Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Christopher Columbus studied there. The number of students was once (we believe in Shakespeare's age) eighteen thousand. Now that universities have multiplied, none are so thronged; but that of Padua still numbers from fifteen hundred to twenty-three hundred. Most of the educated youth of Lombardy pursue their studies there, and numbers from a greater distance. 'The mathematics' are still a favourite branch of learning, with some 'Greek, Latin, and other languages;' also natural philosophy and medicine. History and morals, and consequently politics, seem to be discouraged, if not omitted. The aspect of the University of Padua is now somewhat forlorn, though its halls are respectably tenanted by students. Its mouldering courts and dim staircases are thickly hung with the heraldic blazonry of the pious benefactors of the institution. The number of these coats-of-arms is so vast as to convey a strong impression of what the splendour of this seat of learning must once have been."-KNIGHT.

"-fruitful Lombardy,

The pleasant garden of great Italy."

"The rich plain of Lombardy is still like a pleasant garden,' and appears as if it must ever continue to be so, sheltered as it is by the vast barrier of the Alps, and fertilized by the streams which descend from their glaciers. From the walls of the Lombard cities, which are usually reared on rising grounds, the prospects are enchanting, presenting a fertile expanse, rarely disfigured by fences, intersected by the great Via Emilia-one long avenue of mulberry trees; gleaming here and there with transparent lakes, and adorned with scattered towns, villas, and churches, rising from among the vines. Corn, oil, and wine, are everywhere ripening together; and not a speck of barrenness is visible, from the northern Alps and eastern Adriatic, to the unobstructed southern horizon, where the plain melts away in sunshine." KNIGHT.

"My trusty servant"-So the folio. The word has been changed by some editors to most.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

"Gave me my being; my father, first

A merchant of great traffic through the world,
Vincentio's come of the Bentivolii."

This is the original folio reading, and though not without obscurity, may well be understood and intended to say thus:-"My father, who is firstly a merchant of the highest class, is also a noble Vincentio, descended from the illustrious Bentivolii. It shall, therefore, become his son, myself, to deck my name and fortune with virtuous acts." Few of the later editors, however, are satisfied with this reading and explanation, and they adopt Hanmer's emendation-"Vincentio's come of the Bentivolii," as meaning, that "Pisa gave me being, and before me my father, that father descended of the Bentivolii."

"ME PERDONATO"-" Me Perdonato" is the original text, for which Stevens and Malone say that we should read Mi Pardonate; and this emendation has been generally adopted. We retain the old text, with the change of a letter, for the reason well stated by Mr. C. Armitage Brown, who thus objects to Mi Pardonate:

"Indeed we should read no such thing as two silly errors in two common words. Shakespeare may have written Mi perdoni, or Perdonatemi; but why disturb

the text further than by changing the syllable par into per? It then expresses, (instead of pardon me,) me being pardoned; and is suitable both to the sense and the metre

Me perdonato,-gentle master mine."

"Or so devote to Aristotle's ETHICKS"-The original text has "Aristotle's checks," which Knight and other editors retain. There is no very evident sense of checks which will suit the context, and therefore Judge Blackstone considered this as a misprint or error of a copyist for "ethicks;" which supposition is right. The error is natural for a copyist or compositor, and the context supports the correction. Tranio, speaking of the sciences, runs over the circle of them according to the familiar division of the times, and speaks of logic, rhetoric, music, poetry, mathematics, metaphysics; and "ethicks" would follow of course in such an enumeration. Besides, Aristotle's "Ethicks" were familiar to the stage, for Ben Jonson mentions them in his "Silent Woman."

"BALK logic"-This word of the original was changed into talk, by Rowe, and is adopted in most editions, except those of Knight and Singer. "Balk" seems to me used in its primitive sense, "to pass over; to leave untouched;" and Tranio means-Leave logic alone with your acquaintance, and talk rhetoric with them, etc.

