And he shall be Vincentio of Pifa;
And make affurance, here in Padua,
Of greater fums than I have promised.
So fhall you quietly enjoy your hope,
And marry sweet Bianca with confent.

Luc. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster
Doth watch Bianca's fteps fo narrowly,
'Twere good, methinks, to fteal our marriage;
Which once perform'd, let all the world fay-no,
I'll keep mine own, despite of all the world.
TRA. That by degrees we mean to look into,
And watch our vantage in this business:
We'll overreach the greybeard, Gremio,
The narrow-prying father, Minola;
The quaint musician, amorous Licio;
All for my mafter's fake, Lucentio.-

Re-enter GREMIO.

Signior Gremio! came you from the church?
GRE. As willingly as e'er I came from school."
TRA. And is the bride and bridegroom coming
home?

GRE. A bridegroom, say you? 'tis a groom, indeed,

A grumbling groom, and that the girl fhall find. TRA. Curfter than fhe? why, 'tis impoffible. GRE. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very fiend. TRA. Why, fhe's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam.

7 As willingly, &c.] This is a proverbial faying. See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

GRE. Tut! fhe's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him. I'll tell you, fir Lucentio; When the priest Should ask-if Katharine fhould be his wife, Ay, by gogs-wouns, quoth he; and fwore fo loud, That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book: And, as he ftoop'd again to take it up,

The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him fuch a cuff, That down fell prieft and book, and book and priest;

Now take them up, quoth he, if any lift.

TRA. What faid the wench, when he arose again? GRE. Trembled and fhook; for why, he ftamp'd, and fwore,

As if the vicar meant to cozen him.

But after many ceremonies done,

He calls for wine:-A health, quoth he; as if
He had been aboard, caroufing to his mates
After a ftorm:-Quaff'd off the mufcadel,

8 Quaff'd off the mufcadel,] It appears from this paffage, and the following one in The Hiftory of the two Maids of Moreclacke, a comedy by Robert Armin, 1609, that it was the custom to drink wine immediately after the marriage ceremony. Armin's play begins thus:

"Enter a Maid firewing flowers, and a ferving-man perfuming the door. "Maid. Strew, ftrew.

"Man. The mufcadine ftays for the bride at church.

"The priest and Hymen's ceremonies 'tend

"To make them man and wife.”

Again, in Decker's Satiromaftix, 1602:

—and when we are at church, bring the wine and cakes.” In Ben Jonfon's Magnetic Lady, the wine drank on this occafion is called a "knitting cup.'

Again, in No Wit like a Woman's, by Middleton:

"Even when my lip touch'd the contracting cup." There was likewise a flower that borrowed its name from this ce

And threw the fops all in the fexton's face;
Having no other reason,-

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady:
"Were the rosemary branches dipp'd, and all
"The bippocras and cakes eat and drunk off;

"Were these two arms encompass'd with the hands
"Of bachelors to lead me to the church," &c.

Again, in the Articles ordained by K. Henry VII. for the Regulation
of his Household: Article" For the Marriage of a Princefs."-
"Then pottes of Ipocrice to bee ready, and to bee putt into the
cupps with foppe, and to bee borne to the eftates; and to take a
foppe and drinke," &c. STEEVENS.

So, in an old canzonet on a wedding, fet to mufick by Morley, 1606:

"Sops in wine, fpice-cakes are a dealing." FARMER.

The fashion of introducing a bowl of wine into the church at a wedding to be drank by the bride and bridegroom and perfons prefent, was very anciently a conftant ceremony; and, as appears from this paffage, not abolished in our author's age. We find it practifed at the magnificent marriage of Queen Mary and Philip, in Winchester cathedral, 1554: "The trumpetts founded, and they both returned to their traverfes in the quire, and there remayned untill maffe was done: at which tyme, wyne and fopes were hallowed and delyvered to them both." Collect. Append. Vol. IV. p. 400, edit. 1770. T. WARTON,

I infert the following quotation merely to fhow that the custom remained in Shakspeare's time. At the marriage of the Elector Palatine to King James's daughter, the day of February, 1612, we are told by one who affifted at the ceremonial: "-În conclufion, a joy pronounced by the king and queen, and feconded with congratulation of the lords there prefent, which crowned with draughts of Ippocras out of a great golden bowle, as an health to the profperity of the marriage, (began by the prince Palatine and answered by the princefs) After which were ferved up by fix or seven barons fo many bowles filled with wafers, fo much of that work was confummate." Finet's Philoxenis, 1656, p. 11.

