Skipper, ftand back; 'tis age, that nourisheth. TRA. But youth, in ladies' eyes that flourisheth. BAP. Content you, gentlemen; I'll compound this ftrife:

'Tis deeds, must win the prize; and he, of both, That can affure my daughter greatest dower, Shall have Bianca's love.

Say, fignior Gremio, what can you affure her? GRE. First, as you know, my house within the

city

Is richly furnished with plate and gold;
Bafons, and ewers, to lave her dainty hands;
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry:

In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns;
In cypress chefts my arras, counterpoints,"

"The fire of love in youthful blood,
"Like what is kindled in brush-wood,
"But for the moment burns:
"But when crept into aged veins,
"It flowly burns, and long remains;

"It glows, and with a fullen heat,

"Like fire in logs, it burns, and warms us long;

"And though the flame be not fo great,

"Yet is the heat as ftrong." JOHNSON.

So alfo, in A Wonder, a Woman never Vex'd, a comedy by Rowley, 1632:

My old dry wood shall make a lufty bonfire, when thy green chips lie hiffing in the chimney-corner."

The thought, however, might originate from Sidney's Arcadia, Book II:

7

"Let not old age difgrace my high defire,

"O heavenly foule, in humane shape contain'd!
"Old wood inflam'd doth yeeld the braveft fire,
"When yonger doth in smoke his vertue spend.”

STEEVENS

-counterpoints,] So, in A Knack to know a Knave, 1594: "Then I will have rich counterpoints and mufk." Thefe coverings for beds are at prefent called counterpanes; but either mode of spelling is proper.

Coftly apparel, tents, and canopies,

Fine linen, Turky cushions bofs'd with pearl,
Valance of Venice gold in needle-work,
Pewter and brafs, and all things that belong
To house, or housekeeping: then, at my farm,
I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail,
Sixfcore fat oxen standing in my stalls,
And all things answerable to this portion.
Myself am ftruck in years, I must confefs;
And, if I die to-morrow, this is hers,
If, whilst I live, fhe will be only mine.

TRA. That, only, came well in-Sir, lift to me, I am my father's heir, and only fon:

Counterpoint is the monkish term for a particular species of mufick, in which notes of equal duration, but of different harmony, are fet in oppofition to each other.

In like manner counterpanes were anciently compofed of patchwork, and fo contrived that every pane or partition in them, was contrafted with one of a different colour, though of the fame dimenfions. STEEVENS.

Counterpoints were in ancient times extremely coftly. In Wat Tyler's rebellion, Stowe informs us, when the infurgents broke into the wardrobe in the Savoy, they deftroyed a coverlet, worth a thousand marks. MALONE.

tents, and canopies,] I fuppofe by tents old Gremio means work of that kind which the ladies call tent-ftitch. He would hardly enumerate tents (in their common acceptation) among his domestick riches. STEEVENS.

I fufpect, the furniture of fome kind of bed, in the form of a pavillion, was known by this name in our author's time.

MALONE.

I conceive, the pavillon, or tent-bed, to have been an article of furniture unknown in the age of Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

9 Pewter-] We may fuppofe that peruter was, even in the time of Queen Elizabeth, too coftly to be used in common. It appears from "The regulations and establishment of the household of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland," &c. that veffels of pewter were hired by the year. This boufehold-book was begun in the year 1512. See Holinfhed's Defcription of England, p. 188, and 189. STEEVENS.

If I may have your daughter to my wife,
I'll leave her houses three or four as good,
Within rich Pifa walls, as any one
Old fignior Gremio has in Padua ;

Befides two thousand ducats by the year,
Of fruitful land, all which fhall be her jointure.-
What, have I pinch'd you, fignior Gremio?
GRE. Two thousand ducats by the year, of land!
My land amounts not to so much in all :
That the fhall have; befides an argofy,'
That now is lying in Marfeilles' road:
What, have I chok'd you with an argofy?

TRA. Gremio, 'tis known, my father hath no lefs Than three great argofies; befides two galliaffes,+

* Gre. Two thousand ducats by the

year, of land! My land amounts not to fo much in all:

That she shall have; befides-] Though all copies concur in this reading, furely, if we examine the reafoning, fomething will be found wrong. Gremio is ftartled at the high fettlement Tranio propofes: fays, his whole eftate in land can't match it, yet he'll fettle fo much a year upon her, &c. This is playing at crofs purposes. The change of the negative in the fecond line falves the abfurdity, and fets the paffage right. Gremio and Tranio vying in their offers to carry Bianca, the latter boldly propofes to fettle land to the amount of two thousand ducats per annum. My whole eftate, fays the other, in land, amounts but to that value; yet the fhall have that: I'll endow her with the whole; and confign a rich veffel to her ufe over and above. Thus all is intelligible, and he goes on to out-bid his rival. WARBURTON.

