And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing: There were none fine, but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory; The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly; Yet, as they are, here are they come to meet you. Pet. Go, rascals, go, and fetch my supper in[Exeunt some of the Servants. [Sings. Where is the life that late I led" Re-enter Servants, with supper. Why, when, I say?-Nay, good sweet Kate, be merry. Off with my boots, you rogues, you villains; When? It was the friar of orders grey, As he forth walked on his way : [Sings. 7 Where &c.] A scrap of some old ballad. Ancient Pistol else. where quotes the same line. In an old black letter book, entitled A gorgious Gallery of gallant Inventions, London, 1578, 4to. is a song to the tune of Where is the life that late I led? Ritson. This ballad was peculiarly suited to Petruchio's present situation: for it appears to have been descriptive of the state of a lover who had newly resigned his freedom. In an old collection of Sonnets, entitled A handeful of pleasant Delites, containing sundrie new Sonets, &c. by Clement Robinson, 1584, is "Dame Beautie's replie to the lover late at libertie, and now complaineth himselfe to be her captive, intituled Where is the life that late I led: "The life that erst thou led'st my friend, "Was pleasant to thine eyes," &c. Malone. 8 Soud, soud, &c.] That is, sweet, sweet. Soot, and sometimes sooth, is sweet. So, in Milton, to sing soothly, is to sing sweetly. Fohnson. So, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578: "He'll hang handsome young men for the soote sinne of love." Steevens. These words seem merely intended to denote the humming of a tune, or some kind of ejaculation, for which it is not necessary to find out a meaning. M. Mason. This, I believe, is a word coined by our poet, to express the noise made by a person heated and fatigued. Malone. 9 It was the friar of orders grey,] Dispersed through Shakspeare's plays are many little fragments of ancient ballads, the entire copies of which cannot now be recovered. Many of these being of the most beautiful and pathetic simplicity, Dr. Percy has select ed some of them, and connected them together with a few supplemental stanzas; a work, which at once demonstrates his own poetical abilities, as well as his respect to the truly venerable remains of our most ancient bards. Steevens. Out, out, you rogue!1 you pluck my foot awry: [Strikes him. Be merry, Kate: Some water, here; what, ho!— Where's my spaniel Troilus?-Sirrah, get you hence, And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither: 2 [Exit Serv. One, Kate, that you must kiss, and be acquainted with.Where are my slippers?-Shall I have some water? [A bason is presented to him. Come, Kate, and wash,3 and welcome heartily: [Serv. lets the ewer fall. 1 Out, out, you rogue!] The second word was inserted by Mr. Pope, to complete the metre. When a word occurs twice in the same line, the compositor very frequently omits one of them. Malone. 2 And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither:] This cousin Ferdinand, who does not make his personal appearance on the scene, is mentioned, I suppose for no other reason than to give Katharine a hint, that he could keep even his own relations in order, and make them obedient as his spaniel Troilus. Steevens. 3 Come, Kate, and wash,] It was the custom in our author's time, (and long before) to wash the hands immediately before dinner and supper, as well as afterwards. So, in Ives's Select Papers, p. 139: "And after that the Queen [Elizabeth, the wife of King Henry VII] was retourned and washed, the Archbishop said grace." Again, in Florio's Second Frutes, 1591: "C. The meate is coming, let us sit downe. S. I would wash first What ho, bring us some water to wash our hands.-Give me a faire, cleane and white towel." From the same dialogue it appears that it was customary to wash after meals likewise, and that setting the water on the table was then (as at present) peculiar to Great Britain and Ireland: "Bring some water (says one of the company) when dinner is ended, to wash our hands, and set the bacin upon the board, after the English fashion, that all may wash." That it was the practice to wash the hands immediately before supper, as well as before dinner, is ascertained by the following passage in The Fountaine of Fame, erected in an Orcharde of amorous Adventures, by Anthony Mundy, 1580: "Then was our supper brought up very orderly, and she brought me water to washe my handes. And after I had washed, I sat downe, and she also; but concerning what good cheere we had, I need not make good report. Malone. As our ancestors eat with their fingers, which might not be over-clean before meals, and after them must be greasy, we cannot wonder at such repeated ablutions. Steevens. You whoreson villain! will you let it fall? [Strikes him. Kath. Patience, I pray you; 'twas a fault unwilling. Pet. A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-ear'd knave! Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. Will you give thanks, sweet Kate; or else shall I?— What is this? mutton? Pet. 'Tis burnt; and so is all the meat: What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook? [Throws the meat, Sc. about the stage. Pet. I tell thee, Kate, 'twas burnt and dried away; And I expressly am forbid to touch it, For it engenders choler, planteth anger; And better 'twere, that both of us did fast,— Re-enter CURTIS. Gru. Where is he? Curt. In her chamber, Making a sermon of continency to her: And rails, and swears, and rates; and she, poor soul, Knows not which way to stand, to look, to speak; And sits as one new-risen from a dream. Away, away! for he is coming hither. Re-enter PETRUCHIO. Pet. Thus have I politickly begun my reign, And 'tis my hope to end successfully: [Exeunt. My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty; 7 She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat; 6 Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not; I'll find about the making of the bed; And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster, This way the coverlet, another way the sheets:`Ay, and amid this hurly, I intend, 8 That all is done in reverend care of her; And, in conclusion, she shall watch all night: -full-gorg'd, &c.] A hawk too much fed was never tractable. So, in The Tragedie of Crasus, 1604: "And like a hooded hawk, gorg'd with vain pleasures, Again, in The Booke of Haukyng, bl. 1. no date: 66 - ye shall say your hauke is full-gorg'd, and not cropped." The lure was only a thing stuffed like that kind of bird which the hawk was designed to pursue. The use of the lure was to tempt him back after he had flown. Steevens. 5 to man my haggard,] A haggard is a wild-hawk; to man a hawk is to tame her. Johnson. 6 watch her, as we watch these kites,] Thus, in the same book of Haukyng, &c. bl. 1. commonly called The Book of St. Al-` bans: "And then the same night after the teding, wake her all night, and on the morrowe all day." Again, in The Lady Errant, by Cartwright: "We 'll keep you as they do hawks; watching you until you leave your wildness. Steevens. 7 That bate,] i. e. flutter. So, in King Henry IV, P. I: "Bated like eagles having lately bath'd." Steevens. To bate is to flutter as a hawk does when it swoops upon its prey. Minshieu supposes it to be derived either from batre, Fr. to beat, or from s'abatre, to descend. Malone. 8 amid this hurly, I intend,] Intend is sometimes used by our author for pretend, and is, I believe, so used here. So, in King Richard III: "Tremble and start at wagging of a straw, Intending deep suspicion." Malone. And with the clamour keep her still awake. Now let him speak; 'tis charity to show. SCENE II.9 Padua. Before Baptista's House. Enter TRANIO and HORTENSIO. Tra. Is 't possible, friend Licio, that Bianca1 Doth fancy any other but Lucentio? I tell you, sir, she bears me fair in hand. [Exit. Hor. Sir, to satisfy you in what I have said, Stand by, and mark the manner of his teaching. [They stand aside. Enter BIANCA and LUCENTIO. Luc. Now, mistress, profit you in what you read? Bian. What, master, read you? first resolve me that. 9 Scene II. Padua, &c.] This scene, Mr. Pope, upon what authority I cannot pretend to guess, has in his editions made the first of the fifth Act: in doing which, he has shown the very power and force of criticism. The consequence of this judicious regulation is, that two unpardonable absurdities are fixed upon the author, which he could not possibly have committed. For, in the first place, by this shuffling the scenes out of their true po- ' sition, we find Hortensio, in the fourth Act, already gone from Baptista's to Petruchio's country-house; and afterwards in the beginning of the fifth Act we find him first forming the resolution of quitting Bianca; and Tranio immediately informs us, he is gone to the Taming-school to Petruchio. There is a figure, indeed, in rhetorick, called 'spov potepov; but this is an abuse of it, which the rhetoricians will never adopt upon Mr. Pope's authority. Again, by this misplacing, the Pedant makes his first entrance, and quits the stage with Tranio in order to go and dress himself like Vincentio, whom he was to personate: but his second entrance is upon the very heels of his exit; and without any interval of an Act, or one word intervening, he comes out again equipped like Vincentio. If such a critic be fit to publish a stage-writer, I shall not envy Mr. Pope's admirers, if they should think fit to applaud his sagacity. I have replaced the scenes in that order in which I found them in the old books. Theobald. - that Bianca-] The old copy redundantly reads-that |