BAP. A thoufand thanks, fignior Gremio: welcome, good Cambio.-But, gentle fir, [To TRANIO.] methinks, you walk like a stranger; May I be fo bold to know the cause of your coming?

TRA. Pardon me, fir, the boldness is mine own;
That, being a ftranger in this city here,
Do make myself a fuitor to your daughter,
Unto Bianca, fair, and virtuous.

Nor is your firm refolve unknown to me,
In the preferment of the eldest fifter:
This liberty is all that I request,-

That, upon knowledge of my parentage,

I may have welcome 'mongst the reft that woo,
And free accefs and favour as the rest.

And, toward the education of your daughters,
I here beftow a fimple inftrument,

And this small packet of Greek and Latin books: you accept them, then their worth is great.

If

BAP. Lucentio is your name?" of whence, I pray? TRA. Of Pifa, fir; fon to Vincentio.

preceding part of this fcene, where Petruchio, presenting Hortenfio to Baptifta, ufes almoft the fame form of words:

"And, for an entrance to my entertainment,

"I do prefent you with a man of mine,

Cunning in mufick," &c.

Free leave give, &c. was the abfurd correction of the editor of the third folio. MALONE.

6 this fmall packet of Greek and Latin books:] In Queen Elizabeth's time the young ladies of quality were ufually inftructed in the learned languages, if any pains were beftowed on their minds at all. Lady Jane Grey and her fifters, Queen Elizabeth, &c. are trite inftances. PERCY.

7 Lucentio is your name?] How fhould Baptifta know this? Perhaps a line is loft, or perhaps our author was negligent. Mr. Theobald fuppofes they converfe privately, and that thus the name is learned; but then the action muft ftand ftill; for there is no fpeech interpofed between that of Tranio and this of Baptifta. Another editor imagines that Lucentio's name was written on the packet of books. MALONE.

BAP. A mighty man of Pifa; by report I know him well: you are very welcome, fir.Take you [To HOR.] the lute, and you [To Luc.] the fet of books,

These are their tutors; bid them use them well.
[Exit Servant, with HORTENSIO, LUCENTIO,
and BIONDELLO.

We will go walk a little in the orchard,
And then to dinner: You are paffing welcome,
And fo I pray you all to think yourselves.

PET. Signior Baptifta, my business afketh hafte,

8 I know him well:] It appears in a fubfequent part of this play, that Baptifta was not perfonally acquainted with Vincentio. The pedant indeed talks of Vincentio and Baptifta having lodged. together twenty years before at an inn in Genoa; but this appears to have been a fiction for the nonce; for when the pretended Vincentio is introduced, Baptifta expreffes no furprise at his not being the fame man with whom he had formerly been acquainted; and, when the real Vincentio appears, he fuppofes him an impoftor. The words therefore, I know him well, muft mean, "I know well who he is." Baptifta ufes the fame words before, fpeaking of Petruchio's father: "I know him well; you are welcome for his fake"-where they must have the fame meaning; viz. I know who he was; for Petruchio's father is fuppofed to have died before the commencement of this play.

Some of the modern editors point the paffage before us thus:
A mighty man of Pifa; by report

I know him avell.

but it is not fo pointed in the old copy, and the regulation feema unneceffary, the very fame words having been before ufed with equal licence concerning the father of Petruchio.

Again, in Timon of Athens: "We know him for no less, though we are but ftrangers to him." MALONE.

And every day I cannot come to woo."
You knew my father well; and in him, me,
Left folely heir to all his lands and goods,
Which I have better'd rather than decreas'd:
Then tell me,-if I get your daughter's love,
What dowry fhall I have with her to wife?

BAP. After my death, the one half of my lands; And, in poffeffion, twenty thousand crowns.

PET. And, for that dowry, I'll affure her of Her widowhood,'-be it that the furvive me,— In all my lands and leases whatsoever:

Let fpecialtics be therefore drawn between us,
That covenants may be kept on either hand.

BAP. Ay, when the special thing is well obtain❜d, This is, her love; for that is all in all.

PET. Why, that is nothing; for I tell you, father, I am as peremptory as fhe proud-minded; And where two raging fires meet together, They do confume the thing that feeds their fury: Though little fire grows great with little wind, Yet extreme gufts will blow out fire and all: So I to her, and fo fhe yields to me;

For I am rough, and woo not like a babe.

9 And every day I cannot come to woo. o.] This is the burthen of part of an old ballad entitled The Ingenious Braggadocio:

"And I cannot come every day to wooe."

It appears alfo from a quotation in Puttenham's Arte of English Poefie, 1589, that it was a line in his Interlude, entitled The Woer: "Iche pray you good mother tell our young dame "Whence I am come, and what is my name;

2

"I cannot come a woing every day." STEEVENS.

-Ill affure her of

Her widowhood,] Sir T. Hanmer reads for her widowhood. The reading of the old copy is harth to our ears, but it might have been the phrafeology of the time. MALONE.

Perhaps we should read-on her widowhood. In the old copies on and of are not unfrequently confounded, through the printers' inattention. STEEVENS.

BAP. Well may'st thou woo, and happy be thy speed!

But be thou arm'd for fome unhappy words.

PET. Ay, to the proof; as mountains are for winds,

That shake not, though they blow perpetually.

Re-enter HORTENSIO, with his head broken.

BAP. How now, my friend? why dost thou look fo pale?

HOR. For fear, I promise you, if I look pale. BAP. What, will my daughter prove a good mufician?

HOR. I think, fhe'll fooner prove a foldier; Iron may hold with her, but never lutes.

BAP. Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute?

HOR. Why, no; for fhe hath broke the lute to

me.

I did but tell her, she mistook her frets,'
And bow'd her hand to teach her fingering;
When, with a moft impatient devilish fpirit,
Frets, call you thefe? quoth fhe: I'll fume with them:
And, with that word, fhe ftruck me on the head,
And through the inftrument my pate made way;
And there I ftood amazed for a while,

As on a pillory, looking through the lute:
While fhe did call me,-rafcal fiddler,

3

her frets,] A fret is that ftop of a mufical inftrument which caufes or regulates the vibration of the ftring. JOHNSON.

And-twangling Jack;' with twenty fuch vile terms, As fhe had ftudied to mifufe me fo.

PET. Now, by the world, it is a lufty wench; I love her ten times more than e'er I did: O, how I long to have some chat with her!

BAP. Well, go with me, and be not fo difcomfited:

Proceed in practice with my younger daughter; She's apt to learn, and thankful for good turns.Signior Petruchio, will you go with us;

Or fhall I fend my daughter Kate to you?

PET. I pray you do; I will attend her here,-
[Exeunt BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, and
HORTENSIO.

And woo her with fome fpirit when the comes.
Say, that the rail; Why, then I'll tell her plain,
She fings as fweetly as a nightingale :

Say, that the frown; I'll fay, fhe looks as clear
As morning roses newly wafh'd with dew: '

3 And-twangling Jack;] Of this contemptuous appellation I know not the precife meaning. Something like it, however, occurs in Magnificence, an ancient folio interlude by Skelton, printed by Raftell:

"

་་

ye wene I were fome hafter,

"Or ellys fome jangelynge jacke of the vale." STEEVENS. To twangle is a provincial expreffion, and fignifies to flourish capricioufly on an inftrument, as performers often do after having tuned it, previous to their beginning a regular compofition.

Twangling Jack is, mean, paltry lutanift. MALONE.

HENLEY.

I do not fee with Mr. Malone, that twangling Jack means paltry lutanift," though it may paltry musician." Doucz.

66

4 she had] In the old copy thefe words are accidentally tranfpofed. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

5 As morning rofes newly wafh'd with dew:] Milton has honoured this image by adopting it in his Allegro:

"And fresh-blown rofes wab'd in dew." STEEVENS.