"To make a STALE of me"-" She means, 'Do you intend to make a strumpet of me among these compan ions?' But the expression seems to have a quibbling allusion to the chess term of stale-mate. So in Bacon's 'Twelfth Essay'-'They stand like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir.' Shakespeare sometimes uses stale' for a decoy, as in the second scene of the third act of this play."SINGER.

[ocr errors]

"A pretty PEAT!"-"Peat or pet," says Johnson, "is a word of endearment, from petit, little."

[ocr errors]

11

-for to CUNNING men"-i. e. Knowing, learned. Cunning," or conning, was originally knowledge, or skill; and is so used in our translation of the Bible. Shakespeare, in general, uses "cunning" in the modern sense, as in LEAR:

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. But in this play, the adjective is used in two other instances in its older sense:

Cunning in music, and the mathematics.

- cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages. "THEIR love is not so great"-"It seems that we should read Your love:' yr in old writing, stood for either their or your. If their' love be right, it must mean-The goodwill of Baptista and Bianca towards us."-MALONE.

In

"I will WISH him to her father"-i. e. I will recom mend him to wish was often used in this sense. act i. scene 2, of this play, Hortensio says, "And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favoured wife."

"Happy man be his DOLE"-A proverbial expression. "Dole" is any thing dealt out or distributed. The phrase is equivalent to "happy man be his lot or portion."

"He that runs fastest gets the RING"-"An allusion," as Douce remarks, " to the sport of running at the ring."

"REDIME TE CAPTUM," etc.-This line is in Lily's "Grammar," and, as Dr. Farmer observes, it is quoted as it stands in the Grammar, and not as in TERENCE.

“Because she WILL not be annoy'd with suitors"— Thus the old folios; the meaning being, that Bianca wishes not to be fruitlessly annoyed with suitors. Rowe, and other editors, substituted shall for "will."

"BASTA; content thee"-i. e. Enough; Italian and Spanish. The same word is used by Beaumont and

Fletcher.

"—and PORT, and servants”—i. e. State, or show. Thus, in the MERCHANT OF VENICE:

And the magnificoes of greatest port. "-COLOUR'D hat and cloak"-Fashions have now changed. Servants formerly wore clothes of sober hue; black or sad colour: their masters bore about the hues of the rainbow in their doublets and mantles, and hats and feathers. Such gay vestments were called emphatically coloured."-KNIGHT.

"My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play”— The old stage-direction before these interlocutions is, "The Presenters above speak;" meaning, Sly, the attendants, etc., in the balcony. Afterwards, before the next scene, the marginal direction is, "They sit and mark."

SCENE II.

"-two and thirty,—a PIP out?"-" This passage has escaped the commentators; yet it is more obscure than many they have explained. Perhaps it was passed over because it was not understood? The allusion is to the old game of Bone-ace, or 'One-and-thirty.' A 'pip' is a spot upon a card. The old copy has it peepe. The same allusion is in Massinger's Fatal Dowry,' act ii. scene 2. You think, because you served my lady's mother [you] are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out, you know.' There is a secondary allusion (in which the joke lies) to a popular mode of inflicting punishment upon certain offenders. For a curious illustration of this, the reader may consult Florio's Italian Dictionary,' in v. Trentuno."-SINGER.

"what HE 'LEGES in Latin"-Grumio is supposed to mistake Italian for Latin; for though Italian were his native language, as Monck Mason observes, he speaks English, and Shakespeare did not mean to treat him otherwise than as an Englishman. Tyrwhitt's sugges tion for reading be leges, instead of "he leges," is, however, ingenious.

[ocr errors][merged small]

66

With Collier we preserve the old reading, the meanmg being, that only a few have the power to gain much experience at home. The common reading is, But in a few," meaning, as Johnson says, "in a few words— in short."

"Be she as foul as was Florentius' love"-The story of Florentius, or Florent, is told in Gower's "Confessio Amantis," lib. i.; and also in Lupton's 64 Thousand Notable Things," the earliest edition of which was printed in 1586. Florentius married over-night, for the sake of wealth, and next morning found his wife

-the lothest wighte

That ever man cast on his eye.

"Were she as rough

As are the swelling Adriatic seas."

