CHARACTERS IN THE INDUCTION, A Lord, before whom the Play is fuppofed to be play'd. CHRISTOPHER SLY, a drunken Tinker. Hoftefs. Page, Players, Huntfmen, and other Servants attending on the Lord. Taylor, Haberdafker; with Servants attending on Baptifla and Petruchio. Sly. 'LL pheefe you, in faith. A pair of stocks, you rogue! Look in the chronicles, we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris 3: let the world fide 4: Seffa! Hoft. You will not pay for the glaffes you have burst 5? Sly. No, not a denier: Go by, Jeronimy ;— Sty. Y'are a baggage; the Slies are no rogues: Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee 6. Hoft. 1i. e. I'll harrafs or plague you; or perhaps I'll pheese you, may have a meaning fimilar to the vulgar phrafe of I'll comb your head. 2 Meaning, no vagrants, but gentlemen. 3 Sly, as an ignorant fellow, is purpofely made to aim at languages out of his knowledge, and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards fay, pocas palabras, i. e. few words: as they do likewife, Ceffa, i. e. be quiet. Mr. Steevens fays, this is a burlefque on Hieronymo, which Theobald fpeaks of in a following note. 4 A proverbial expreffion, 5 i. c. broke. 6 Mr. Theobald's comment on this fpeech thus: "The paffage has particular humour in it, and muft have been very pleafing at that time of "day. But I must clear up a piece of itage hiftory, to make it understood. There is a fuftian old play, called Hieronymo; or, The Spanish Tragedy: which, I find, was the common butt of raillery to all the poets in Shakspeare's time: and a pailage, that appeared very ridiculous in that play, is here hu"mouroufly alluded to. Hieronymo, thinking himself injured, applies to the king for juftice; but "the courtiers, who did not defire his wrongs Thould be fet in a true light, attempt to hinder him " from an audience, Hiero. Justice, oh! juftice to Hieronimo. Lor. Back-fee'st thou not the ་་ 4 Hoft. I know my remedy, I must go fetch the And, with a low fubmissive reverence, thirdborough '. [Exit. Say, What is it your honour will command? Sly. Third, fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer Let one attend him with a filver baton, him by law: I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him Full of rofe-water, and beftrew'd with flowers; come, and kindly. [Falls afleep. Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper, Wind barns. Enter a Lord from bunting, with a train. And fay,Will't pleafe your lordflup coal Lord. Huntiman, I charge thee, tender well my your hands? hounds: Brach Merriman,-the poor cur is imbost 3- Lord. Thou art a fool; if Eccho were as fleet, Hun. I will, my lord. Lord. What's here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe ? 2 Hun. He breathes, my lord: Were he not warm'd with ale, This were a bed but cold to fleep fo foundly. Lord. O monftrous beaft! how like a fwine he lies! Grim death, how foul and loathfome is thine Sirs, I will practife on this drunken man.- 1 H. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot chufe. Lord. Even as a flattering dream, or worthlefs Then take him up, and manage well the jet:--- And hang it round with all my wanton picures: - Some one be ready with a coftly fuit, 1 Hun. My lord, I warrant you, we'll play our part, Lord. Take him up gently, and to bed with him; And each one to his office when he wakes. [Some bear out Sly. Shurd trumpets, Sirrah, go fee what trumpet 'tis that founds:Belike, fome noble gentleman, that means, [Exit Savant, Travelling fome journey, to repofe him here.Re-enter a Servant. How now? who is it? Ser. An't please your honour, players, Now, fellows, you are welcome, Play. We thank your honour. Lord. Do you intend to stay with me to-night? Lord. With all my heart. This fellow I re- Since once he play'd a farmer's eldest fon :-- Sin. klo. I think, 'twas Soto that your honour means. I ord. 'Tis very true;—thou didst it excellent.