REED.

This cuftom is of very high antiquity; for it fubfifted among our Gothick ancestors." Ingreffus domum convivalem fponfus cum pronubo fuo, fumpto poculo, quod maritale vocant, ac paucis a pronubo de mutato vite genere prefatis, in fignum conftantiæ, virtutis, defenfionis et tutele, propinat fponfæ & fimul morgennaticam [dotalitium

、

But that his beard grew thin and hungerly,
And feem'd to afk him fops as he was drinking.
This done, he took the bride about the neck;
And kiss'd her lips with fuch a clamorous fmack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo."
I, feeing this, came thence for very shame;
And after me, I know, the rout is coming:
Such a mad marriage never was before:
Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play. [Mufick.

Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA, HORTENSIO, GRUMIO, and Train.

PET. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains:

I know, you think to dine with me to-day,
And have prepar'd great ftore of wedding cheer;
But fo it is, my hafte doth call me hence,
And therefore here I mean to take my leave.

ob virginitatem] promittit, quod ipfa grato animo recolens, pari ratione modo, paulo poft mutato in uxorium habitum operculo capitis, ingreffa, poculum, uti noftrates vocant, uxorium leviter delibans, amorem, fidem, diligentiam, & fubje&tionem promittit." Stiernhook de Jure Sueonum & Gothorum vetufto, p. 163, quarto, 1672. MALONE.

9 And kifs'd her lips with fuch a clamorous fmack,

That, at the parting, all the church did echo.] It appears from the following paffage in Marston's Infatiate Countefs, that this was alfo part of the marriage ceremonial:

"The kiffe thou gav'ft me in the church, here take.”

STEEVENS.

This alfo is a very ancient cuftom, as appears from the following rubrick, with which I was furnished by the late Reverend Mr. Bowle."Surgant ambo, fponfus et fponfa, et accipiat fponfus pacem a facerdote, et ferat fponfæ, ofculans eam, et neminem alium, nec ipfe, nec ipfa." Manuale Sarum, Paris, 1533, 4to. fol. 69. MALONE.

2 I, feeing this,] The old copy has,—And I seeing. And was probably caught from the beginning of the next line. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. MALONE.

BAP. Is't poffible, you will away to-night? PET. I muft away to-day, before night come :Make it no wonder; if you knew my business, You would entreat me rather go than stay. And, honeft company, I thank you all, That have beheld me give away myself To this most patient, fweet, and virtuous wife: Dine with my father, drink a health to me; For I must hence, and farewell to you all.

TRA. Let us entreat you stay 'till after dinner. PET. It may not be.

PET. I am content you fhall entreat me ftay; But yet not stay, entreat me how you can.

KATH. NOW, if you love me, stay.

PET.

Grumio, my horses."

GRU. Ay, fir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses."

3 Let me entreat you.] At the end of this fpeech, as well as of the next but one, a fyllable is wanting to complete the measure. I have no doubt of our poet's having written-in both inftances—

Let me entreat you ftay. STEEVENS.

4my horfes.] Old copy-horfe. STEEVENS.

s the oats have eaten the horses.] There is ftill a ludicrous expreffion ufed when horses have staid fo long in a place as to have eaten more than they are worth-viz. that that their heads are too big for the ftable-door. I fuppofe Grumio has fome fuch meaning, though it is more openly expreffed, as follows, in the original play:

Enter Ferando and Kate, and Alfonfo and Polidor, and Emilia, and Aurelius and Phylema.

"Feran. Father, farewel; my Kate and I muft home;