Puslapio vaizdai
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Your betters have endured me fay my mind;
And, if you cannot, beft you ftop 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 uttermoft, as I please in words.
Pet. Why thou fay'ft true; it is a paltry cap,
A custard coffin, a bauble, a filken pye :
I love thee well, in that thou lik’st it not.

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, taylor, let's

fee 't.

[Taylor lays forth the gown.

O, mercy, God! what making stuff is here!
What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon:
What! up and down, carv'd like an apple tart?
Here's fnip, and nip, and cut, and slish, and slash,
Like to a cenfer's (15) in a barber's shop:
Why, what, a devil's name, taylor, call'ft thou this?

Hor.

over us : as all eager purfuits, except thofe of virtue, are alike ridiculous, in the candid and impartial estimation of reafon and philosophy :

Another Florio doating on a flower."

Young.

(15) To a cenfer, &c ] Cenfers, in barbers shops are now difufed, but they may eafily be imagined to have been veffels, which, for the emiffion of the fmoke, were cut with great number and variety of interftices. J.-who adds, the taylors trade having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been among the rugged English, liable to farcafms and contempt. Nothing can be more humorously pointed than the following droll defcription of the taylors, by Petruchio.

O monstrous arrogance!-thou ly'ft, thou fhears,
thou thimble,

Thou yard, three quarters, half yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou:-
Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread,

Away,

Hor. I fee, fhe's like to have neither cap nor

gown.

Tayl. 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 fhall hop without my cuftom, Sir:
I'll none of it; hence make your best of it.
Cath. I never faw a better fashion'd gown,
More quaint, more pleafing, nor more commendable:
Be like, you mean to make a puppet of me.

The Mind alone valuable.

Pet. Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's,

Even in thefe honeft mean habiliments;

Our purfes fhall be proud, our garments poor;
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich:
And as the fun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted fkin contents the eye?
O, no, good Kate, neither art thou the worfe,
For this poor furniture and mean array.

A CT V.

SCENE I.

A lovely Woman.

(16) Fair lovely woman, young and affable,

More

Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant: Or I fhall fo be-mete thee with thy yard, As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'ft! (16) Thefe fpeeches are found in the firft draught of

I

this

More clear of hue, and far more beautiful
Than precious fardonyx, or purple rocks
Of amethifts, or gliftering hyacinth :
-Sweet Catherine, this lovely woman-

Cath. Fair, lovely lady, bright and crystalline,
Beauteous and ftately as the eye-train'd bird;
As glorious as the morning wash'd with dew,
Within whose eyes she takes the dawning beams,
And golden fummer fleeps upon thy cheeks.
Wrap up thy radiations in fome cloud,
Left that thy beauty make this stately town,
Unhabitable as the burning zone,

With fweet reflections of thy lovely face.

SCENE II. Happiness attained.

Happily I have arriv'd at laft,

Unto the wifhed haven of my bliss.

SCENE

this play, printed in 1607; they feem evidently to be of S's hand, and well worth preferving; fpeeches preferred to them, are here subjoined.

Such war of white and red within her cheeks!
What ftars do fpangle heaven with such beauty,
As thofe two eyes become that heavenly face!
Fair lovely maid, once more good day to thee :-
Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's fake.
Cath. Young budding virgin fair, and fresh, and
fweet,

Whither away; or where is thy abode?
Happy the parents of so fair a child;
Happier the man, whom favourable ftars,

Allot thee for his lovely bedfellow !

An attentive reader, Steevens thinks, will perceive in the fpeech in the text feveral words which are employed in none of the legitimate plays of S. whence he concludes, that the first draught, as it is called, was not the work of S.

SCENE III. Others measured by ourselves.

He that (17) is giddy thinks the world turns round.

Greyhound.

O Sir, Lucentio flipt me for his greyhound, Which runs himself, and catches for his master.

Wife's Submiffion.

Marry, (18) peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, And awful rule, and right fupremacy;

And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy.

The Wife's Duty to her Husband.

Fie! fie! unknit that threat'ning, unkind brow,
And dart not fcornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty, as froft bites the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds fhake fair buds;
And in nofenfe is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd, is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is fo, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to fip or touch one drop of it.

Thy husband (19) is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, /

Thy

(17) He that, &c.] The widow explains her meaning in this general obfervation, by saying afterwards,

Your husband being troubled with a fhrew,
Measures my husband's forrow by his woe:
And now you know my meaning.

(18) Marry, &c.] Petruchio fays this on Hortenfio's wondering, what Catherine's fubmiffion might bode. (19) Thy husband, &c.] Leave not the faithful fide That gave thee being, ftill fhades thee and protects. The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,

Safeft

Thy head, thy fovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labour both by fea and land!
To watch the night in ftorms, the day in cold,
While thou ly'ft warm at home, fecure and fafe;
And craves (20) no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience;

Safeft and feemlieft by her husband stays,
Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.

And a little before he says,

Too

Adam in Par. Loft, B. 9. 263.

Nothing lovelier can be found,

In woman, than to fludy houshold good,

And good works in her husband to promote.

(20) And craves, &c.] Statius, speaking of a good wife, in the 5th book of his Silva, fays,

-Mallet paupertate pudica

Intemerata mori, vitamque impendere fama :
Nec frons trifte rigens, nimiufque in moribus horror,
Sed fimplex bilarifque fides, & mixta pudori

Gratia: quid fi, &c.

She'd rather chufe, 'midft poverty and shame,

Her life to lofe, than live in wealth and fame :

No fullen frowns upon her forehead lour;

No froward temper and behaviour four

Destroy th' unruffled softness of her mind:

For ever eafy, affable and kind;

Chafte, with good-humour, with referv'dness, free,
And still more chearful in adversity.

In the Amphitrion of Plautus (A& 2. Sc. 2.) Alcmena fpeaks thus:

What the world calls a portion with a wife
I boast not of, as fuch: but chastity
Becoming fhame, and moderate defires;
My fear of heav'n, my fondness of my parents,
My friendship, and regard for our relations,
The courfe of my behaviour towards yourself;
My bounty to the good, and my concern
To cherish virtue, and reward the virtuous.

Anony. See p. 30.

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