— king is buf? Hiero. Oh, is he fo? King. Who is he that interrupts our bufinefs? Hiero. Not Is - Hieronyme, beware; go by, go by." So Sly here, not caring to be dunn'd by the Hoftefs, cries to her in effect, "Don't be trouble fome, don't interrupt me, go by " I The thirdborough of ancient times was an officer fimilar to the prefent conftable. 2 Mi. Edwards explains Brach to fignify a hound in general; while Mr. Steevens thinks it to have been a particular fort of hound: and Mr. Toilet obferves, that brache originally meant a bitch; and adds, from Ulitius, that “"bitches having a fuperior fagacity of nofe; hence, perhaps, any hound withe minent quickness of fcent, whether dog or "bitch, was called brache, for the term brache is fometimes applied to males. Our ancestors hunted "auch with the large fouthern hounds, and had in every pack a couple of dogs peculiarly good and "cunning to find game, or recover the fcent. To this cuftom Shakspeare feems to allude, by "raming two brackes, which, in my opinion, are beagles; and this difcriminates brache from the # ¿ys, a bloed-hound mentioned together with it, in the tragedy of King Lear.” 3 Imb is a term in hunting. When a dog is ftrained with hard running (efpecially upon hard ground) he will have his knees fwelled, and then he is faid to be embofs'd; from the French word leffe, fignifying a 4 Meaning, with moderation. tunour. There There is a lord will hear you play to-night: Play. Fear not, my lord; we can contain ourselves, Led. Go, firrah, take them to the buttery, May Thew her duty, and make known her love? Sly. I am Chriftopher Sly ;-call not me-ho nour, nor lordship: I ne'er drank fack in my life; and if you give me any conferves, give me conferves of beef: Ne'er afk me what raiment I'll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, ng more ftockings than legs, nor no more fhoes than feet; nay, fometimes, more feet than fhoes, or fuch fhoes as my toes look through the overleather. Lord. Heaven ceafe this idle humour in your Oh, that a mighty man, of fuch defcent, Sly. What, would you make me mid? Am not I Chriftopher Sly, old Sly's fon of Burtonheath: by birth a pedlar, by education a cardmaker, by tranfmutation a bear-herd, and now by prefent profeffion a tinker? Afk Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if the know me not: if the fay I am not fourteen-pence on the fcore for theer ale, fcore me up for the lying'st knave in Christendom. What, I am not beraught: Here's 1 Man. Oh, this it is that makes your lady mourn. [droop. 2 Man. Oh, this it is that makes your fervants Lord. Hence comes it that your kindred fhun your hofe, As beaten hence by your ftrange lunacy. [Mujick. And twenty caged nightingales do fing: As breathed ftags, ay, fleeter than the roe. 2 Man. Dolt thou love pictures? we will fetch Adonis, painted by a running brook; Lord. We'll fhew thee lo, as he was a maid; [wood; 3 Man. Or Daphne, roaming through a thorny Scratching her legs, that one thall wear the bleeds: I Perhaps we ought to read, difraught, i. c. dofraded. And And at that fight shall fad Apollo weep, I Man. And, 'till the tears, that she hath fhed Like envious floods, o'er-ran her lovely face, Sly. Am I a lord? and have I fuch a lady? 2 Man. Will't please your mightiness to wash your hands? Oh, how we joy to fee your wit restor❜d! nap. But did I never fpeak of all that time? Lady. Here, noble lord; What is thy will with her? Sly. Are you my wife, and will not call me→ husband? My men fhould call me-lord, I am your good-man. Lady. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband; I am your wife in all obedience. Sly. I know it well :-What must I call her? Lord. Madam. Sly. Alce madam, or Joan madam? [ladies. Lord. Madam, and nothing elfe; fo lords call Sly. Madam wife, they say, that I have dream'd and flept Above fome fifteen years and more. Lady. Ay, and the time feems thirty unto me; Being all this time abandon'd from your bed. Sly. 