My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
The worst is this,-that, at so slender warning,
You're like to have a thin and slender pittance.

Bap. It likes me well.-Cambio, hie you home,
And bid Bianca make her ready straight.
And, if you will, tell what hath happened;
Lucentio's father is arrived in Padua,

And how she's like to be Lucentio's wife.

Luc. I pray the gods she may, with all my heart! Tra. Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone. Seignior Baptista, shall I lead the way?

Welcome! one mess is like to be your cheer.
Come, sir; we'll better it in Pisa.
Bap.

I follow you.

[Exeunt TRANIO, Pedant, and BAPTISTA. Bion. Cambio,

Luc.

What say'st thou, Biondello? Bion. You saw my master wink and laugh upon you? Luc. Biondello, what of that?

Bion. 'Faith, nothing; but he has left me here behind, to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.

Luc. I pray thee, moralize them.

Bion. Then thus. Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a deceitful son.

Luc. And what of him?

Bion. His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.

Luc. And then?

Bion. The old priest at St. Luke's church is at your command at all hours.

Luc. And what of all this?

Bion. I cannot tell; except' they are busied about a counterfeit assurance. Take you assurance of her, cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum, to the church; -take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest witnesses:

1 The first folio reads expect.

2 These were the words of the old exclusive privilege for imprinting a book. A quibble is meant.

If this be not that you look for, I have no more to say, But bid Bianca farewell forever and a day.

Luc. Hear'st thou, Biondello?

[Going.

Bion. I cannot tarry. I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit; and so may you, sir; and so adieu, sir. My master hath appointed me to go to Saint Luke's, to bid the priest be ready to come against you come with your appendix. [Exit.

Luc. I may, and will, if she be so contented. She will be pleased, then wherefore should I doubt? Hap what hap may, I'll roundly go about her. It shall go hard, if Cambio go without her.

SCENE V. A public Road.

[Exit.1

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, and HORTENSIO. Pet. Come on, o' God's name; once more toward our father's.

Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!
Kath. The moon! the sun; it is not moonlight now.
Pet. I say it is the moon that shines so bright.
Kath. I know it is the sun that shines so bright.
Pet. Now, by my mother's son, and that's myself,
It shall be moon or star, or what I list,

Or ere I journey to your father's house.-
Go on, and fetch our horses back again.-

Evermore crossed, and crossed; nothing but crossed.
Hor. Say as he says, or we shall never go.
Kath. Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.
And if you please to call it a rush candle,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.

1 Here in the old play, the Tinker speaks again:-
"Slie. Sim, must they be married now?"
Lord. I, my lord.

Enter Ferando and Sander.

Stie. Look, Sim, the fool is come again now."

Pet. I say it is the moon.

Kath.

I know it is the moon.

Pet. Nay, then you lie; it is the blessed sun.

Kath. Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun.But sun it is not when you say it is not;

And the moon changes even as your mind.

What you will have it named, even that it is;

And so it shall be so,' for Katharine.

Hor. Petruchio, go thy ways; the field is won.
Pet. Well, forward, forward; thus the bowl should

run,

And not unluckily against the bias.

But soft; what company is coming here?

Enter VINCENTIO, in a travelling dress. Good-morrow, gentle mistress. Where away?[TO VINCENTIO. Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly too,2 Hast thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman? Such war of white and red within her cheeks? What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty, As those two eyes become that heavenly face? Fair, lovely maid, once more good day to thee! Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's sake.

Hor. 'A will make the man mad, to make a woman of him.

1 We should probably read, "And so it shall be still, for Katharine." 2 In the first sketch of this play are two passages worth preserving,

and which Pope thought to be from the hand of Shakspeare.

"Faire, lovely maiden, young and affable,
More clear of hue, and far more beautiful,
Than precious sardonyx or purple rocks
Of amethists, or glistering hyacinth-
-Sweete Kate, entertaine this lovely woman.-

Kath. Fair, lovely lady, bright and chrystalline,
Beauteous and stately as the eye-trained bird;
As glorious as the morning washed with dew,
Within whose eyes she takes her dawning beams,
And golden summer sleeps upon thy cheeks!
Wrap up thy radiations in some cloud,
Lest that thy beauty make this stately town
Inhabitable, like the burning zone,

With sweet reflections of thy lovely face."

Kath. Young, budding virgin, fair, and fresh, and

sweet,

Whither away; or where is thy abode ?
Happy the parents of so fair a child!
Happier the man whom favorable stars
Allot thee for his lovely bed-fellow!1

Pet. Why, how now, Kate! I hope thou art not mad;

This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered;
And not a maiden, as thou say'st he is.

Kath. Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes,
That have been so bedazzled with the sun,
That every thing I look on seemeth green.2
Now I perceive thou art a reverend father;
Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking.

Pet. Do, good old grandsire; and withal make known

Which way thou travellest; if along with us,
We shall be joyful of thy company.

Vin. Fair sir,-and you, my merry mistress,-
That with your strange encounter much amazed me;
My name is called-Vincentio; my dwelling-Pisa;
And bound I am to Padua; there to visit

A son of mine which long I have not seen.
Pet. What is his name?

I

Vin.

Lucentio, gentle sir.

Pet. Happily met; the happier for thy son.
And now by law, as well as reverend age,
may entitle thee-my loving father;
The sister to my wife, this gentlewoman,
Thy son by this hath married. Wonder not,
Nor be not grieved; she is of good esteem,
Her dowry wealthy, and of worthy birth;
Beside, so qualified as may beseem
The spouse of any noble gentleman.

1 This is from the fourth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, by Golding, 1586, p. 56. Ovid borrowed his ideas from the sixth book of the Odyssey, 154, &c.

2 Another proof of Shakspeare's accurate observation of natural phe

nomena.

Let me embrace with old Vincentio ;
And wander we to see thy honest son,
Who will of thy arrival be full joyous.

Vin. But is this true? Or is it else your pleasure,
Like pleasant travellers, to break a jest
Upon the company you overtake?

Hor. I do assure thee, father, so it is.

Pet. Come, go along, and see the truth hereof; For our first merriment hath made thee jealous.

[Exeunt PET., KATH., and VIN. Hor. Well, Petruchio, this hath put me in heart. Have to my widow; and if she be froward, Then hast thou taught Hortensio to be untoward.

[Exit.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Padua. Before Lucentio's House.

Enter on one side BIONDELLO, LUCENTIO, and BIANCA; GREMIO walking on the other side.

Bion. Softly and swiftly, sir; for the priest is ready. Luc. I fly, Biondello; but they may chance to need thee at home; therefore leave us.

Bion. Nay, faith, I'll see the church o'your back; and then come back to my master1 as soon as I can. [Exeunt Luc., BIAN. and BION. Gre. I marvel Cambio comes not all this while.

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, VINCENTIO, and Attendants.

Pet. Sir, here's the door; this is Lucentio's house; My father's bears more toward the market-place; Thither must I, and here I leave

you, sir.

1 The old editions read mistress. The emendation is Theobald's, who rightly observes, that by master, Biondello means his pretended master Tranio.