And, if you cannot, best you stop your ears. I love thee well, in that thou lik'st it not. Kath. Love me, or love me not, I like the cap; And it I will have, or I will have none. Pet. Thy gown? why, ay:-Come, tailor, let us see't. O mercy, God! what masking stuff is here? What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon: What! up and down, carv'd like an apple-tart? Here's snip, and nip, and cut, and slish, and slash, Like to a censer4 in a barber's shop: Why, what, o'devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this? Hor. I see,she's like to have neither cap nor gown. [Asi. Tai. You bid me make it orderly and well, According to the fashion, and the time. Pet. Marry, and did; but if you be remember'd, I did not bid you mar it to the time. Go, hop me over every kennel home, For you shall hop without my custom, sir: Kath. I never saw a better-fashion'd gown, 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,5 Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail, [2] Shakspeare has here copied nature with great skill. Petruchio, by frightening, starving, and overwatching his wife, had tamed her into gentleness and submission. And the audience expects to hear no more of the shrew when on her being crossed, in the article of fashion and finery, the most inveterate folly of the sex,she flies out again, though for the last time, into all the intemperate rage of her nature. WARBURTON. [3] A coffin was the culinary term for the raised crust of a pie or custard.STE. 141 Censers in barber's shops are now disused, but they may easily be imagined to have been vessels which, for the emission of the smoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interstices. JOHNSON. [5] The tailor's trade, having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, liable to sarcasms and contempt. JOHN Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant; As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st! Tai. Your worship is deceiv'd; the gown is made Grumio gave order how it should be done. Gru. I gave him no order, I gave him the stuff. Tai. I have. Gru. Face not me: thou hast braved many men ;6 brave not me; I will neither be faced, nor 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. Gru. The note lies in his throat, if he say I said so. Gru. Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown,? sew 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:8- Tai. With a trunk sleeve ;— Pet. Ay, there's the villainy. 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 should'st know it. [6] i. e. made many men fine. Bravery was the ancient term for elegance of dress.-Faced many things, i. e. turned up many things with facings. STE. [7] I think the joke is impaired unless we read, with the original play al ready quoted-a loose body's gown. It appears, however, that loose-bodied gowns were the dress of harlots. STEEVENS. [8] A compassed cape is a round cape. To compass is to come round. JOH. Stubbs, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1565, gives a most elaborate description of the gowns of women; and adds, "Some have capes reaching down to the midst of their backs, faced with velvet, or else with some fine wrought taffata, at the least, fringed about very bravely." STEEV. Gru. I am for thee straight: take thou the bill, give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me. Hor. God-a-mercy, Grumio! then he shall have no odds. 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 : [Asi. -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. [Ex. Tailor. Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor : Kath. I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two; It shall be what o'clock I say it is. Hor.Why,so! this gallant will command the sun. [Exe. SCENE IV. Padua. Before BAPTISTA's House. Enter TRANIO, and the Pedant dressed like VINCENTIO. Tra. Sir, this is the house; Please it you, that I call? Ped. Ay, what else? and, but I be deceived, Signior Baptista may remember me, Near twenty years ago, in Genoa, where Tra. 'Tis well; And hold your own in any case, with such Enter BIONDELLO. Ped. I warrant you: But, sir, here comes your boy ; 'Twere good, he were school'd. Tra. Fear you not him.-Sirrah, Biondello, Now do your duty throughly, I advise you ; 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 look'd for him this day in Padua. Tra. Thou'rt a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink. Here comes Baptista ;-set your countenance, sir.Enter BAPTISTA and LUCENTIO. Signior 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, -Sir, by your leave; having come to Padua To have him match'd; and,-if you please to like 6* VOL. III. Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well, Bap. Sir, pardon me in what I have to say ;- As shall with either part's agreement stand? Tra. Then at my lodging, an it like you, sir: 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. -Signior 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. Bion. Cambio. [Exe. TRA. Pedant, and BAP. Luc. What say'st thou, Biondello ? Bion. You saw my master wink and laugh upon you? Luc. Biondello, what of that? [1] To pass is, in this place, synonymous to assure or convey; as it sometimes occurs in the covenant of a purchased deed, that the granter has power to bargain, sell, &c. " and thereby to pass and convey" the premises to the grantee. RITSON. [2] Happily, in Shakspeare's time, signified accidentally, as well as fortu nately. TYRWHITT. |