The Adriatic, though well land-locked, and in summer often as still as a mirror, is subject to severe and sudden storms. The great sea-wall which protects Venice, distant eighteen miles from the city, and built, of course, in a direction where it is best sheltered and supported by the islands, is, for three miles abreast of Palestrina, a vast work for width and loftiness; yet it frequently surmounted in winter by the 'swelling Adriatic seas,' which pour over into the Lagunes."

KNIGHT.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

part of Grumio for rhetorics. Sir T. Hanmer substituted rhetoric, not seeing the joke.

"Rope-tricks," says Seymour, "seems to tally with the modern vulgar phrase—“ gallows-tricks.”

[ocr errors]

"eyes to see withal than a CAT"-The learned ef forts to explain this seem to be lost labour. Mr. Boswell justly remarks, "that nothing is more common in ludicrous or playful discourse than to use a comparison where no resemblance is intended."

"-half so great a blow to THE EAR"-The old copies have to hear; which, with Hanmer, Stevens and others. I think is a natural misprint for "the ear,"-a more pro bable as well as poetical phrase, and one familiar to the Poet; as, in KING JOHN

Our ears are cudgelled; not a word of his
But buffets, etc.

"FEAR boys with BUGS”—i. e. Frighten boys with hobgoblins. Douce has given us a curious passage from Matthews's Bible, Psalm xci. 5, "Thou shalt not nede to be afraied for any bugs by night." The English name of the punaise was not applied till late in the seventeenth century, and is evidently metaphorical.

"Hark you, sir: you mean not her to-"

In the old copies there is a dash after "to," as if Gremio were interrupted by Tranio, who appears to have anticipated that Gremio meant to conclude by the word

woo.

"AND if you break the ice, and do this SEEK"-Rowe substituted feat for seek," but unnecessarily. Tranio refers to Petruchio's enterprise to "seek" and "achieve the elder." Modern editors have here abandoned the ancient authorities. "And do this seek" is equivalent to" and do this one seek."

"we all rest generally BEHOLDING"-" Such was the language of the time, though modern editors have substituted beholden. Shakespeare employs the active participle, and it was the universal practice of his contemporaries."-Collier.

"Please ye we may CONTRIVE this afternoon"-i. e. Spend the afternoon, or wear out the afternoon: from the Latin contero. The word is used in this sense in the novel of "Romeo and Juliet," in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure:" "Juliet, knowing the fury of her father, etc., retired for the day into her chamber, and contrived that whole night more in weeping than sleeping."

"And do as ADVERSARIES do in LAW"-" By 'adversaries in law,' our author meant, not suitors, but barristers; who, however warm in their opposition to each other in the courts, live in greater harmony and friendship in private than those of any other of the liberal professions. Their clients seldom eat and drink' with their adversaries as friends."-MALONE.

ACT II.-SCENE 1.

"For shame, thou HILDING"-A mean-spirited person "BACKARE: you are marvellous forward"-This is a word of doubtful etymology and frequent occurrence: it is possibly only a corruption of "Back there!" for it is always used as a reproof to over-confidence. In "Ralf Roister Doister," act i. scene 2, we meet with it: Ah, sir! Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow. And this expression is introduced by old John Heywood into his "Proverbs." The inode of employing the word

is uniform.

"And this small packet of Greek and Latin books."

"It is not to be supposed that the daughters of Baptista were more learned than other ladies of their city and their time.

"Under the walls of universities, then the only centres of intellectual light, knowledge was shed abroad like sunshine at noon, and was naturally more or less enjoyed by all. At the time when Shakespeare and the Univer

sity of Padua flourished, the higher classes of women were not deemed unfitted for a learned education. Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, the daughters of Sir Thomas More, and others, will at once occur to the reader's recollection in proof of this. Greek, Latin, and other languages,' 'the mathematics,' and to read philosophy,' then came as natural as 'music' within the scope of female education. Any association of pedantry with the training of the young ladies of this play is in the prejudices of the reader, not in the mind of the Poet."-KNIGHT.

