Enter a Maid strewing flowers, and a serving-man perfuming the door. "Maid. Strew, strew. "Man. The muscadine stays for the bride at church. "The priest and Hymen's ceremonies 'tend "To make them man and wife." Again in Decker's Satiromastix, 1602. "and when we are at church, bring the wine and cakes. STEEVENS. 46 Was ever man so ray'd?] That is, was ever man so mark'd with lashes. JOHNSON. It rather means bewray'd, i.e. made dirty. So Spenser speaking of a fountain, b. ii. cant. 8. st. 32. Which she increased with her bleeding heart, And the clean waves with purple gore did ray. Again, b. iii. cant. 8. st. 32. The whiles the piteous lady up did rise, Ruffled and foully ray'd with filthy soil. TOLLET. 47 Gru. Winter tames man, woman, and beast, for it hath tam'd my old master, my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. Curtis. Away you three-inch'd fool, I am no beast.] Why had Grumio call'd him one; to give his resentment any colour. We must read as, without question, Shakspeare wrote, and THY self, fellow Curtis. Why Grumio said that winter had tamed Curtis was for his slowness in shewing Grumio to a good fire. Besides, all the joke consists in the sense of this alte ration. WARBURTON. 48 Be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without ?] i. e. Are the drinking vessels clean, and the maid servants dress'd? The quibble is, that Jacks and Jills are not only men and maid servants, but also drinking vessels made of leather and metal. 49 -no link to colour Peter's hat.] A Link is a torch of pitch. Greene, in his Mihil Mumchance, says- "This cozenage is used likewise in selling olde hats found upon dunghills instead of newe, blackt over with the smoake of an old linke." 50 STEEVENS. Soud, soud, &c.] That is, sweet, sweet. Soot, and sometimes sooth, is sweet. JOHNSON. 51 haggard,] a haggard, as has been said before, is a wild-hawk, so in a comedy called The Isle of Gulls, 1606. "Haggard, I'll make your proud heart stoop to the lure of obedience." 52 An ancient angel.] For angel Mr. Theobald, and after him Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton, read engle. JOHNSON. It is true that the word enghle, which Hanmer calls a gull, (deriving it from engluer, Fr. to catch with bird-lime) is sometimes used by B. Jonson. It cannot, however, bear that meaning at present, as Biondello confesses his ignorance of the quality of the person who is afterwards persuaded to represent the father of Lucentio. The precise meaning of it is not ascertained in Jonson, neither is the word to be found in any of the original copies of Shakspeare. 53 STEEVENS. -mercatanté-] The old editions read marcantant. The Italian word mercatante is frequently used in the old plays for a merchant, and therefore I have made no scruple of placing it here. The modern editors, who printed the word as they found it spelt in the folio and quarto, were obliged to supply a syllable to make out the verse, which the Italian pronunciation renders unnecessary. STEEVENS. 54 In gait and countenance surely like a father.] I know not what he is, says the speaker, however this is certain, he has the gait and countenance of a fatherly man. WARBURTON. 55 to clothe you as becomes you.] There is an old comedy called Supposes, translated from Ariosto, by George Gascoigne. Thence Shakspeare borrowed this part of the plot, (as well as some of the phraseology) though Theobald pronounces it his own invention. There likewise he found the quaint name of Petruchio. My young master and his man exchange habits, and persuade a Scenæse, as he is called, to personate the father, exactly as in this play, by the pretended danger of his coming from Sienna to Ferrara, contrary to the order of the government. FARMER. This part of the plot is so contemptibly improbable, that my veneration for Shakspeare makes me rejoice at Dr. Farmer's having found another father for it. 56 Why, sir, I trust, I may have leave to speak.] Shakspeare has here copied nature with great skill. Petruchio, by frightening, starving, and overwatching his wife, had tamed her into gentleness and submission. And the audience expects to hear no more of the shrew: when on her being crossed, in the article of fashion and finery, the most inveterate folly of the sex, she flies out again, though for the last time, into all the intemperate rage of her nature. WARBURTON. 57-custard-coffin.] The raised walls of a pie, which we now call a standing crust, were formerly termed a coffin. 58 -a censer in a barber's shop:] Censers in barbers' shops, are now disused, but they may easily be imagined to have been vessels which, for the emission of the smoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interstices. JOHNSON. It seems that these utensils were formerly a necessary part of a barber's-shop furniture. Over them the operator kept his water hot for shaving, whilst the fire within them, (perhaps with the addition of some fragrant substances) served to render sweet a small room, frequented by a number of chance-medley customers. 59 EXEUNT.] After this exit, the characters before whom the play is supposed to be exhibited, are introduced again, from the spurious comedy mentioned in the former notes. Lord. Who's within there? Enter Servants. Asleep again! go take him easily up, and put him in his own apparel again. But see you wake him not in any case. Serv. It shall be done, my lord; come help to bear him hence. [They bear off Sly. STEEVENS. 60 Tell me, sweet Kate,] In the first sketch of this play, printed in 1607, we find two speeches in this place worth preserving, and seeming to be of the hand of Shakspeare, though the rest of that play is far inferior. "Fair lovely maiden, young and affable, "More clear of hue, and far more beautiful -Sweet Catharine, this lovely woman- "And golden summer sleeps upon thy cheeks. POPE. |