To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,
More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,
Than hath been taught by any of my trade:
And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.
Bian. Why, I am past my gamut long ago.
Hor. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.
Bian. [Reads.] Gamut I am, the ground of all
accord,

A re, to plead Hortensio's passion;
B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C faut, that loves with all affection:
D sol re, one cliff, two notes have I;
E la mi, show pity, or I die.

Call

you this gamut? tut! I like it not: Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice, To change true rules for odd inventions.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Mistress, your father prays you leave

books,

And help to dress your sister's chamber up;
You know, to-morrow is the wedding-day.

your

Bian. Farewell, sweet masters, both; I must be [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant. Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to

gone.

stay.

[Exit.

Hor. But I have cause to pry into this pedant; Methinks, he looks as though he were in love:Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble, To cast thy wand'ring eyes on every stale, Seize thee, that list: If once I find thee ranging, Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The same. Before Baptista's House.

Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHarine, BIANCA, LUCENTIO, and Attendants.

Bap. Signior Lucentio, [To TRANIO.] this is the 'pointed day

That Katharine and Petruchio should be married,
And yet we hear not of our son-in-law:
What will be said? what mockery will it be,
To want the bridegroom, when the priest attends
To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?
What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?

Kath. No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forc'd

To give my hand, oppos'd against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen;"
Who woo'd in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantick fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour:
And, to be noted for a merry man,

He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns;
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd.
Now must the world point at poor Katharine,
And say,-Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.

Tra. Patience, good Katharine, and Baptista

too;

Upon my life, Petruchio means but well,

Whatever fortune stays him from his word:

2-full of spleen;] That is, full of humour, caprice, and inconstancy. JOHNSON.

Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise;
Though he be merry, yet withal he's honest.
Kath. 'Would Katharine had never seen him
though!

[Exit, weeping, followed by BIANCA, and others. Bap. Go, girl; I cannot blame thee now to weep; For such an injury would vex a saint,

Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.

Enter BIONDello.

Bion. Master, master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard of!

Bap. Is it new and old too? how may that be? Bion. Why, is it not news, to hear of Petruchio's coming?

Bap. Is he come?

Bion. Why, no, sir.

Bap. What then?

Bion. He is coming.

Bap. When will he be here?

Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you there.

Tra. But, say, what:-To thine old news.

Bion. Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat, and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points: His horse hipped with an old mothy saddle, the stirrups of no kindred: besides, possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions,* full of wind

two broken points:] i. e. two broken tags to the laces. infected with the fashions,past cure of the fives,] Fashions. So called in the West of England, but by the best

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galls, sped with spavins, raied with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back, and shoulder-shotten; ne'er legged before, and with a half-checked bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather; which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots: one girt six times pieced, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in studs, and here and there pieced with pack thread.

Bap. Who comes with him?

Bion. O, sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock' on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies pricked in't for a feather: a monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey.

Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion;

Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparell'd.

Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoe'er he comes. Bion. Why, sir, he comes not.

Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes?

Bion. Who? that Petruchio came?

writers on farriery, farcens, or farcy. Fives. So called in the West: vives elsewhere, and avives by the French; a distemper in horses, little differing from the strangles. GREY.

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6

7

8

ne'er legged before,] i. e. founder'd in his fore-feet.
crupper of velure,] Velure is velvet. Velours, Fr.
stock-i. e. stocking.

an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies pricked in't for a feather:] This was some ballad or drollery at that time, which the poet here ridicules, by making Petruchio prick it up in his foot-boy's hat for a feather. His speakers are perpetually quoting scraps and stanzas of old ballads, and often very obscurely; for, so well are they adapted to the occasion, that they seem of a piece with the rest. WARBURTON.

Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came.

Bion. No, sir; I say, his horse comes with him on his back.

Bap. Why, that's all one.

Bion. Nay, by Saint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.

Pet. Come, where be these gallants? who is at

Pet. Were it better I should rush in thus.

But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?—

How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you

frown:

And wherefore gaze this goodly company;
As if they saw some wondrous monument,
Some comet, or unusual prodigy?

Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your weddingday:

First were we sad, fearing you would not come;
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided,
Fye! doff this habit, shame to your estate,
An eye-sore to our solemn festival.

Tra. And tell us, what occasion of import
Hath all so long detain'd you
from your
your wife,
And sent you hither so unlike yourself?

Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word, Though in some part enforced to digress;

•—to digress;] To deviate from my promise.