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BAP. Who comes with him?

BION. O, fir, his lackey, for all the world caparifon'd like the horfe; with a linen ftock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, garter'd with a red and blue lift; an old hat, and The bumour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather: a

9—ftock] i. e. ftocking. So, in Twelfth Night: "—it [his leg] does indifferent well in a flame-coloured ftock." STEEVENS.

an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather:] This was fome ballad or drollery at that time, which the poet here ridicules, by making Petruchio prick it up in his foot-boy's hat for a feather. His fpeakers are perpetually quoting fcraps and ftanzas of old ballads, and often very obfcurely; for, fo well are they adapted to the occafion, that they seem of a piece with the reft. In Shakspeare's time, the kingdom was overrun with thefe doggrel compofitions, and he feems to have borne them a very particular grudge. He frequently ridicules both them and their makers, with excellent humour. In Much ado about Nothing, he makes Benedick fay, "Prove that ever I lofe more blood with love than I get again with drinking, prick out my eyes with a ballad-maker's pen." As the bluntnels of it would make the execution of it extremely painful. And again, in Troilus and Creffida, Pandarus in his diftrefs having repeated a very stupid ftanza from an old ballad, fays, with the higheft humour, "There never was a truer rhyme; let's caft away nothing, for we may live to have need of fuch a verfe, We fee it, we fee it,"

WARBURTON.

I have fome doubts concerning this interpretation. A fancy appears to have been fome ornament worn formerly in the hat. So Peacham, in his Worth of a Penny, defcribing an indigent and discontented foldat," fays, "he walks with his arms folded, his belt without a fword or rapier, that perhaps being somewhere in trouble; a hat without a band, hanging over his eyes; only it wears a weather-beaten fancy for fashion-fake." This lackey therefore did not wear a common fancy in his hat, but fome fantastical ornament, comprizing the humour of forty different fancies. Such, I believe is the meaning. A couplet in one of Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598, may alfo add fupport to my interpretation: "Nor for thy love will I once gnash a bricke, "Or fome pied colours in my bonnet flicke."

A fancy, however, meant alfo a love-fong or fonnet, or other poem. So, in Sapho and Phao, 1591; " I muft now fall from

monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey.

TRA. 'Tis fome odd humour pricks him to this fashion ;

Yet often times he goes but mean apparell❜d.
BAP. I am glad he is come, how foe'er he comes.
BION. Why, fir, he comes not.

BAP. Didft thou not fay, he comes?

BION. Who? that Petruchio came?

BAP. Ay, that Petruchio came.

BION. No, fir; I fay, his horse comes with him on his back.

BAP. Why, that's all one.

BION. Nay, by faint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not

many.

love to labour, and endeavour with mine oar to get a fare, not with my pen to write a fancy." If the word was ufed here in this fenfe, the meaning is, that the lackey had ftuck forty ballads together, and made fomething like a feather out of them.

MALONE.

Dr. Warburton might have ftrengthened his fuppofition by obferving, that the Humour of Forty Fancies was probably a collection of those fhort poems which are called Fancies, by Falftaff, in the Second Part of K. Henry IV: “ fung those tunes which he heard the carmen whiftle, and fwore they were his Fancies, his good-nights." Nor is the Humour of Forty Fancies a more extraordinary title to a collection of poems, than the well-known Hundred fundrie Flowers bounde up in one fmall Poefie.-A Paradife of dainty Devifes.-The Arbor of amorous Conceits.-The Gorgeous Gallery of gallant Inventions.-The Foreft of Hiftories.-The Ordinary of Humors, &c. Chance, at fome future period, may establish as a certainty what is now offered as a conjecture. A penny book, containing forty fhort poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt imitation of a plume of feathers for the hat of a humourist's fervant. STEEVENS.

Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.3

PET. Come, where be thefe gallants? who is at home?

BAP. You are welcome, fir.

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PET. Were it better I fhould rush in thus.

3 Enter Petruchio and Grumio.] Thus, in the original play: "Enter Ferando, bafely attired, and a red cap on his head. "Feran. Good morrow, father: Polidor well met, "You wonder, I know, that I have staide fo long. "Alfon. Yea, marry fonne: we were almoft perfuaded That we fhould fcarce have had our bridegroome heere: But fay, why art thou thus bafely attired?

"Feran. Thus richly, father, you should have faide; "For when my wife and I are married once,

"Shee's fuch a fhrew, if we fhould once fall out,
"Sheele pull my coftly futes over mine ears,
"And therefore I am thus attir'd a while :
"For many things I tell you's in my head,
"And none muft know thereof but Kate and I
"For we fhall live like lambes and lions fure:
"Nor lambes to lions never were fo tame,
"If once they lie within the lions pawes,
"As Kate to me, if we were married once:
"And therefore, come, let's to church prefently.
"Pol. Fie, Ferando! not thus attired: for shame,
"Come to my chamber, and there fuite thyfelfe,
Of twenty futes that I did never weare.
"Feran. Tufh, Polidor, I have as many futes
"Fantastike made to fit my humour fo,
"As any in Athens; and as richly wrought
"As was the maffie robe that late adorn'd
The ftately legat of the Perfian king,

"And this from them I have made choife to weare.
Alfon. I prethee, Ferando, let me intreat,

"Before thou go'ft unto the church with us,

"To put fome other fute upon thy backe.

"Feran. Not for the world," &c. STRIVENS.

But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you

frown:

And wherefore gaze this goodly company;
As if they faw fome wondrous monument,
Some comet, or unufual prodigy?

BAP. Why, fir, you know, this is your weddingday:

First were we fad, fearing you would not come;
Now fadder, that you come fo unprovided.
Fie! doff this habit, fhame to your estate,
An eyefore to our folemn feftival.

TRA. And tell us, what occafion of import
Hath all fo long detain'd you from your wife,
And sent you hither fo unlike yourself?

PET. Tedious it were to tell, and harfh to hear: Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word, Though in fome part enforced to digrefs; Which, at more leisure, I will fo excufe As you fhall well be fatisfied withal.

But, where is Kate? I ftay too long from her;
The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church,
TRA. See not your bride in these unreverent robes;
Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine.

PET. Not I, believe me; thus I'll vifit her.
BAP. But thus, I truft, you will not marry her.
PET. Good footh, even thus; therefore have done
with words;

To me he's married, not unto my clothes:
Could I repair what the will wear in me,
As I can change thefe poor accoutrements,
'Twere well for Kate, and better for myself.
But what a fool am I, to chat with you,

4- to digress;] To deviate from my promise.

JOHNSON.

When I should bid good-morrow to my bride,
And feal the title with a lovely kifs?

[Exeunt PETRUCHIO, GRUMIO, and BIONDELLO. TRA. He hath fome meaning in his mad attire: We will perfuade him, be it poffible,

To put on better ere he go to church.

BAP. I'll after him, and fee the event of this. [Exit. TRA. But, fir, to her love' concerneth us to add Her father's liking: Which to bring to pass, As I before imparted to your worship,

I am to get a man,-whate'er he be,

It skills not much; we'll fit him to our turn,

5 Tra. But, fir, to her love-] Mr. Theobald reads our love. STEEVENS.

Our is an injudicious interpolation. The firft folio reads-But, fir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking—which, I think, hould be thus corrected:

But fir, to her love concerneth us to add
Her father's liking.-

We muft fuppofe, that Lucentio had before informed Tranio in private of his having obtained Bianca's love; and Tranio here refumes the conversation, by obferving, that to her love it concerns them to add her father's confent; and then goes on to propose a scheme for obtaining the latter. TYRWHITT.

The nominative cafe to the verb concerneth is here understood. A fimilar licence may be found in Coriolanus:

"Remains that in the official marks invested,
"You anon do meet the fenate."

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

"The beauty that is borne here in the face
"The bearer knows not, but commends itself
"To others' eyes." MALONE.

As I before imparted-] 1, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was added by the editor of the second folio; but with his ufual inaccuracy was inferted in the wrong place.

The fecond folio reads:

As before I imparted, &c.

MALONE.

As this paffage is now pointed, where is the inaccuracy of it? or, if there be any, might it not have happened through the careleffness of the compofitor? STEEVENS,

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