man. [He beats them all out again. "It was the friar of orders grey, [Exit." Now, heaven thee save, thou reverend friar: I pray thee tell to me If ever, at your holy shrine My true-love thou did see. And how should I your true-love know From any other one? O, by his cockle-hat and staff, And by his sandal-shoon. The holy father thus replied: Weep no more, lady; lady, weep no more, For violets plucked, the sweetest showers Will ne'er make grow again. Yet stay, fair lady, rest awhile, Beneath yon cloister wall: See through the hawthorn blows the wind, And drizzling rain doth fall. O stay me not, thou holy friar, O stay me not, I pray; No drizzling rain that falls on me "to MAN MY HAGGARD"-To tame my hawk. In the technical language of hawking, to watch or wake, was one of the means of taming, by preventing sleep. To bate is to flutter. SCENE II. "An ancient ANGEL coming down the hill"-" For 'angel,' Theobald, and after him, Hanmer and Warburton, read engle; which Hanmer calls a gull, deriving it from engluer, Fr., to catch with bird-lime; but without sufficient reason. Mr. Gifford, in a note on Jonson's 'Poetaster,' is decidedly in favour of enghle, with Hanmer's explanation, and supports it by referring to Gascoigne's Supposes,' from which Shakespeare took this part of his plot:-There Erostrato (the Biondello of Shakespeare) looks out for a person to gull by an idle story, judges from appearances that he has found him, and is not deceived:-At the foot of the hill I met a gentleman, and, as methought by his habits and his looks, he should be none of the wisest.' Again: this gentleman being, as I guessed at the first, a man of small sapientia.' And Dulippo, (the Lucentio of Shakespeare,) as soon as he spies him coming, exclaims: 'Is this he? go meet him: by my troth, HE LOOKS LIKE A GOOD SOUL; he that fisheth for him might be sure to catch a codshead.'-Act ii. scene i. These are the passages,' says Mr. Gifford, which our great Poet had in view; and these, I trust, are more than sufficient to explain why Biondello concludes, at first sight, that this ancient piece of formality' will serve his turn.' This is very true; and yet it is not necessary to change the reading of the old copy, which is undoubtedly correct, though the commentators could not explain it. 'An ancient angel,' then, was neither more nor less than the good soul of Gascoigne; or, as Cotgrave (often the best commentator on Shakespeare) explains it:- AN OLD ANGEL, by metaphor, a fellow of th' old sound honest and worthie stamp-un angelot à gros escaille.' One who, being honest himself, suspects no guile in others, and is therefore easily duped. I am quite of Mr. Nares's opinion, that enghle is only a different spelling of ingle, which is often used for a favourite, and originally meant one of the most detestable kind: we have no example adduced of its ever having been used for a gull."-SINGER. "Master, a mercatantè," etc.--Marcantant is the word given in the old folio; "mercatantè" is the Italian for merchant: Biondello did not know whether he was a merchant or a pedant. "Mercatante" is the amendment of Stevens. "Nor never needed that I should entreat"-This line (by mere typographical carelessness) is omitted in Malone's SHAKESPEARE," by Boswell, and in very many of the best editions since 1803, when it was first dropped in Reed's edition of Johnson and Stevens's text. Kate. Sander, I prithee help me to some meat, I am so faint that I can scarcely stand. San. Ay, marry, mistress, but you know my master has given me a charge that you must eat nothing, but that which he himself giveth you. Kate. Why, man, thy master needs never know it. San. You say true, indeed. Why look you, mistress, what say you to a piece of beef and mustard now ? Kate. Why, I say 'tis excellent meat; canst thou help me to some? San. Ay, I could help you to some, but that I doubt the mustard is too choleric for you. But what say you to a sheep's head and garlic? Kate. Why, anything, I care not what it be. San. Ay, but the garlic I doubt will make your breath stink, and then my master will curse me for letting you eat it. But what say you to a fat capon? Kate. That's meat for a king, sweet Sander, help me to some of it. San. Nay, by'rlady! then 'tis too dear for us; we must not meddle with the king's meat. Kate. Out, villain! dost thou mock me? Take that for thy sauciness. [She beats him.' "Grey has been hastily betrayed into a remark, upon this scene in Shakespeare, which is singularly opposed to his usual accuracy:-This seems to be borrowed from Cervantes's account of Sancho Panza's treatment by his physician, when sham governor of the island of Barataria.' The first part of Don Quixote' was not published till 1605; and our Poet unquestionably took the scene from the old Taming of a Shrew,' which was published in 1594."-KNIGHT. is sorted to no PROOF"-i. e. Approof, or approbation. "—his RUFFLING treasure"-Pope changed this to rustling. "Ruffling" was familiar to the Elizabethan literature. In Lily's "Euphues" we have, "Shall I ruffle in new devices, with chains, with bracelets, with rings, with robes?" In Ben Jonson's "Cynthia's Revels," we find, "Lady, I cannot ruffle it in red and yellow." "Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments." The imitation by Shakespeare of the scene in the old play, in which the Shrew is tried to the utmost by her husband's interference with her dress, is closer than in almost any other part. The "face not me," and "brave not me," of Grumio, are literal transcripts of the elder jokes. In the speech of Petruchio after the Tailor is driven out, we have three lines taken, with the slightest alteration, from the following: Come, Kate, we now will go see thy father's house, Our purses shall be rich, our garments plain. And yet how superior in spirit and taste is the rifaci mento! "Enter FERANDO and KATE, and SANDER. San. Master, the haberdasher has brought my mistress home her cap. Fer. Come hither, sirrah: what have you there? Haberdasher. A velvet cap, sir, an it please you. Fer. Who spoke for it? didst thou, Kate? Kate. What if I did? Come hither, sirrah, give me the cap; I'll see if it will fit me. [She sets it on her head. Fer. O monstrous! why, it becomes thee not: Let me see it, Kate. Here, sirrah, take it hence, This cap is out of fashion quite. Kate. The fashion is good enough: belike you mean to make a fool of me. |