Gremio only fays, his whole eftate in land doth not indeed amount to two thousand ducats a year, but the fhall have that, whatever be its value, and an argofy over and above; which argofy must be understood to be of very great value from his fubjoining:

What, have I chok'd you with an argofy? HEATH.

3 That he shall have; befides an argofy,] She fhall have that, whatever be its value, and an argofy over and above. HEATH. two galliaffes,] A galeas or galliafs, is a heavy low-built reffel of burthen, with both fails and oars, partaking at once of

4

And twelve tight gallies: these I will affure her, And twice as much, whate'er thou offer'st next.

GRE. Nay, I have offer'd all, I have no more;
And the can have no more than all I have ;—
If you like me, she shall have me and mine.
TRA. Why, then the maid is mine from all the
world,

By your firm promife; Gremio is out-vied."
BAP. I must confefs, your offer is the best;
And, let your father make her the affurance,
She is your own; elfe, you must pardon me:
If you should die before him, where's her dower?
TRA. That's but a cavil; he is old, I young.
GRE. And may not young men die, as well as
old?

BAP. Well, gentlemen,

I am thus refolv'd:-On funday next you know,
My daughter Katharine is to be married:
Now, on the funday following, fhall Bianca
Be bride to you, if you make this affurance;
If not, to fignior Gremio:

And fo I take my leave, and thank you both.

[Exit. GRE. Adieu, good neighbour.-Now I fear thee

not;

the nature of a ship and a galley. So, in The Noble Soldier, 1634:

66

to have rich gulls come aboard their pinnaces, for then they are fure to build galliaffes." STEEVENS.

66

5 -out-vied.] This is a term at the old game of gleek. When one man was vied upon another, he was faid to be out-vied. So, in Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: They draw a card, and the barnacle vies, and the countryman vies upon him," &c. Again, in The Jealous Lovers, by Randolph, 1632:

"Thou canst not finde out wayes enow to fpend it;
"They will out-vie thy pleasures." STEEVENS.

Sirrah, young gamefter," your father were a fool To give thee all, and, in his waning age,

Set foot under thy table: Tut! a toy!

An old Italian fox is not fo kind, my boy. [Exit.

TRA. A vengeance on your crafty wither'd hide! Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.7

6 Sirrah, young gamefter,] Perhaps alluding to the pretended Lucentio's having before talk'd of out-vying him. See the laft note. MALONE.

Gamefter, in the prefent inftance, has no reference to gaming, and only fignifies a wag, a frolickfome character. So, in King Henry VIII:

"You are a merry gamefter, my lord Sands." STEEVENS. Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.] That is, with the highest card, in the old fimple games of our ancestors. So that this became a proverbial expreffion. So, Skelton:

Fyrfte pycke a quarrel, and fall out with him then, "And fo outface him with a card of ten.

And, Ben Jonfon, in his Sad Shepherd:

66

a Hart of ten

"I trow he be."

i. e. an extraordinary good one. WARBURTON.

A hart of ten has no reference to cards, but is an expreffion taken from The Laws of the Foreft, and relates to the age of the deer. When a hart is paft fix years old, he is generally called a hart of See Foreft Laws, 4to. 1598.

ten.

Again, in the fixth fcene of The Sad Shepherd:

66

a great large deer!

"Rob. What head?

John. Forked. A hart of ten."

The former expreffion is very common. So, in Law-Tricks, &c. 1608: " I may be out-fac'd with a card of ten."

Mr. Malone is of opinion that the phrafe was " applied to those perfons who gained their ends by impudence, and bold confident affertion."

As we are on the fubject of cards, it may not be amifs to take notice of a common blunder relative to their names. We call the king, queen, and knave, court-cards, whereas they were anciently denominated coats, or coat-cards, from their coats or dreffes. So, Ben Jonfon, in his New Inn:

"When she is pleas'd to trick or trump mankind,
"Some may be coats, as in the cards.'

VOL. VI.

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