"As morning roses newly wASH'D with dew"-Milton has honoured this fine image by adopting it in his "Il Allegro:"

And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew.

"Good-morrow, Kate, for that's your name, I hear." This is founded upon a similar scene in the old play. Our readers may compare Shakespeare and his prede

cessor:

"Alf. Ha, Kate, come hither, wench, and list to me: Use this gentleman friendly as thou canst.

Fer. Twenty good-morrows to my lovely Kate. Kate. You jest, I am sure; is she yours already? Fer. I tell thee, Kate, I know thou lov'st me well. Kate. The devil you do! who told you so? Fer. My mind, sweet Kate, doth say I am the man, Must wed, and bed, and marry bonny Kate.

Kate. Was ever seen so gross an ass as this? Fer. Ay, to stand so long, and never get a kiss. Kate. Hands off, I say, and get you from this place; Or I will set my ten commandments in your face.

Fer. I prithee do, Kate; they say thou art a shrew, And I like thee the better, for I would have thee so. Kate. Let go my hand for fear it reach your ear. Fer. No, Kate, this hand is mine, and I thy love. Kate. I' faith, sir, no, the woodcock wants his tail Fer. But yet his bill will serve if the other fail. Alf. How now, Ferando? what, my daughter? Fer. She's willing, sir, and loves me as her life. Kate. 'Tis for your skin, then, but not to be your wife. Alf. Come hither, Kate, and let me give thy hand To him that I have chosen for thy love, And thou to-morrow shalt be wed to him.

Kate. Why, father, what do you mean to do with me, To give me thus, unto this brainsick man, That in his mood cares not to murder me?

[She turns aside and speaks. And yet I will consent and marry him, (For I, methinks, have liv'd too long a maid,) And match him too, or else his manhood's good. Alf. Give me thy hand; Ferando loves thee well, And will with wealth and ease maintain thy state. Here, Ferando, take her for thy wife,

And Sunday next shall be our wedding-day.

Fer. Why so, did I not tell thee I should be the man? Father, I leave my lovely Kate with you, Provide yourselves against our marriage-day, For I must hie me to my country house

In haste, to see provision may be made

To entertain my Kate when she doth come. Alf. Do so; come Kate, why dost thou look So sad? Be merry, wench, thy wedding day's at hand; Son, fare you well, and see you keep your promise. [Exit ALFONSO and KATE." "Should be? should? buz"-This has been ordinarily printed

Should be? Should buz.

[blocks in formation]

antagonist, was branded with the name which he had uttered in preferring safety to honour. The terms of chivalry and cock-fighting were synonymous in the feudal times, as those of the cock-pit and the boxingring are equivalent now. To show a white feather is now a term of pugilism, derived from the ruffled plumes of the frightened bird."-KNIGHT.

"And bring you from a WILD KATE to a Kate
Conformable, as other household Kates."

This is the original text. Doubtless, a play on words was meant, which anciently, when a was more broadly sounded than now, would be obvious-" wild Kate" and wild cat. This, however, does not authorize our printing it wild cat, as Stevens and others have done.

[ocr errors]

"she will prove a second GRISSEL"-Alluding to the story of Griselda," so beautifully related by Chaucer, and taken by him from Boccacio. It is thought to be older than the time of the Florentine, as it is to be found among the old fabliaux, according to Douce.

"She VIED so fast"-To "vie" was a term at cards, and sometimes we meet with revie; outvie occurs in this play afterwards. It meant to challenge, or stake. or brag; and the phrases were used in the old games of Gleek and Primero, superseded by the Brag of the present day.

"-'tis a WORLD to see"-The meaning is-It is worth a world to see. So, in B. C. Rydley's "Brief Declaration," (1555,) quoted by Collier :-" It is a world to see the answer of the Papists to this statement of Origen."

