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What Tranio did, myself enforc'd him to;
Then pardon him sweet father for my sake.
Vin. I'll slit the villain's nose, that would have
sent me to the jail.

Bap. But do you hear, sir? Have you married 5
my daughter without asking my good-will?
Vin. Fear not, Baptista: we will content you,
go to:

But I will in, to be reveng'd for this villainy.[Exit.
Bap. And I, to sound the depth of this knavery.

10
[Exit.
Luc. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not
frown.
[Exeunt.

Gre. My cake is dough': but I'll in among the rest; Out of hope of all-but my share of the feast.[Exit. [Petruchio and Katharine, advancing. Kath. Husband, let's follow, to see the end of Pet. First kiss me Kate, and we will. [this ado. Kath. What, in the midst of the street? Pet. What, art thou asham'd of me? Kath. No, sir; God forbid: but asham'd to kiss. Pet. Why, then let's home again: Come, sirrah, let's away.

15

201

Kath. Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray 25

thee, love, stay.

Pet. Is not this well-Come, my sweet Kate: Better once than never, for never too late. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Lucentio's Apartments. Enter Baptista, Vincentio, Gremio, the Pedant, Lucentio, Bianca, Tranio, Biondello, Petruchio, Katharine, Grumio, Hortensio, and Widow. The serving-men with Tranio bringing| in a Banquet.

30

135

Luc. At last, though long, our jarring notes
And time it is, when raging war is done, [agree:
To smile at 'scapes and perils over-blown.-
My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,
While I with self-same kindness welcome thine:--40|
Brother Petruchio,-sister Katharina,--
And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,-
Feast with the best, and welcome to my house;
My banquet is to close our stomachs up,
After our great good cheer: Pray you, sit down; 45
For now we sit and chat, as well as eat.

Pet. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!
Bap. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.
Pet. Padua affords nothing but what is kind.
Hor. For both our sakes, I would that word 50
were true.
[dow.

Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his wi-
Wid. Then never trust me, if I be afeard.
Pet. You are very sensible, and yet you miss
I mean Hortensio is afeard of you. [my sense: 55
Wid. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns
Pet. Roundly replied.

Kath. Mistress, how mean you that?
Wid. Thus I conceive by him.

[round.

[that?

Pet. Conceive by me!-How likes Hortensio 60 Hor. Mywidow says, thus she conceives her tale. Pet. Very well mended: kiss him for that, good

widow.

[round:

Kath. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns

I pray you, tell me what you meant by that.
Wid. Your husband being troubledwith a shrew,
Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe:
And now you know my meaning.
Kath. A very mean meaning.
Wid. Right, I mean you.

Kath. And I am mean, indeed, respecting you.
Pet. To her, Kate!

Hor. To her, widow!

Pet. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.

Hor. That's my office.

Pet. Spoke like an officer:-Ha' to thee, lad.
[drinks to Hortensio.
Bup.How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?
Gre. Believe me, sir, they butt together well.
Bian. Head and butt? an hasty-witted body
Would say, your head and buttwere head and horn.
Vin.Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'dyou?
Bian. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll
sleep again.
[begun,
Pet. Nay, that you shall not; since you have
Have at you for a better jest or two.

Bian. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush,
And then pursue me as you draw your bow:-
You are welcome all.

[Exeunt Bianca, Katharine, and Widow. Pet. She hath prevented me.-Here, signior Tranio,

This bird you aimed at, though you hit her not;
Therefore, a health to all that shot and missed.
Tra. Oh, sir Lucentio slipp'd me like his grey-

hound,

Which runs himself, and catches for his master.
Pet. A goodswift' simile, but something currish.
Tra. 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself;
'Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay.
Bap. Oh, oh, Petruchio, Tranio hits you now.
Luc. I thank thee for that gird', good Tranio.
Hor. Confess, confess; hath he not hit you there?
Pet 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess;
And, as the jest did glance away from me,
'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright.

