leave his fervice,-Look you, fir,--he bid me knock PET. A fenfelefs villain!-Good Hortenfio, GRU. Knock at the gate?-O heavens !— Spake you not these words plain,-Sirrah, knock me bere, Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly ? ^ And come you now with-knocking at the gate? PET. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you. HOR. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge: Why, this a heavy chance 'twixt him and you; Your ancient, trufty, pleasant servant Grumio. moment it will not operate fo forcibly as to change my opinion. I was well aware that Italian was Grumio's native language, but was not, nor am now, certain of our author's attention to this circumstance, because his Italians neceffarily speak English throughout the play, with the exception of a few colloquial fentences. So little regard does our author pay to petty proprieties, that as often as Signior, the Italian appellation, does not occur to him, or fuit the measure of his verfe, he gives us in its room, "Sir Vincentio," and "Sir Lucentio." STEEVENS. 3 a pip out?] The old copy has-peepe. Corrected by Mr. Pope, MALONE. 4 knock me foundly?] Shakspeare feems to defign a ridicule on this clipped and ungrammatical phrafeology; which yet he has introduced in Othello: "I pray talk me of Caffio." It occurs again, and more improperly, in heroic translation: upon advantage fpide, "Did wound me Molphey on the leg," &c. Arthur Golding's Ovid, B. V. p. 66. b. And tell me now, fweet friend,-what happy gale Blows you to Padua here, from old Verona? PET. Such wind as fcatters young men through the world, To feek their fortunes further than at home, And I have thrust myself into this maze, HOR. Petruchio, fhall I then come roundly to thee, And with thee to a fhrewd ill-favour'd wife? And very rich:-but thou'rt too much my friend, PET. Signior Hortenfio, 'twixt fuch friends as we, Few words fuffice: and, therefore, if thou know One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife, (As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance,) Be fhe as foul as was Florentius' love," s Where Small experience grows. But, in a few,] In a few, means the fame as in fhort, in few words. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. Part II: "In few; his death, whose spirit lent a fire," &c. STEEVENS. 6(As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance,)] The burthen of a dance is an expreffion which I have never heard; the burthen of bis wooing fong had been more proper. JOHNSON. Be fbe as foul as was Florentius' love,] I fuppofe this alludes to the ftory of a Florentine, which is met with in the eleventh Book of Thomas Lupton's Thonfand Notable Things, and perhaps in other Collections. As old as Sibyl, and as curft and fhrewd She moves me not, or not removes, at least, 39. A Florentine young gentleman was fo deceived by the luftre and orientnefs of her jewels, pearls, rings, lawns, fcarfes, laces, gold fpangles, and other gaudy devices, that he was ravished overnight, and was mad till the marriage was folemnized. But next morning by light viewing of her before fhe was fo gorgeously trim'd up, the was fuch a leane, yellow, riveled, deformed creature, that he never lay with her, nor lived with her afterwards; and would fay that he had married himself to a ftinking houfe of office, painted over, and fet out with fine garments: and fo for grief confumed away in melancholy, and at laft poyfoned himself. Gomefius, lib. 3. de Sal. Gen. cap. 22." FARMER. The allufion is to a story told by Gower in the first book De Conffione Amantis. Florent is the name of a knight who had bound himself to marry a deformed hag, provided the taught him the folution of a riddle on which his life depended. The following is the defcription of her: "Florent his wofull heed up lifte, "And faw this vecke, where that she fit, "Hir nofe baas, hir browes hie, "That might a mans lufte diftourbe: "And fhortly to defcrive hir all, "But like unto the woll facke:" &c. Though the be the foulefte of all," &c. This ftory might have been borrowed by Gower from an older narrative in the Gefta Romanorum. See the Introductory Difcourfe to The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition, Vol. IV. P. 153. STEEVENS. Affection's edge in me; were fhe as rough' GRU. Nay, look you, fir, he tells you flatly what his mind is: Why, give him gold enough, and marry him to a puppet, or an aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though fhe have as many diseases as two and fifty horfes: why, nothing comes amifs, fo money comes withal. HOR. Petruchio, fince we have stepp'd thus far in, I will continue that I broach'd in jest. I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife With wealth enough, and young, and beauteous; Brought up, as beft becomes a gentlewoman: Her only fault (and that is faults enough,)' 8 were fe as rough-] The old copy reads were she is as rough. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. 9 MALONE. — aglet-baby ;] i. e. a diminutive being, not exceeding in fize the tag of a point. So, in Jeronimo, 1605: "And ali thofe ftars that gaze upon her face, STEEVENS. An aglet-baby was a fmall image or head cut on the tag of a point, or lace. That fuch figures were fometimes appended to them, Dr. Warburton has proved, by a paffage in Mezeray, the French historian:-" portant meme fur les aiguillettes [points] des petites tetes de mort. MALONE. 2 — as many difeafes as two and fifty horfes:] I fufpect this paffage to be corrupt, though I know not how to rectify it.-The fifty difeafes of a horfe feem to have been proverbial. So, in The Yorkshire Tragedy, 1608: "O ftumbling jade! the spavin o'ertake thee! the fifty difeafes ftop thee!" MALONE. 3 (and that is faults enough,)] And that one is itself a host of faults. The editor of the fecond folio, who has been copied by all the fubfequent editors, unneceffarily reads-and that is fault enough. MALONE. Is, that fhe is intolerably curft, And shrewd,+ and froward; fo beyond all measure, That, were my state far worser than it is, I would not wed her for a mine of gold. PET. Hortenfio, peace; thou know'ft not gold's effect: Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough; Renown'd in Padua for her fcolding tongue. PET. I know her father, though I know not her; And he knew my deceased father well:I will not fleep, Hortenfio, till I see her; And therefore let me be thus bold with you, To give you over at this first encounter, Unless you will accompany me thither. GRU. I pray you, fir, let him go while the humour lafts. O' my word, an fhe knew him as well as I do, fhe would think fcolding would do little good upon him: She may, perhaps, call him half a fcore knaves, or fo: why, that's nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks. I'll tell you 4brewd,] here means, having the qualities of a brew. The adjective is now ufed only in the fenfe of acute, intelligent. MALONE. I believe brewd only fignifies bitter, fevere. So, in As you Like it, fc. ult: "That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us.” STEEVENS. 5an be begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks.] This is obfcure. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-he'll rail in his rhetorick; I'll tell you, &c. Rhetorick agrees very well with figure in the fuc ceeding part of the fpeech, yet I am inclined to believe that ropetricks is the true word. JOHNSON, |