And do you tell me of a woman's tongue; Tufh! tufh! fear boys with bugs.' GRU. GRE. Hortenfio, hark! 7 For he fears none. This gentleman is happily arriv'd, [Afide. My mind prefumes, for his own good, and yours. HOR. I promis'd, we would be contributors, And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er. GRE. And fo we will; provided, that he win her. GRU. I would, I were as fure of a good dinner. Again, in Tamburlaine, &c. 1590: hear you the clang "Of Scythian trumpets?" Again, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: [Afide. "The trumpets clang, and roaring noise of drums.” Again, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: "Hath not the clang of harth Armenian troops," &c. Again, in Drant's tranflation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567: "Fit for a chorus, and as yet the boyftus founde and shryll "Of trumpetes clang the ftalles was not accustomed to fill.” The Trumpet's clang is certainly the clang of trumpets, and not an epithet bestowed on those inftruments. STEEVENS. 6 -fo great a blow to the ear,] The old copy reads—to bear. STEEVENS. This aukward phrase could never come from Shakspeare. He wrote, without question, -fo great a blow to th' ear. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. So, in K. John: 7 WARBURTON. MALONE. "Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his "But buffets better than a fift of France.". STEEVENS. with bugs.] i. e. with bug-bears. So, in Cymbeline: 66 are become "The mortal bugs o' the field." STEEVENS. Enter TRANIO, bravely apparell'd; and BIONDELLO. TRA. Gentlemen, God fave you! If I may be bold, Tell me, I befeech you, which is the readiest way To the house of fignior Baptista Minola? GRE. He that has the two fair daughters-is't [Afide to TRANIO.] he you mean? 8 TRA. Even he. Biondello! GRE. Hark you, fir; You mean not her toTRA. Perhaps, him and her, fir; What have you to do? PET. Not her that chides, fir, at any hand, I pray. TRA. I love no chiders, fir:-Biondello, let's away. Luc. Well begun, Tranio, [Afide. He that has the two fair daughters: &c.] In the old copy, this fpeech is given to Biondello. STEEVENS. It should rather be given to Gremio; to whom, with the others, Tranio has addreffed himself. The following paffages might be written thus: Tra. Even he. Biondello! Gre. Hark you, fir; you mean not her too. TYRWHITT. I think the old copy, both here and in the preceding speech is right. Biondello adds to what his mafter had faid, the words— "He that has the two fair daughters," to afcertain more precifely the perfon for whom he had enquired; and then addresses Tranio; "is't he you mean?” You mean not her to-] I believe, an abrupt fentence was intended; or perhaps Shakspeare might have written-her to woo. Tranio in his anfwer might mean, that he would woo the father, to obtain his confent, and the daughter for herself. This, however, will not complete the metre. I incline therefore to my first fuppofition. MALONE. I have followed Mr. Tyrwhitt's regulation. STEEVENG. HOR. Sir, a word ere you go;— Are you a fuitor to the maid you talk of, yea, or no? TRA. An if I be, fir, is it any offence? GRE. No; if, without more words, you will get you hence. TRA. Why, fir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me, as for you? GRE. But fo is not fhe. TRA. For what reason, I beseech you? GRE. For this reason, if you'll know,That she's the choice love of fignior Gremio. HOR. That fhe's the chofen of fignior Hortenfio. TRA. Softly, my masters! if you be gentlemen, Do me this right,-hear me with patience. Baptifta is a noble gentleman, To whom my father is not all unknown; GRE. What! this gentleman will out-talk us all. a jade. PET. Hortenfio, to what end are all these words? HOR. Sir, let me be fo bold as to afk you, Did you yet ever fee Baptifta's daughter? TRA. No, fir; but hear I do, that he hath two; The one as famous for a fcolding tongue, As is the other for beauteous modefty. PET. Sir, fir, the firft's for me; let her go by. GRE. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules; And let it be more than Alcides' twelve. PET. Sir, understand you this of me, infooth ;The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, Her father keeps from all access of fuitors; And will not promise her to any man, Until the elder fifter first be wed: The younger then is free, and not before. TRA. If it be fo, fir, that you are the man Muft ftead us all, and me among the reft; An if you break the ice, and do this feat,'Achieve the elder, fet the younger free For our accefs,-whose hap shall be to have her, Will not fo graceless be, to be ingrate. HOR. Sir, you fay well, and well you do conceive; And fince you do profefs to be a fuitor, You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman, To whom we all reft generally beholden. TRA. Sir, I fhall not be flack: in fign whereof, Please ye we may contrive this afternoon," 9 this feat,] The old copy reads-this feek. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. 2 Pleafe ye we may contrive this afternoon,] Mr. Theobald asks what they were to contrive? and then fays, a foolish corruption pofJeffes the place, and fo alters it to convive; in which he is followed as he pretty conftantly is, when wrong, by the Oxford editor. But the common reading is right, and the critic was only ignorant of the meaning of it. Contrive does not fignify here to project but to spend, and wear out. As in this paffage of Spenfer: "Three ages fuch as mortal men contrive." Fairy Queen, B. XI. ch. ix. WARBURTON. The word is ufed in the fame fense of spending or wearing out, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure. JOHNSON. So, in Damon and Pithias, 1571: "In travelling countries, we three have contrived And quaff carouses to our mistress' health; Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. GRU. BION. O excellent motion! Fellows, let's begone.❜ HOR. The motion's good indeed, and be it fo ; Petruchio, I fhall be your ben venuto. [Exeunt. Contrive, I fuppofe, is from contero. So, in the Hecyra of Terence. "Totum hunc contrivi diem." STEEVENS. as adverfaries do in law,] By adverfaries in law, I believe, our author means not fuitors, but barrifters, who, however warm in their oppofition to each other in the courts of law, live in greater harmony and friendship in private, than perhaps those of any other of the liberal profeffions. Their clients feldom "eat and drink with their adverfaries as friends." MALONE. 3 Fellows, let's begone.] Fellows means fellow-fervants. Grumio and Biondello addrefs each other, and alfo the disguised Lucentio. MALONE. |