Bap. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,
I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.
Pet. Well, I say-no: and therefore, for assu-
Let's each one send unto his wife; [rancs,
And he, whose wife is most obedient
To come at first when he doth send for her,
Shall win the wager which we will propose.
Hor. Content;- -What's the wager?
Luc. Twenty crowns.
Pet. Twenty crowns!

I'll venture so much on my hawk, or hound,
But twenty times so much upon my wife.
Luc. A hundred then.

Hor. Content.

Pet. A match; 'tis done.

Hor. Who shall begin?

Luc. That will I.

Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.
Bion. I go.

[Exit.

Bup. Son, I will be your half, Bianca comes.
Luc. I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.

'A well known proverbial expression. 2 Meaning, a good quick-witted simile.
? Meaning, a good quick-witted simile.
sarcasm, a gibe.
12

3

A gird is a
Re-enter

Re-enter Biondello.

How now! what news?

Bion. Sir, my mistress sends you word That she is busy, and she cannot come.

Pet. How! she is busy, and she cannot come! 5 Is that an answer?

Gre. Ay, and a kind one too :

Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.
Pet. I hope, better.

Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go, and intreat my wife 10
To come to me forthwith. [Exit Biondello.

Pet. Oh, oh! intreat her!
Nay, then she needs must come.
Hor. I am afraid, sir,

Do what you can, yours will not be intreated.
Enter Biondello.

Now, where's my wife?
[hand;
Bio. She says, you have some goodly jest in
She will not come; she bids you come to her.
Pet. Worse, and worse; she will not come!
Oh vile, intolerable, not to be endur'd!
Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress;
Say, I command her come to me. [Exit Grumio.
Hor. I know her answer.

Pet. What?

Hor. She will not.

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.
Enter Katharine.

Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Ka

tharina!

20

What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will
have no telling.

Pet. Come on, I say, and first begin with her.
Wid. She shall not.

Pet. I say, she shall;-and first begin with her.
Kath. Fye! fye! unknit that threat'ning unkind
brow;

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty, as frosts bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair
And in no sense is meet or amiable. [buds;
A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
15 Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign: one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance: commits his body
To painful labour, both by sea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
While thou ly'st warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
25 But love, fair looks, and true obedience;-
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such, a woman oweth to her husband:
And, when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?→
I am asham'd, that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world;

[me 30

Kath. What is your will, sir, that you sent for
Pet. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife:
Kath. They sit conferring by the parlour fire.
Pet. Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to come,
Swinge me them soundly forth unto their hus-35
Away, Isay, and bring them hither straight. [bands:
[Exit Katharine.

Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
Hor. And so it is; I wonder what it bodes.
Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet 40
And awful rule, and right supremacy; [life.
And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy?
Bap. Now fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou hast won; and I will add
-Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns;
Another dowry to another daughter,
For she is chang'd, as she had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet;
And show more sign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.-

Re-enter Katharine, with Bianc. and Widow.
See where she comes; and brings your froward
As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.-[wives
Katharine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.

[She pulls off her cap, and throws it down. Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh, 'Till I be brought to such a silly pass!

But that our soft condition, and our hearts,
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,

My heart as great; my reason, haply, more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown:
45 But now, I see our lances are but straws;[pare,--
Our strength as weak, our weakness past com-
That seeming to be most,which we indeed least
Then vail your stomachs1, for it is no boot; [are.
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
50 In token of which duty, if he please,

55

Bian. Fye! what a foolish duty call you this: Luc. I would, your duty were as fool.sh too: 60 The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, [time. Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supperBian. The more fool you for laying on my duty. Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women

65

Myhand is ready, may it do him ease.[me, Kate.
Pet. Why there's a wench!-Come on, and kiss
Luc. Well, gothyways, old lad; for thou shalt ha't.
Vin. 'Tis a good hearing, when children are
toward.
[froward.
Luc. But a harsh hearing, when women are
Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to-bed :-

We three are married, but you two are sped.
Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white";
And, being a winner, God give you good night!
[Exeunt Petruchio and Katharine.
Hor. Now go thy ways, thou hast tam'd a
curst shrew,

Luc. "Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be
tam'd so.
[Exeunt omnes.

