Which once perform'd, let all the world say—no, Re-enter GREMIO. Signior Gremio! came you from the church? The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff, 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. 13 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. 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 But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, [Music. Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA, HORTENSIO, GRUMIO, and Train. Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains: I know you think to dine with me to-day, And have prepared great store of wedding cheer; 14 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 cupe kiss was also : In Middleton's No Wit like a Woman's, the contracting cup. part of the ancient marriage ceremony, as appears from a rubric in one of the Salisbury Missals. To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife: 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, Pet. Grumio, my horses. 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; 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 domineer15, Carouse full measure to her maidenhead, Be mad and marry,- or go hang yourselves; But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. 15 That is, bluster or swagger. So in Tarleton's Jesta: "T. having been domineering very late at night with two of his friends.' Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, not fret; She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, 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, You know there wants no junkets16 at the feast.Lucentio, yon 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, [Exeunt. let's go. 16 Delicacies. ACT IV. SCENE I. A Hall in Petruchio's Country House. Enter GRUMIO. Gru. Fye, 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 hot2, 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 run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water3. nno Curt. Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported? Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou know'st, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. 1 Bewrayed, dirty. A little pot soon hot is a common proverb. 3 There is an old popular catch of three parts in these words: 'Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth, Fire, fire--Fire, fire, .Cast on some more water.' 4 Grumio calls himself a beast, and Cartis one also by inference in calling him fellow: this would not have been noticed but that one of the commentators once thought it necessary to alter myself in Grumio's speech to thyself. Grumic's sentence is proverbial: Wedding, and ill-wintering tame both man and beast.' |