Tra. Not possible; For who shall bear your

part,

And be in Padua here Vincentio's son?

Keep house, and ply his book; welcome his friends; Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Luc. Basta;' content thee; for I have it full." We have not yet been seen in any house; Nor can we be distinguished by our faces, For man, or master: then it follows thus:Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead, Keep house, and port,' and servants, as I should: I will some other be; some Florentine, Some Neapolitan, or mean man of Pisa. 'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so:-Tranio, at once Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak: When Biondella comes, he waits on thee; But I will charm him first to keep his tongue. Tra. So had you need. [They exchange habits. In brief then, sir, sith it your pleasure is, And I am tied to be obedient;

(For so your father charg'd me at our parting;
Be serviceable to my son, quoth he,

Although, I think, 'twas in another sense,)
I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

Luc. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves: And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Enter BIONDello.

Here comes the rogue.-Sirrah, where have you been?

6

5 Basta;] i. e. 'tis enough; Italian and Spanish.

I have it full.] i. e. conceive our stratagem in its full

extent, I have already planned the whole of it.

7

port,] Port is figure, show, appearance.

Bion. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where

are you?

Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
Or you stol'n his? or both? pray, what's the news?
Luc. Sirrah, come hither; 'tis no time to jest,
And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel, since I came ashore,
I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life:
You understand me?

Bion.

I, sir? ne'er a whit.
Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth;
Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio.

Bion. The better for him; 'Would I were so too! Tra. So would I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,

That Lucentio, indeed, had Baptista's youngest daughter.

But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master's,

I advise

You use your manners discreetly in all kind of com

panies:

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
But in all places else, your master Lucentio.
Luc. Tranio, let's go:-

One thing more rests, that thyself execute;

To make one among these wooers: If thou ask me

why,

Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty." [Exeunt.

good and weighty.] The division for the second Act of this play is neither marked in the folio nor quarto editions. Shakspeare seems to have meant the first Act to conclude here, where

1 Serv. My lord, you nod; you

play.

Sly. Yes, by saint Anne, do I.

surely; Comes there any more of it? Page. My lord, 'tis but begun.

do not mind the

A good matter,

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; 'Would't were done!

SCENE II.

The same. Before Hortensio's House.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave, To see my friends in Padua; but, of all, My best beloved and approved friend, Hortensio; and, I trow, this is his house:

Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is

there any man has rebused your worship?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

Gru. Knock you here, sir? why, sir, what am I,

sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,

And rap me well, or I'll knock

your knave's pate. Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome: I should knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.

Pet. Will it not be?

'Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it; I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.

the speeches of the Tinker are introduced; though they have been hitherto thrown to the end of the first Act, according to a modern and arbitrary regulation. STEEVENS.

9

wring it;] Here seems to be a quibble between ringing STEEVENS.

at a door, and wringing a man's ears.

Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you: sirrah! villain!

Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio!How do you all at Verona?

Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?

Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say.

Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto, Molto honorato signor mio Petruchio.

Rise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel.

Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter, what he 'leges in Latin.'-If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service,-Look you, sir,-he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir: Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for aught I see,) two and thirty,-a pip out?

Whom, 'would to God, I had well knock'd at first, Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A senseless villain!-Good Hortensio,

I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
And could not get him for my heart to do it.
Gru. Knock at the gate?-O heavens!

Spake you not these words plain,-Sirrah, knock me

here,

Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly?2 And come you now with-knocking at the gate?

1

Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.

—what he 'leges in Latin.] i. e. I suppose, what he alleges in Latin. STEEVENS.

2 knock me soundly?] Shakspeare seems to design a ridicule on this clipped and ungrammatical phraseology; which yet he has introduced in Othello:

"I pray talk me of Cassio."

Hor. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge: Why, this a heavy chance 'twixt him and you; Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio. And tell me now, sweet friend,-what happy gale Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona?

Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world,

To seek their fortunes further than at home,
Where small experience grows. But, in a few,3
Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:-
Antonio, my father, is deceas'd;

And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive, and thrive, as best I may:
Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.

Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to

thee,

And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?
Thoud'st thank me but a little for my counsel:
And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,

And very rich:-but thou'rt too much my friend,
And I'll not wish thee to her.

Pet. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we,
Few words suffice: and, therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
(As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance,)*
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,"

As old as Sybil, and as curst and shrewd

3 Where small experience grows. But, in a few,] In a few, means the same as in short, in few words. JOHNSON.

4 (As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance,)] The burthen of a dance is an expression which I have never heard; the burthen of his wooing song had been more proper. JOHNSON.

Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,] The allusion is to a story told by Gower in the first Book De Confessione Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who had bound himself to marry a deformed hag, provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended.