Comedies

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 do bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds;
And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd 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 asham'd, 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 indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot;

And place your hands below your husbands' 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.
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.

'T was I won the wager, though you hit the white;

And, being a winner, God give you good night!

[TO LUCENTIO

[Exeunt PETRUCIO and KATHARINA HOR. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a curst shrew. Luc. 'T is a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so.

[Exeunt.

VARIOUS READINGS.

"And when he says he's poor, say that he dreams.”

The

indicates that the lord

did not know what name to call
him; and Malone has no doubt
that the blank was intended.

"Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray ;
Or so devote to Aristotle's ethics."

The passage, according to Mr. Collier, "is injured by the misprinting of so poor a word as 'had' for race."

produce a couplet-in the fashion of the stage after the Restoration.

"She is not not, but temperate as the moon."

This is the corrector's change for

"She is not hot, but temperate as

the morn."

"Moon," says Mr. Collier, "in reference to the chaste coldness of the moon, was doubtless the true word."

(ACT II., Sc. 1.)

If authority were wanting for the application of the epithet "temperate" to "morn," Shakspere himself might furnish it:"Modest as morning when she coldly eyes

The youthful Phoebus."

'Troilus and Cressida,' Act I., Sc. 3.

"An ancient engle coming down the hill." (ACT IV., Sc. 2.)

"An ancient ambler," &c.

The original has

"An ancient angel," &c. Engle is a gull. How was Biondello, asks Mr. Collier, to know his character? He saw he was an ambler

THEOBALD.

COLLIER, MS. Corrector.

Engle is not very clear; ambler is very tame and bald. Mr. Dyce somewhat inclines to the original reading of "angel;" citing a passage from Cotgrave's Dictionary. "Angelot à la grosse escaille," An old Angell, and, by metaphor, a fellow of th' old, sound, honest, and worthie stamp." The Pedant, according to Biondello, was formal in apparel "-"like a father." Tranio wants a respectable man to pass as his father, Vincentio; and this ancient good fellow will fit the character.

GLOSSARY.

AGLET-BABY. Act I., Sc. 2.

"Marry him to a puppet, or an aglet-baby."

The aglet-baby was a small carving on the head of the tag which carried the lace. Aglet is from the French aiguillette, a point.

Dead-hearted, dispirited. The expression was common to the old dramatists.

ARGOSY. Act II., Sc. 1.

"An argosy

That now is lying in Marseilles' road."

An argosy was a large merchant ship. Du Cange says the name was derived from Argo, the fabulous name of the first ship that brought the golden fleece from Colchis.

'Baccare! you are marvellous forward." Baccare was once a word in common use. It has been sometimes supposed to be derived from the Italian, but that language has no such word. It was used in the sense of " go back," and is formed from the Anglo-Saxon back in its common sense, and from aer, ar, or are, an ancient word common to the Greek and Gothic, signifying "to go." BEMOILED. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"How she was bemoiled."

Bemoiled here means bemired. Its usual sense is overwearied. BESTRAUGHT.

Induction, Sc. 2.

"What! I am not bestraught."

Bestraught has the same meaning as distraught, distracted. It is used by the Earl of Surrey and others.

BRACH. Induction, Sc. 1.

"Brach Merriman,—the poor cur is emboss'd."

In an old book of sports, The Gentleman's Recreation,' it is stated that "a brach is a mannerly-name for all hound

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