"A MEACOCK wretch"-i. e. A cowardly wretch. "Meacock" has been derived by some from meek and cock, (but mes coq, Fr., Skinner,) and it is used by old writers both as an adjective and as a substantive.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

Is richly furnished with plate and gold," etc. "If Shakespeare had not seen the interior of Italiau houses when he wrote this play, he must have possessed some effectual means of knowing and realizing in his imagination the particulars of such an interior. Any educated man might be aware that the extensive commerce of Venice must bring within the reach of the neighbouring cities, a multitude of articles of foreign production and taste. But there is a particularity in his mention of these articles, which strongly indicates the experience of an eye-witness. The cypress chests,' and 'ivory coffers,' rich in antique carving, are still existing, with some remnants of Tyrian tapestry,' to carry back the imagination of the traveller to the days of the glory of the republic. The plate and gold' are, for the most part, gone, to supply the needs of the impoverished aristocracy, who (to their credit) will part with every thing sooner than their pictures. The tents and canopies,' and Turkey cushions 'boss'd with pearl,' now no longer seen, were appropriate to the days when Cyprus, Candia, and the Morea were dependencies of Venice, scattering their productions through the eastern cities of Italy, and actually establishing many of their customs in the singular capital of the Venetian dominion. After Venice, Padua was naturally first served with importations of luxury.

66

Venice was, and is still, remarkable for its jewellery, especially its fine works in gold. Venice gold' was wrought into valence'-tapestry-by the needle, and was used for every variety of ornament, from chains as fine as if made of woven hair, to the most massive form in which gold can be worn. At the present day, the traveller who walks round the Piazza of St. Mark's is surprised at the large proportion of jeweller's shops, and at the variety and elegance of the ornaments they contain,-the shell necklaces, the jewelled rings and tiaras, and the profusion of gold chains."-KNIGHT.

"—we will be married o' Sunday"-" Parts of these lines read as if from a ballad. If any such be in print, it has never been pointed out by the commentators; but the following, from the recitation of an old lady, who heard it from her mother, (then forty,) at least sixty years ago, bears a strong resemblance to what l'etruchio seems to quote:

To church away!

We will have rings
And fine array,

With other things,
Against the day,

For I'm to be married o' Sunday.

There are other ballads with the same burden, but none so nearly in the words of Petruchio."-COLLIER.

"Shall have My Bianca's love”—Malone and Stevens omit "my," without any reason; the line, being a hemistich, could require no amendment.

"BASONS and EWERS, to lave her dainty hands"These were articles formerly of great account. They were usually of silver, and probably their fashion was much attended to, because they were regularly exhibited to the guests before and after dinner, being the custom to wash the hands at both those times.

"COUNTERPOINTS"-i. e. Counterpanes, as we now call them; and thus named originally because composed of contrasted points, or panes, of various colours. They were a favourite article of ancient pomp. Among the other complaints against Wat Tyler's men was, their having destroyed in the royal wardrobe at the Savoy, a counterpane worth a thousand marks.

[ocr errors]

"Costly apparel, TENTS, and CANOPIES' -"Tents" were hangings,-tentes, Fr., probably being so named from the tenters upon which they were hung; tenture de tapisserie signified a suit of hangings. The following passage shows that a "canopy" was sometimes a tester: "A canopy properly, that hangeth aboute beddes to keepe away gnattes; sometimes a tent or pavilion; some have used it for a testorne to hange over a bed."Baret, in voce.

"PEWTER and brass”—“ Pewter" was considered as ench costly furniture, that we find in the Northumberland household-book, vessels of pewter were hired by the year.

"-is lying in MARSEILLES' road"-This name is spelled Marcellus in the old copy, and was probably pronounced as a trisyllable.

“— with a CARD OF TEN"-This expression seems to have been proverbial: cards" of ten" were the highest in the pack.

At the end of this act, Mr. Pope introduced the following speeches of the Presenters, as they are called, from the old play :

Slie. When will the fool come again?

Sim. Anon, my lord.

[blocks in formation]

shows that the word has been accidentally omitted. It was very common in the time of Shakespeare to use "old" as a species of superlative.

"and CHAPELESS"-i. e. Without a hook to the scabbard; according to Todd.

