More quaint,' more pleasing, nor more commendable; Belike, you mean to make a puppet of me.

Pet. Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee.

Tai. She says, your worship means to make a puppet of her.

Pet. O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread,

Thou thimble,

Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou.—
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread!
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete 2 thee with thy yard,

As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marred her gown.

Tai. Your worship is deceived; the gown is made Just as my master had direction.

Grumio gave order how it should be done.

Gru. I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff.
Tai. But how did you desire it should be made?
Gru. Marry, sir, with needle and thread.
Tai. But did you not request to have it cut?
Gru. Thou hast faced many things.3

Tai. I have.

Gru. Face not me; thou hast braved many men, brave not me; I will neither be faced not braved. I say unto thee,-I bid thy master cut out the gown; but I did not bid him cut it to pieces: ergo, thou liest. Tai. Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify. Pet. Read it.

Gru. The note lies in his throat, if he say I said so. Tai. Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown;

Gru. Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew

1 Quaint was used as a term of commendation by our ancestors. It seems, when applied to dress, to have meant spruce, trim, neat, like the French cointe.

2 Be-measure.

3 Turned up many garments with facings.

4 Grumio quibbles upon to brave, to make fine, as he does upon facing.

me in the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread. I said, a gown.

Pet. Proceed.

Tai. With a small compassed cape;1

Gru. I confess the cape.

Tai. With a trunk sleeve ;-
Gru. I confess two sleeves.
Tai. The sleeves curiously cut.
Pet. Ay, there's the villany.

Gru. Error i'the bill, sir; error i'the bill. I commanded the sleeves should be cut out, and sewed up again; and that I'll prove upon thee, though thy little finger be armed in a thimble.

Tai. This is true, that I say; an I had thee in place where, thou shouldst know it.

Gru. I am for thee straight. Take thou the bill,2 give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me.

Hor. God-a-mercy, Grumio! then he shall have no odds.

Pet. Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. Gru. You are i'the right, sir; 'tis for my mistress. Pet. Go, take it up unto thy master's use.

Gru. Villain, not for thy life. Take up my mistress' gown for thy master's use!

Pet. Why, sir, what's your conceit in that?

Gru. O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for. Take up my mistress' gown to his master's use! O, fie, fie, fie!

Pet. Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid.—

[Aside.

Go, take it hence; be gone, and say no more.
Hor. Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown to-morrow.
Take no unkindness of his hasty words:

Away, I say; commend me to thy master.

[Exit Tailor.

Pet. Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's,

1 A round cape.

2 A quibble is intended between the written bill and the bill or weapon of a foot-soldier.

Even in these honest, mean habiliments.

Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honor peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture, and mean array.
If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me:
And therefore, frolic; we will hence forthwith,
To feast and sport us at thy father's house.—
Go, call my men, and let us straight to him;
And bring our horses unto Long-lane end;
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let's see; I think 'tis now some seven o'clock,
And well we may come there by dinner time.
Kath. I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two;
And 'twill be supper time, ere you come there.
Pet. It shall be seven, ere I go to horse;
Look, what I speak, or do, or think to do,
You are still crossing it. Sirs, let't alone.
I will not go to-day; and ere I do,

It shall be what o'clock I say it is.

Hor. Why, so! This gallant will command the sun.

[Exeunt.1

1 After this exeunt the characters before whom the play is supposed to be exhibited, were introduced, from the old play, by Mr. Pope in his edition.

"Lord. Who's within there? [Enter Servants.] Asleep again! Go take him easily up, and put him in his own apparel again. But see you wake him not in any case.

Serv. It shall be done, my lord; come, help to bear him hence. [They bear off Sly."

Johnson thought the fifth act should begin here.

Ped. Ay, what else? And, but I be deceived, Seignior Baptista may remember me,

Near twenty years ago, in Genoa, where

We were lodgers at the Pegasus.

Tra.

'Tis well;

And hold your own, in any case, with such
Austerity as 'longeth to a father.

Enter BIONDello.

Ped. I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy, 'Twere good he were schooled.

Tra. Fear you not him. Sirrah, Biondello, Now do your duty throughly, I advise you; Imagine 'twere the right Vincentio.

Bion. Tut! fear not me.

Tra. But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista? Bion. I told him, that your father was at Venice; And that you looked for him this day in Padua. Tra. Thou'rt a tall1 fellow; hold thee that to drink. Here comes Baptista.-Set your countenance, sir.—

Enter BAPTISTA and LUCentio.

Seignior Baptista, you are happily met.—
Sir, [To the Pedant.]

This is the gentleman I told you of;

I pray you, stand good father to me now,
Give me Bianca for my patrimony.

Ped. Soft, son!

1 i. e. a high fellow, a brave boy.

Sir, by your leave: Having come to Padua
To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
Of love between your daughter and himself:
And, for the good report I hear of you;
And for the love he beareth to your daughter,
And she to him,-to stay him not too long,
I am content, in a good father's care,

To have him matched; and,-if you please to like
No worse than I, sir,-upon some agreement,
Me shall you find most ready and most willing
With one consent to have her so bestowed;
For curious cannot be with you,

Seignior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.

Bap. Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.—
Your plainness, and your shortness, please me well.
Right true it is, your son Lucentio here
Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him,
Or both dissemble deeply their affections;
And, therefore, if you say no more than this,
That like a father you will deal with him,
And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
The match is fully made, and all is done :
Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
Tra. I thank you, sir. Where then do

best,

3

We be affied; and such assurance ta'en,

As shall with either part's agreement stand?

you

know

Bap. Not in my house, Lucentio; for you know,
Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants.
Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still;
And, happily, we might be interrupted.

Tra. Then at my lodging, an it like you, sir.
There doth my father lie; and there, this night,
We'll pass the business privately and well.
Send for your daughter by your servant here;

1 i. e. scrupulous.

2 Assure or convey; a law term.

3 Betrothed.

4 Happily, in Shakspeare's time, signified peradventure, as well as fortunately; we now write it haply.

VOL. II.

66