Nor never needed that I should entreat,

Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep;

With oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed:
And, that which spites me more than all these wants,
He does it under name of perfect love;

As who should say,1 if I should sleep or eat,
'Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
I pr'ythee go, and get me some repast;
I care not what, so it be wholesome food.
Gru. What say you to a neat's foot?2
Cath. 'Tis passing good: I pr'ythee let me have it.
Gru. I fear it is too choleric a meat.
How say you to a fat tripe finely broil'd?

Cath. I like it well: good Grumio, fetch it me.
Gru. I cannot tell; I fear 'tis choleric.
What say you to a piece of beef and mustard?
Cath. A dish that I do love to feed upon.

Gru. Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little.

Cath. Why, then the beef, and let the mustard rest. Gru. Nay, then I will not: you shall have the mustard,

Or else you get no beef of Grumio.

Cath. Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt.
Gru. Why, then the mustard without the beef.
Cath. Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,

That feed'st me with the very3 name of meat :
Sorrow on thee, and all the pack of you,

That triumph thus upon my misery!

[Beats him.

1 This phrase occurs repeatedly, and means "As if he were saying," or "As if any one should say."

2 Neat was a common epithet of beasts of the bovine genus, cows, calves, oxen, steers, &c.

8 Very in the sense of mere; a frequent usage. So in Hamlet, iv. 4: “A very riband in the cap of youth, yet needful too."

Enter PETRUCHIO with a dish of meat; and HORTENSIO.

Pet. How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort ?4 Hor. Mistress, what cheer?

Cath.

Faith, as cold as can be.

Pet. Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me. Here, love; thou see'st how diligent I am

To dress thy meat myself, and bring it thee :

[Sets the dish on a table. I'm sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks. What, not a word? Nay, then thou lovest it not; And all my pains is sorted to no 'proof.5 — Here, take away this dish.

Cath.

I pray you, let it stand.

Pet. The poorest service is repaid with thanks; And so shall mine, before you touch the meat. Cath. I thank you, sir.

Hor. Signior Petruchio, fie! you are to blame.

Come, Mistress Kate, I'll bear you company.

Pet. [Aside to HOR.] Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou

lovest me.

[TO CATH.] Much good do it unto thy gentle heart! Kate, eat apace: and now, my honey love,

Will we return unto thy father's house,

And revel it as bravely as the best,

With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings,
With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things;
With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery,
With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.
What, hast thou dined? The tailor stays thy leisure,

4 Amort is downcast or dispirited; from à la mort, French. 5" All my labour is to no purpose; has no approval allotted to it;" 'proof being used for approof. The Poet often has sort in this sense.

To deck thy body with his ruffling 6 treasure.—

Enter Tailor.

Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments;

Lay forth the gown.

Enter Haberdasher.

What news with you, sir?

Hab. Here is the cap your Worship did bespeak.
Pet. Why, this was moulded on a porringer;
A velvet dish fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy:
Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell,

A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap:
Away with it! come, let me have a bigger.

Cath. I'll have no bigger: this doth fit the time,
And gentlewomen wear such caps as these.

Pet. When you are gentle, you shall have one too, And not till then.

Hor. [Aside.] That will not be in haste.

Cath. Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak ;

And speak I will; I am no child, no babe :
Your betters have endured me say my mind;
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart;
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break :
And rather than it shall, I will be free

Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words.
Pet. Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap,

A custard-coffin,7 a bauble, a silken pie :

I love thee well, in that thou likest it not.

6 Ruffling refers to the flaunting finery that Petruchio has just spoken of. To ruffle is to strut or to cut a big dash. - Women's dresses were commonly made by men in Shakespeare's time.

7 Coffin was the culinary term for the raised crust of a custard.

Cath. 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 masquing stuff is here?

What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon:

What, up and down,8 carved like an apple-tart!
Here's snip, and nip, and cut, and slish, and slash,

Like to a censer9 in a barber's shop: —

Why, what, o' Devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this?

Hor. [Aside.] I see she's like t' have neither cap nor gown. 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:
I'll none of it: hence! make your best of it.

Cath. I never saw a better-fashion'd gown,
More quaint,10 more pleasing, nor more commendable :
Belike you mean to make a puppet of me.

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 thimble,

Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail !

Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou !

Braved 11 in mine own house with a skein of thread?

Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;

Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard,

8 Up and down, as here used, means about the same as our phrase out

and out; that is, exactly. See vol. i., page 184, note 41.

9 A censer was a fire-pan with a perforated cover, for burning perfumes

to sweeten rooms.

10 Quaint, again, for ingenious or elegant. See page 197, note 18. 11 To brave one is to treat him with bravado, to defy him.

As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr'd her gown.

Tai. Your Worship is deceived; the gown is made
Just as my master had direction :

Grumio gave order how it should be done.

Gru. I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff.
Tai. But how did you desire it should be made?
Gru. Marry, sir, with needle and thread.

Tai. But did you not request to have it cut?
Gru. Thou hast faced many things; 12

Tai. I have.

Gru. Face not me: thou hast braved many men; 13 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.
Pet. Read it.

Gru. The note lies in's throat, if he say I said so.

14

Tai. [Reads.] Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown :— Gru. Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom 15 of brown thread: I said a gown.

Pet. Proceed.

Tai. [Reads.] With a small-compass'd cape :

Gru. I confess the cape.

Tai. [Reads.] With a trunk sleeve:

12 That is, turned up many garments with facings.

18 To make fine or splendid was one of the senses of to brave. So in King Richard III., v. 3: "He [the Sun] should have braved the East an hour ago." See, also, page 142, note 13.

14 Grumio appears to be quibbling on loose-bodied, taking it in the sense of loose body, that is, a loose woman. Or it may have been customary for such women to wear loose-bodied gowns.

15 Bottom for ball; bottom being the name for the centre upon which thread or yarn was wound.