11

- with TWO BROKEN POINTS"-Johnson says, "How a sword should have two broken points I cannot tell." The points were among the most costly and elegant parts of the dress of Elizabeth's time; and to have two broken was certainly indicative of more than ordinary slovenliness.

"his horse HIPPED with an old mothy saddle”-Shakespeare (says Knight) describes the imperfections and unsoundness of a horse with as much precision as if he had been bred in a farrier's shop. In the same way, in the VENUS AND ADONIS, he is equally circumstantial in summing up the qualities of a noble courser:-Round hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostrils wide, High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttocks, tender hide. "-infected with the FASHIONS"-i. e. Farcins, a well-known disease in horses, often mentioned by old writers: as in Rowland's "Looke to it, for I'll Stabbe you," (1604 :)—

You gentle puppets of the proudest size.

[ocr errors]

That are, like horses, troubled with the fashions.

past cure of the FIVES"-i. e. Vives, or avives, another disorder in horses.

"— SWAYED in the back"-" Waid in the back," old copies.

"NE'ER-LEGGED before"-The folio has it " neere legged;" which some editors have given as here, and others near-legged. Malone thus supports the first:"Ne'er-legged before, i. e. foundered in his forefeet; having, as the jockeys term it, never a fore leg to stand The subsequent words-which being restrained to keep him from stumbling'-seem to countenance this interpretation. The modern editors read near-legged before; but to go near before is not reckoned a defect, but a perfection, in a horse."

on.

Lord Chadworth (an accomplished and unfortunate nobleman, of whose taste and acquirements many traces are to be found in the literature of his times) thus maintains the other reading:-"I believe near-legged is right; the near leg of a horse is the left, and to set off with that leg first is an imperfection. This horse had (as Dryden describes old Jacob Tonson) two left legs; i. e. he was awkward in the use of them; he used his right leg like the left."

"—an old hat, and the humour of forty fancies' prick'd in't for a feather"-It seems likely that this 'humour of forty fancies" was either a ballad so called, or a collection of ballads, stuck in the "lackey's" hat instead of a feather.

[ocr errors]

"And yet not many"-This is undoubtedly a scrap of some old ballad, which Biondello was led to recollect by his mention of "the humour of forty fancies" just before.

"-quaff'd off the muscadel"-T. Warton and Reed have shown, from numerous quotations, that the custom of having wine and sops distributed immediately after the marriage ceremony in the church, is very ancient. It existed even among our Gothic ancestors, and is mentioned in the ordinances of the household of Henry VII. "For the Marriage of a Princess:"-" Then pottes of Ipocrice to be ready, and to bee put into cupps with soppe, and to be borne to the estates; and to take a soppe and drinke." It was also practised at the marriage of Philip and Mary, in Winchester Cathedral; and at the marriage of the Elector-Palatine to the daughter of James I., in 1612-13. It appears to have been the custom at all marriages. In Jonson's" Magnetic Lady" it is called a knitting cup; in Middleton's "No Wit like

a Woman's," the contracting cup. The kiss was also part of the ancient marriage ceremony, as appears from a rubric in one of the Salisbury Missals.

"I must away to-day, before night come."

We subjoin the parallel scene in the earlier play :"Fer. Father, farewell, my Kate and I must home. Sirrah, go make ready my horse presently.

Alf. Your horse! what, son, I hope you do but jest; I am sure you will not go so suddenly.

Kate. Let him go or tarry, I am resolved to stay, And not to travel on my wedding-day.

Fer. Tut, Kate, I tell thee we must needs go home. Villain, hast thou saddled my horse?

San. Which horse-your curtall?

Fer. Zounds! you slave, stand you prating here? Saddle the bay gelding for your mistress.

Kate. Not for me, for I will not go.

San. The ostler will not let me have him; you owe tenpence

For his meat, and sixpence for stuffing my mistress' saddle.

Fer. Here, villain, go pay him straight.

San. Shall I give them another peck of lavender? Fer. Out, slave! and bring them presently to the door. Alf. Why, son, I hope at least you'll dine with us. San. I pray you, master, let's stay till dinner be done. Fer. Zounds, villain, art thou here yet?