Meaning, lower your pride. A phrase borrowed from archery, the mark being commonly

white.

ALLS

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

King of France.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Duke of Florence.

BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon.

LAFEU, an old Lord.

PAROLLES, a parasitical Follower of Bertram;
a Coward, but cain, and a great Pre-
tender to Valour:

Several young French Lords, that serve with
Bertram in the Florentine War.

Steward, Servants to the Countess of Rou-
Clown,

}

sillon.

Countess of Rousilion, Mother to Bertram.
HELENA, Daughter to Gerard de Narbon, a
famous Ihysician, some Time since dead.
An old Widow of Florence.

DIANA, Daughter to the Widow.

VIOLENTA, Neighbours and Friends to the
MARIANA, S Widow.

Lords attending on the King; Officers, Soldiers, &c.
SCENE lies partly in France, and partly in Tuscany,

SCENE I.

A C T I.

The Countess of Rousillon's House in France.
Enter Bertram, the Countess of Rousillon, He-
lena, and Lafeu, all in black.
Count. IN delivering my son from me, I
bury a second husband.

5

Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward', 10 evermore in subjection.

Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam;-you, sir, a father: He that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir 15 it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance.

Count. What hope is there of his majesty's

amendment?

Laf. He hath abandon'd his physicians, ma-20 dam; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the losing of hope by time.

Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that had! how sad a passage 'tis !) whose 25 skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretch'd so far, it would have made nature immortal, and death should have play'd for lack of work. 'Would, for the king's sake, he were living! . I think, it would be the death of the king's disease. 30

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Count. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and" it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.. Laf. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mourningly he was skilful enough to have liv'd still, if knowledge could have been set up against mortality.

Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?

Luf. A fistula, my lord.

Ber. I heard not of it before.

Laf. I would it were not notorious.-Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? Count. His sole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises: her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer: for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too'; in her they are the better for their simpleness*; she derives her honesty, and achieves her goodness. Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.

Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No

The heirs of great fortune were anciently the king's wards. 2 Passage means any thing that passes, and is here applied in the same sense as when we say the passage of a book. Dr. Johnson thus comments upon this passage: "Estimable and useful qualities, joined with an evil disposition, give that evil disposition power over others, who, by admiring the virtue, are betrayed to the malevolence." i. e, her excellences, are the better because they are artless and open, without fraud, without design.

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more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest it bel rather thought you affect a sorrow, than to have. Hel. I do affect a sorrow, indeed, but I have it too.

Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the 5 dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal'.

Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft

we see

Cold' wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
Par. Save you, fair queen.
Hel. And you, monarch.
Par. No.

Hel. And no.

Par. Are you meditating on virginity? Hel. Ay. You have some' stain of soldier in you; let me ask you a question: Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him out.

Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak; unfold to us 15 some warlike resistance.

Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes.
Laf. How understand we that? [thy father 10
Count. Be thou blest, Bertram! and succeed
In manners as in shape! Thy blood, and virtue,
Contend for empire in thee; and thy goodness
Share with thy birth-right! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But nevertax'd for speech. Whatheavenmorewill,
That thee may furnish, and myprayerspluck down,
Fall on thy head! Farewell. My lord,
'Tis an unseason'd courtier, good my lord,
Advise him.

Laf. He cannot want the best,
That shall attend his love.

Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.

Hel. Bless our poor virgmity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military 20 policy, how virgins might blow up men?

Count. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram. 25 [Exit Countess.

Ber. [To Helena.] The best wishes, that can be forg'd in your thoughts, be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.

30

Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the
credit of your father. [Ex. Bertram and Lafeu.
Hel. Oh, were that all!-I think not on my
father;
[more,
And these great tears grace his remembrance 35
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carries no favour in it, but Bertram's.
I am undone; there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Must die for love. "Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table; heart, too capable
Of every line and' trick of his sweet favour,

But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relicks. Who comes here?

Enter Parolles.

[sake;

Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politick in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it.

Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

Par. There's little can be said in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is a virgin virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified li40 mit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding its own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which 45 is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot chuse but lose by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itself two, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse. Away with't.

50

Hel. How might one do so, sir, to lose it to her own liking?

Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying: the longer kept, the less worth: off

One that goes with him: I love him for his 55 with't, while 'tis vendible: answer the time of re

And yet

I know him a notorious liar,

Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,

That they take place, when virtue's steely bones

quest. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly suited, but unsuitable: just like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now: Your date is better in your pye

That is, "if the living do not indulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own excess.". i. e. the tears of the king and countess. i. e. some peculiar feature of his face. 4 Cold is here put for naked, and thus contrasted with superfluous or over-clothed. Meaning, some colour of soldier. Parolles was in red, as appears froni his being afterwards called red-tail'd humble bee. i e. forbidden sin.

an

and your porridge, than in your cheek': And your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears: it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a wither'd pear Will you any thing with it?

Hel. Not my virginity yet. There shall your master have a thousand loves, A mother, and a mistress, and a friend, A phoenix, captain, and an enemy, A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign, A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear; His humble ambition, proud humility, His jarring concord, and his discord "dulcet, His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world Of pretty, fond, adoptious Christendoms, That blinking Cupid gossips'. Now shall heI know not what he shall:-God send him well!The court's a learning place;—and he is onePar. What one, i'taith? Hel. That I wish well.Par. What's pity?

'Tis pity——

Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Which might be felt: that we, the poorer born, Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes, Might with effects of them follow our friends, And shew what we alone must think; which neReturns us thanks.

[ver [you.

5

thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away; farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast none, remember thy friends: get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee; so farewel. [Exit. Het. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. 10 What power is it, which mounts my love so high; That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye? The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes, and kiss like native things". Impossible be strange attempts, to those 15 That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose, What hath been cannot be: Who ever strove To shew her merit, that did miss her love? The king's disease--my projectmay deceive me, But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me. Exit.

20

SCENE II.

The Court of France.

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Enter Page. Page. Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for 30A [Exit Page. Par. Little Helen, farewel: if I can remember thee, I will think of thee at court.

Hel. Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star.

Par. Under Mars, I.

Hel. I especially think, under Mars.

Par. Why under Mars?

Hel. The wars have kept you so under, that

you must needs be born under Mars.

Par. When he was predominant.

Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather Par. Why think you so?

[fight.

Hel. You go so much backward, when you Par. That's for advantage.

Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well,

1 Lord. So 'tis reported, sir. [ceive it King. Nay, 'tis mot credible; we here res A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria, With caution, that the Florentine will move us 35 For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend Prejudicates the business, and would seem To have us make denial.

1 Lord. His love and wisdom, Approv'd so to your majesty, may plead 40 For amplest credence:

45

Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer 50 thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which,my instruction shall serve tonaturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of courtier's counsel, and understandwhaṭadvice shall thrust uponthee; else

King. He hath arm'd our answer,

And Florence is deny'd before he comes:
Yet, for our gentlemen, that mean to see
The Tuscan service, freely have they leave
To stand on either part,

2 Lord. It may well serve

A nursery to our gentry, who are sick
For breathing and exploit.

King. What's he comes here?

Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles. 1 Lord. It is the count Rousillon, my good Young Bertram.

[lord, King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,

4

1 Shakspeare here quibbles on the word date, which means both age and a kind of candied fruit. 2 Dr. Warburton is of opinion, that the eight lines following friend, is the nonsense of some foolish conceited player, who finding a thousand loves spoken of, and only three reckoned up, namely, a mother's, a mistress's, and a friend's, would help out the number by the intermediate nonsense. The meaning of Helen, however, in this passage may be, that she shall prove every thing to Bertram. A metaphor taken from falconry; and meaning, a virtue that will fly high. Dr. Johnson explains these lines thus: "Nature brings like qualities and dispositions to meet through any distance that fortune may have set between them; she joins them, and makes them kiss like things born together." The Senois were the people of a small republick, of which the capital was Sienna and with whom the Florentines were at constant variance.

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