Head-piece.

THE induction to this play (which is dignified by the expofition of an accomplished critic) is a delightful frolic of the poet's fancy-It will furnish an excellent print for the head piece. It may be taken from page 408; where the servants should be drawn as officiously running after Sly, with fack, conferves, and apparel-the Lord at a distance smiling-and Sly (a drunken-looking, careless, lounging, unthinking jolly tinker), as willing to get rid of, or avoid their attentions; yet intreatingly, though at the fame time fretfully crying out-For God's fake, a pot of small ale.

SHOULD the next page be preferred; he may appear as provoked at their attentions, and paffionately, or rather very fretfully telling them, If you give me any conferves, give me conferves of beef.

There are two other expressions of Sly, in page 410 and page 412; either of which would fuit the present design; fuch as, If she say I am not fourteen-pence-and his catching at the name of Cicely Hacket. In the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1767, may be seen so very pleasing a figure from the happy pencil of M. De Loutherbourg, that we cannot but wish the figure of Sly might be given from his idea of it *.

* A VERY droll print of village sociality, might be taken by Mr. Bunbury, from p. 412. It might represent this worthy tinker, at Marian Hacket's of Wincot, with Stephen Sly, old John Naps 'oth' Green, Peter Turf and Henry Pimpernell, not as smoking their pipes, (as scarce at that day introduced) but drinking their ale in Aone-jugs.

Scene

:

Scene-Prints.

THE first scene-print that will occur in this play, is from page 439It will exhibit an admirable contrast of the two fisters. The father may be coming in at the moment after Katharine has struck her fifter. The figure of the Shrew should be commanding, and her features should bear the marks of haughty insolence and domineering passion-and yet at the fame time young and beauteous-while those of her gentle sister should be foftened with that beauteous modesty, that meek and inoffensive spirit, and those winning charms which caused her lover to cry out-Sacred and fweet was all I faw in her... Her attitude may be that of weeping modefty; and her father may be turning in amazement to her, and faying (with a look of pitying commiseration), Poor girl, she weeps..

THE most proper ornament for this page (which is " a whimsical luxuriance of risible defcription," would be a coloured etching in the manner of Mr. Bunbury, and representing Petruchio and his trusty pleafant fervant on horseback, as Biondello describes them. Mortimer's wild fancy should be joined to the humour and grotesque imagery of Mr. Bunbury. They may be galloping or plunging over a rough, or through a marthy place-Petruchio looking wild and fierce and poor Grumio paddling on a poney after him. To Mr. Bunbury it would be impertinent to suggest hints; otherwise, flashes of that grotesque wildness, so effential to this outré scene, might be caught from Coypel's, Picart's, or fome of the other prints to Quixotte; or from Hogarth's quarto prints to Hudibras bras. There are three horses in Mr. Bunbury's prints, which instantly present themselves as proper for Grumio:-the servants poney in Mofes which may either be on a canter or not)- that on which Dr. Dauble rides -and that whimsical one in the City Hunt, on which a butcher is mounted †.

Page 474.

THIS is the only scene where we shall fee Katharine and Petruchio at high wrangling; and the characteristic passions of each, should be expressed in a manner worthy of so spirited a page. There ought to be no sess than nine figures in this fcene; yet even this should not weigh against the introduction of some print; as there is only one other page where the parties are downright quarrelling, which is at page 499, (and a print of another kind will be there introduced) -for the scene of their courtship confists more of the bullets of the brain than quarrelling.

SUPPOSE Katharine and Petruchio only are drawn, and the other characters left out (as they will appear elsewhere); if so, we may dress Petruchio as Biondello describes him, (and a whip in his hand, like those the French postillions have, and which are frequently met with in Mr. Bunbury's prints), in the moment of grasping the injured and infulted Katharine firmly by the hand, and saying, with a look of stern determination,

But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.

THE fine countenance of Woodward, in Bell's first edition of Shakespeare, will easily be empaffioned with a more confirmed refolve. Katha

rine

** SOME may prefer the scene described in page 479, where Katherine may be drawn with the horfe tumbled on her; and Petruchio belabouring his man because her horse stumbled.

i

rine may be eying her furly groom with a big look, and as seeming willing, (if she could get loose from him) to stamp, and share, and fret †.

