And watch our vantage in this business:
We'll overreach the greybeard, Gremio,
The narrow-prying father, Minola
The quaint 14 musician, amorous Licio;
All for my master's sake, Lucentio.—

Re-enter GREMIO.

Signior Gremio! came you from the church?
Gre. As willingly as e'er I came from school.
Tra. And is the bride and bridegroom coming home?
Gre. A bridegroom, say you? 'tis a groom, indeed,
A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find.
Tra. Curster than she? why, 'tis impossible.
Gre. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very fiend.
Tra. Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam.
Gre. Tut! she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him.
I'll tell you, Sir Lucentio: When the priest
Should ask-if Katharine should be his wife,
Ay, by gogs-wouns, quoth he; and swore so loud,
That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book:
And, as he stoop'd again to take it up,

The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff,
That down fell priest and book, and book and priest:
Now take them up, quoth he, if any list.

Tra. What said the wench, when he arose again? Gre. Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd and

swore,

As if the vicar meant to cozen him.

But after many ceremonies done,

14 Quaint had formerly a more favourable meaning than strange, awkward, fantastical, and was used in commendation, as neat, elegant, dainty, dexterous. Thus in the third scene of the fourth act of this play :

"I never saw a better fashioned gown,

More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable." Where it seems to mean spruce, trim, neat, like the French cointe. We have "quaint spirits" in the Midsummer-Night's Dream. And Prospero calls Ariel," my quaint Ariel."

He calls for wine :-A health, quoth he; as if
He had been aboard, carousing to his mates
After a storm :-Quaff'd off the muscadel 15,
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face;
Having no other reason,—

But that his beard grew thin and hungerly,

And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking.

This done, he took the bride about the neck;
And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo.
I, seeing this, came thence for very shame;
And after me, I know, the rout is coming:
Such a mad marriage never was before;
Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play 16.

[Musick.

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAP-
TISTA, HORTENSIO, GRUMIO, and Train.

Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your
pains:

I know think to dine with me to-day,

you

And have prepared great store of wedding cheer;
But so it is, my haste doth call me hence,
And therefore here I mean to take my leave.

15 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.

16 This speech is printed as prose in the first folio, and reduced to irregular verse in the second.

Bap. Is't possible, you will away to-night?
Pet. I must away to-day, before night come :-
Make it no wonder; if you knew my business,
You would entreat me rather go than stay.
And, honest company, I thank
you all,
That have beheld me give away myself

To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife:
Dine with my father, drink a health to me;
For I must hence, and farewell to you all.
Tra. Let us entreat you stay till after dinner.
Pet. It may not be.

Gre.

Pet. It cannot be.

Kath.

Pet. I am content.

Kath.

Let me entreat you.

Let me entreat you.

Are you content to stay?

Pet. I am content you shall entreat me stay,

But yet not stay, entreat me how you can.
Kath. Now, if you love me, stay.

Pet.

Grumio, my horse! Gru. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses.

Kath. Nay, then,

Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day;
No, nor to-morrow, not till I please myself.
The door is open, sir, there lies your way,
You be jogging whiles
may

boots are green your For me, I'll not be gone, till I please myself ;"Tis like you'll prove a jolly surly groom,

That take it on you at the first so roundly.

17

Pet. O, Kate, content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry. Kath. I will be angry. What hast thou to do?— Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure.

Gre. Ay, marry, sir; now it begins to work.

17 There is a familiar phrase of the same kind still in use, " Be off while your shoes are good."

Kath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner :— I see a woman may be made a fool,

If she had not a spirit to resist.

Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command: Obey the bride, you that attend on her:

Go to the feast, revel and domineer 18,
Carouse full measure to her maidenhead,

Be mad and merry, -or go hang yourselves;
But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret;
I will be master of what is mine own.

She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,
My household-stuff, my field, my barn,
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing;
And here she stands, touch her whoever dare;
I'll bring mine action on the proudest he
That stops my way in Padua.-Grumio,
Draw forth thy weapon, we're beset with thieves;
Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man.—

Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee,
Kate;

I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exeunt PET. KATH. and Gru. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones! Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing.

Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like!
Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister?
Bian. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated.
Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants

For to supply the places at the table,

18 Domineer, i. e. bluster or swagger. So in Tarleton's Jests: "T. having been domineering very late at night with two of his friends."

You know there wants no junkets 19 at the feast.Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place, And let Bianca take her sister's room.

Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, Gentlemen, let's go. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. A Hall in Petruchio's Country House.

Enter GRUMIO.

Grumio.

YE, fye on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed1? was ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me :-But I, with blowing the fire, shall warm myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold. Holla! hoa! Curtis !

Enter CURTIS.

Curt. Who is that calls so coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice: If thou doubt it, thou may'st slide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio?

a run

19 Junkets, i. e. delicacies.

Rayed, i. e. bewrayed, dirty.

2 A little pot soon hot is a common proverb.