[Exit SANDER. Come, Kate, our dinner is provided at home. Kate. But not for me, for here I mean to dine: I'll have my will in this as well as you; Though you in madding mood would leave Despite of you I'll tarry with them still.

your

friends,

Fer. Ay, Kate, so thou shalt, but at some other time: When as thy sisters here shall be espoused,

Then thou and I will keep our wedding-day

In better sort than now we can provide;

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

"I am no beast"-Grumio impliedly calls Curtis a beast by calling him his fellow, having first called himself a beast.

"Jack, boy! ho boy!"-"The commencement of an old drinking-round: jack' was the name for the black-leather jug in which drink was served."-COLL.

"Come, you are so full of coNY-CATCHING"-" Conycatching" means cheating or deceiving, and is a word of common occurrence. Its etymology has reference to the facility with which conies, or rabbits, are caught.

[ocr errors][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

- and their garters of an INDIFFERENT knit" — Grumio is not accurate enough in his diction to deserve the critical pains that learned annotators have taken to explain this phrase. Malone, on no very clear authority. maintains it to mean "party-coloured garters;" while Johnson and others assert that the garters ought to correspond, and that "indifferent" here meant not different. A more obvious sense is that intimated by Nares, in his 'Glossary:"-" Tolerable, or ordinary.' Then-" Let their garters (which were worn outside) be decent."

"Where be these knaves”—This scene is one of the most spirited and characteristic in the play; and we see a joyous, revelling spirit shining through Petruchio's affected violence. The Ferando of the old "Taming of a Shrew" is a coarse bully, without the fine animal spirits and the real self-command of our Petruchio. The following is the parallel scene in that play; and it is remarkable how closely Shakespeare copies the incidents:

"Enter FERANDO and KATE.

Fer. Now welcome, Kate. Where's these villains Here? what, not supper yet upon the board, Nor table spread, nor nothing done at all? Where's that villain that I sent before?

San. Now, adsum, sir.

Fer. Come hither, you villain, I'll cut your nose. You rogue, help me off with my boots; will 't please You to lay the cloth? Zounds! the villain Hurts my foot: pull easily, I say, yet again!

[He beats them all [They cover the board, and fetch in the meat. Zounds, burnt and scorch'd! Who dress'd this meat? Wil. Forsooth, John Cook.

[He throws down the table, and meat, and ell. and beats them all.

Fer. Go, you villains, bring me such meat! Out of my sight, I say, and bear it hence: Come, Kate, we'll have other meat provided. Is there a fire in my chamber, sir? San. Ay, forsooth. [Exeunt FERANDO and KATE [Manent Serving-men, and eat up all the meat. Tom. Zounds! I think of my conscience my master's mad since he was married.

Wil. I laughed, what a box he gave Sander for pull ing off his boots.

Enter FERANDO again.

San. I hurt his foot for the nonce, man.
Fer. Did you so, you damned villain?

[He beats them all out again.
This humour must I hold me to awhile,
To bridle and hold back my headstrong wife,
With curbs of hunger, ease, and want of sleep;
Nor sleep, nor meat shall she enjoy to-night.
I'll mew her up as men do mew their hawks.
And make her gently come unto the lure:
Were she as stubborn, or as full of strength,
As was the Thracian horse Alcides tamed,
That king Egeus fed with flesh of men,
Yet would I pull her down, and make her come,
As hungry hawks do fly unto their lure.

"It was the friar of orders grey,
As he forth walked on his way."

[Exit."

These lines, and those that precede them in the text. "Where is the life that late I led," are, no doubt, scraps of some ancient ballad. There are many such dispersed through Shakespeare's plays. Dr. Percy has, too, availed himself of some of them in the "modern Gothic," entitled "The Friar of Orders Grey :"—

It was a Friar of orders grey,
Walked forth to tell his beads;
And he met with a lady fair,
Clad in a pilgrim's weeds.

« ZurückWeiter »