'Tis much;-Servants, leave me and her alone. Madam, undrefs you, and come now to-bed. Lady. Thrice noble lord, let me intreat of you, To pardon me yet for a night or two; Or, if not fo, until the fun be fet : For your phyficians have exprefsly charg'd, In peril to incur your former malady, That I fhould yet abfent me from your bed: I hope this reafon stands for my excufe. Sty. Ay, it ftands fo, that I may hardly tarry fo 1 Man. Oh, yes, my lord; but very idle words :--| For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,long. But I would be loth to fall into my dreams Yet would you fay, ye were beaten out of door; Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket. again; I will therefore tarry, in defpight of the fieth and the blood. Enter a Meffenger. Me. Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleafant comedy, Man. Why, fir, you know no houfe, nor no Seeing too much fadness hath congeal'd your blood, fuch maid; Nor no fuch men, as you have reckon'd up, As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of Greece 2,. Sly. Now, Lord be thanked for my good amends Sly. I thank thee; thou shalt not lofe by it. Lady. How fares my noble lord? [enough. And melancholy is the nurfe of phrenzy, Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play, And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life. Sly. Marry I will; let them play it: Is not a commonty 3 a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling trick? Lady. No, my good lord, it is more pleasing stuff. Sly. What, houthold stuff? Lady. It is a kind of hiftory. Sly. Well, we'll fee it: Come, madam wife, Sly. Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer fit by my fide, and let the world flip; we shall Where is my wife? ne'er be younger. Meaning, the Court leet, or courts of the manor. 2 Greece feems here to be no more than a quibble or pun (of which our author was remarkably fond) upon grease; when the expreffion will enly imply that John Naps was a fat man. 3 Commenty is here probably put for comedy. ACT A C T I. SCENE I. A Street in Padua. To fee fair Padua, nursery of arts,--I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy, The pleasant garden of great Italy; And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd Vincentio his fon 2, brought up in Florence, I : For how I firmly am refolv'd you know; If either of you both love Katharina, Kath. I pray you, fir, is it your will To make a ftale of me amongst these mates? Hor. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no mates for you, Unless you were of gentler, milder mould. Kath. I' faith, fir, you fhall never need to fear; I-wis, it is not half way to her heart : But, if it were, doubt not, her care shall be Hor. From all fuch devils, good Lord, deliver us! Tra. Hush, mafter! here is fome good paftime toward; That wench is ftark mad, or wonderful froward. Peace, Tranio. Tra. Well faid, mafter; mum! and gaze your Bap. Gentlemen, that I may foon make good What I have faid-Bianca, get you in: And let it not difpleafe thee, good Bianca; For I will love thee ne'er the lefs, my girl. Kath. A pretty peat ! 'tis beft Put finger in the eye,-an she knew why. Bian. Sifter, content you in my difcontent.Sir, to your pleafure humbly I fubfcribe: My books, and inftruments, fhall be my company; On them to look, and practife by mylelf. fpeak. Luc. Hark, Tranio! thou may'st hear Minerva Gre. Why, will you mew her up, And make her bear the penance of her tongue ? Lac. Gramercies, Tranio, well doft thou advife. 1, Biondello, thou wert come afhore, We could at once put us in readiness ; And take a lodging, fit to entertain Such friends as time in Padua fhall beget. Batitay a while: What company is this? Tra. Mater, fome fhew to welcome us to town. Ente Baptifta, with Katharina and Bianca. and Hortenfia. Lucentio and Tranio ftand by. Bap. Gentlemen, importune me no farther, 8 To mine own children in good bringing-up; Perhaps we ought to read, ingenuous. 2 i. e. Vincentio's fon. 3 i. e. will I apply to. 4 The conect Italian words are, Mi perdonate." 5 Meaning his rules. 6 Peat, or pet, is a word of en dearmen, from petit, little. 7 i. e. fo fingular. 8 Cunning here retains its original fignification of bowing, turned; in which fenfe it is ufed in the tranflation of the Bible. And |