Page 482.

AMIDST the numberless passages from this wonderful poet, which comtinually present themselves as objects for our present design, we find it every difficult to determine which shall be chofen, and which rejected; as many of them must unavoidably be, from their becoming too numerous. such is the arch and imprudent waggery of Biondello (page 424), when he asks his master, whether he has stolen his cloaths-(Edwin, with these words, would fet an audience in a roar)-such the gibing courtship of Petruchio and Katharine in act the second such, the droll figures that might be taken from page 479, where Grumio strikes his fellow fervant on the ear-fuch the ludicrous impertinence of Grumio (page 405), when he offers his mistress the mustard without the beef; and the rich lines in the last page but one, would furely furnish a fine representation of the humbled Katharine. Thus are we fituated in the present page, being at a loss whether to select the subject here presented, or that in page 484.

If the former is preferred, we may draw Petruchio in a boisterous attitude and storm of paffion, as having just smacked his whip; and in the fame drefs Biondello describes—with the draggled Katharine, scarce recovered from her fall; yet bearing still the marks of stubborn peevishnessand Grumio in the attitude of faying: Here, Sir; as foolish as I was before. Strokes of humour may be thrown into the fearful countenances of the amazed servants; but Curtis may be advancing a little forwards, as archly enjoying the scrape poor Grumio is in; who is not now quite so pert and courageous as when he struck Curtis on the ear. To those who have feen Woodward in Petruchio, Clive in Katharine, and Yates in Grumio, additi

onal

+ IT is impossible to recommend the unmeaning Vignette, in Bell's last edition.

onal strokes of character must present themselves. I have a faint recollection of Baddely in this last character-his figure seemed an incomparable one-it was the very picture of a little pot. To do justice to Grumio will well exercise the pencil of commicallity.

SHOULD the preference be given to the latter page, the wild fantastic Petruchio may be drawn in the moment of dashing the mutton at their heads; and it will confiderably heighten this scene, to introduce as much confufion as possible. The table may be on the point of tumbling over; the trenchers, cups, &c. falling down; Katharine leaning back on her chair, as wishing to get safe out of the way; the servants scampering off, and one of them knocked down by another running against him, or tumbling over the spaniel Troilus; and Grumio should be pourtrayed in such a manner as will best describe the peculiar dry archness of so droll a creature §.

E

Page

§ In one of Petruchio's mad fits, when he and his bride were at supper, Woodward stuck a fork, it is faid, in Mrs. Clive's finger; and in pushing her off the tage, he was so much in earnest, that he threw her down. This inimitable comic actress (who for more than forty years was the delight of the town) was a perfect mistress of Katharine's humour.

THERE is another character of Shakespeare's; in the performance of which she acquired uncommon applause; though she certainly performed it in a manner very different from what the author intended-it was Portia for that fine scene in which the appeal to mercy is introduced, was no doubt defigned by Shakespeare to be folemn, pathetic and affecting: -" the comic finishing, therefore, (says Victor) which Mrs. Clive gave to the different parts of the pleadings, (though marked with her delightful spirit of humour,) was very far from being in character: yet such were the fascinating charms of this darling of the public, that she forced the town to follow, and bestow on her the loudest plaudits." I do not know that any of Shakespeare's other characters were graced by her pre-eminent powers; or whether The ever appeared in Audrey-in Juliet's nurse-in Tearsheet, or in dame Quickley-in Maria in Twelfth Night-or in Margaret in Much Ado. I cannot find any mention of her having appeared in these parts; or even in that of the sprightly Beatrice; and yet the writers on the stage have been particularly fond of dwelling on Clive's excellencies: she having been highly complimented, not only by Churchill, but by those pleasing biographers Wilks, Victor, and Davies. "Happy was that author, (says Davies) who could write a part equal to her abilities! she not only in general, exceeded the writer's expectation; but all that the most enlightened spectator could conceive. - I shall as foon expect to fee another Butler, Rabelais, or Swift, as a Clive." I quote this from the Dramatic Mifcellanies; but in the life of Garrick, her excellencies and merit, are recorded with the pen of a Cibber,