Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
Hor. And fo it is: I wonder what it bodes.
Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet
life,

And awful rule, and right fupremacy :

And, to be fhort, what not, that's fweet and happy.
Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou haft won; and I will add
Unto their loffes twenty thousand crowns,
Another dowry to another daughter;
For fhe is chang'd, as fhe had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager:
better yet,
And fhow more fign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Enter Catharina, Bianca, and Widow.

See where he comes, and brings your froward wives

As prifoners to her womanly perfuafion.
Catharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[She pulls off her cap, and throws it down. Wid. Lord let me never have a caufe to figh, 'Till I be brought to fuch a filly pafs!

Bian. Fy, what a foolish duty call you this? Luc. I would your duty were as foolish too! The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Coft me an hundred crowns fince fupper-time. Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty. Pet. Catharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women

What duty they owe to their lords and husbands. Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling.

Pet. Come on, I say, and first begin with her. Wid. She fhall not.

Pet. I fay, fhe fhall; and firft begin with her. Cath. Fy! fy! unknit that threatning unkind brow,

And dart not fcornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
It blots thy beauty, as frosts bite the meads;

Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds fhake fair buds;
And in no fenfe is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is fo, none fo dry or thirsty
Will deign to fip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy fovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by fea and land;
To watch the night in ftorms, the day in cold,
While thou ly'st warm at home, fecure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
Too little payment for fo great a debt.
Such duty as the fubject owes the prince,
Even fuch a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she's froward, peevith, fullen, four,
And not obedient to his honeft will,
What is the but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am afham'd that women are fo fimple,
To offer war where they fhould kneel for peace,
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and fway,

When they are bound to ferve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies foft, and weak, and finooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our foft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms,
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reafon haply more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But now I fee our launces are but straws,

Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare;
That seeming to be moft, which we indeed leaft are.
Then vale your ftomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,

My hand is ready, may it do him ease.

Pet. Why, there's a wench: come on, and kifs me, Kate.

Luc. Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou fhalt ha't.

Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward.

Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward.

Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed;

We three are married, but you two are sped. 'Twas I won the wager, tho' you hit the whitę; And being a winner, God give you good night.

[Exeunt Petruchio and Catharine.. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou haft tam'd a curs'd fhrew.

Luc. "Tis a wonder, by your leave, fhe will be [Exeunt omnes.

tam'd fo.

Enter two fervants bearing Sly in his own apparel, and leaving him on the ftage. Then enter a Tapfter.

Sly awaking.] Sim, give's fome more wine-What, all the players gone? am not I a lord?

Tap. A lord, with a murrain! come, art thou drunk ftill?

Sly. Who's this? Tapfter! oh, I have had the bravest dream that ever thou heardft in all thy life.

Tap. Yea, marry, but thou hadst beft get thee home, for your wife will curfe you for dreaming here all night.

I

Sly. Will be? I know how to tame a fhrew. dreamt upon it all this night, and thou hast wak'd me out of the best dream that ever I had. But I'll to my wife, and tame her too, if he anger me.

To hit the white is a phrafe borrowed from archery: the mark was commonly white. Here it alludes to the name Bianca, or white. Johnson..

Dramatis Perfonæ.

SALINUS, duke of Ephefus.
ÆGEON, a merchant of Syracuse.

ANTIPHOLIS of Ephefus,

ANTIPHOLIS of Syracuse,

twin-brothers, and fons to Ægeon and Æmilia, but unknown to each other.

DROMIO of Ephefus, twin-brothers, and flaves to DROMIO of Syracufe, the two Antipholis's. BALTHAZAR, a merchant.

ANGELO, a goldsmith.

A Merchant, friend to Antipholis of Syracufe.
Dr PINCH, a school-master, and a conjurer.

ÆMILIA, wife to Ægeon, an Abbess at Ephesus.
ADRIANA, wife to Antipholis of Ephesus.
LUCIANA, fifter to Adriana.

LUCE, fervant to Adriana.

This play is taken from the Menacmi of Plautus.