Enter Tailor. Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments; ร Enter Haberdasher.' Lay forth the gown.-What news with you, fir? HAB. Here is the cap your worship did befpeak. Come, tailor, let us fee thefe ornaments;] In our poet's time, women's gowns were ufually made by men. So, in the Epiftle to the Ladies, prefixed to Euphues and his England, by John Lyly, 1580: "If a taylor make your gown too little, you cover his fault with a broad ftomacher; if too great, with a number of pleights; if too short, with a fair guard; if too long, with a falfe gathering." MALONE. Kir Enter Haberdasher.] Thus in the original play: "San. Master, the haberdasher has brought my miftris home cap here. "Feran. Come hither, firha: what have you there? "Haber. A velvet cap, fir, and it please you. "Feran. Who fpoke for it? Didft thou, Kate? "Kate. What if I did? Come hither, firha, give me the cap; ile fee if it will fit me. [She fets it on her head. "Feran. O monftrous! why it becomes thee not. "Let me fee it, Kate: here, firha, take it hence; "This cap is out of fashion quite. Kate, The fashion is good inough: belike you mean to make a fool of me. "Feran. Why true, he means to make a foole of thee, To have thee put on fuch a curtald "Sirha, begone with it. cap: "Enter the Taylor, with a gowne. "San. Here is the Taylor too with my miftris gowne. 66 Taylor. Why, fir, I made it as your man gave me direction; "You may read the note here. "Feran. Come hither, firha: Taylor, read the note. "Taylor. Item, a faire round compafs'd cape. "San. I, that's true, 46 Taylor. And a large truncke fleeve. "San. That's a lie maifter; I said two truncke sleeves. "Feran. Well, fir, go forward. 66 Taylor. Item, a loofe-bodied gowne. "San, Maister, if ever I faid loose bodies gowne, PET. Why, this was moulded on a porringer; + "Sew me in a feame, and beat me to death "With a bottom of browne thred. "Taylor. I made it as the note bade me. "San. I fay the note lies in his throate, and thou too, an thou fayeft it. Tay. Nay, nay, ne'er be fo hot, firha, for I feare you not. "San. Dooft thou heare, Tailor? thou haft braved many men: "Brave not me. Th'aft fac'd many men. "Taylor. Wel, fir. "Sap. Face not me: I'le neither be fac'd, nor braved, at thy hands, I can tell thee. "Kate. Come, come, I like the fashion of it wel inough; "Heere's more adoe than needes; I'le have it, I; "And if you doe not like it, hide your eies: "I thinke I fhall have nothing, by your will. "Feran. Go, I fay, and take it up for your maister's use! "San. Souns villaine, not for thy life; touch it not: "Souns, take up my mistris gowne to his maifter's use! "Feran. Well, fir, what's your conceit of it? "San. I have a deeper conceit in it than you think for. Take up my miftris gowne to his maifter's use! "Feran. Taylor, come hither; for this time make it: "Hence againe, and Ile content thee for thy paines. 66 Taylor. I thanke you, fir. [Exit Tailer. "Feran. Come, Kate, wee now will go fee thy father's house, "Even in these honest meane abiliments; "Our purfes fhall be rich, our garments plaine, "To fhrowd our bodies from the winter rage; "And that's inough, what should we care for more? "Thy fifters, Kate, to-morrow muft be wed, "And I have promised them thou should ft be there: "The morning is well up; let's hafte away; "It wil be nine a clocke ere we come there. "Kate. Nine a clocke! why 'tis already past two in the after noon, by al the clockes in the towne. "Feran, I fay 'tis but nine a clocke in the morning. "Kate. I fay 'tis two a clocke in the afternoone. "Feran. It shall be nine then ere you go to your fathers: "Come backe againe; we will not goe to day: "Nothing but croffing me ftil? "Ile have you fay as I doe, ere I goe. [Exeunt omnes." STEEVENS. 4 on a porringer;] The fame thought occurs in King Henry VIII: " rail'd upon me till her pink'd porringer fell off her head." STEEVENS. A velvet dish;-fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy: . KATH. I'll have no bigger; this doth fit the time, And gentlewomen wear fuch caps as these. PET. When you are gentle, you shall have one too, And not till then. HOR. That will not be in hafte. [Afide. KATH. Why, fir, I truft, I may have leave to fpeak;' And speak I will; I am no child, no babe: Your betters have endur'd me fay my mind; And, if you cannot, beft you ftop your ears. My tongue will tell the anger of my heart; Or elfe my heart, concealing it, will break : And, rather than it fhall, I will be free Even to the uttermoft, as I please, in words. PET. Why, thou fay'ft true; it is a paltry cap, A cuftard-coffin," a bauble, a filken pie: I love thee well, in that thou lik'ft it not. 5 Why, fir, I truft, I may have leave to speak, &c.] Shakspeare has here copied nature with great skill. Petruchio, by frightening, ftarving, and overwatching his wife, had tamed her into gentleness and fubmiffion. And the audience expects to hear no more of the fhrew when on her being croffed, in the article of fashion and finery, the most inveterate folly of the fex, fhe flies out again, though for the last time, into all the intemperate rage of her nature. WARBURTON. 6 A custard-coffin,] A coffin was the ancient culinary term for the raifed cruft of a pie or cullard. So, in Ben Jonfon's Staple of News: if you fpend 66 "The red-deer pies in your houfe, or fell them forth, fir, "Caft fo, that I may have their coffins all "Return'd," &c. Again, in Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Gypfies Metamorphofed: "And coffin'd in cruft 'till now fhe was hoary." STEEVENS. KATH. Love me, or love me not, I like the cap; And it I will have, or I will have none. PET. Thy gown? why, ay:-Come, tailor, let us fee't. O mercy, God! what masking stuff is here? gown. HOR. I fee, fhe's like to have neither cap nor [Afide. TAI. You bid me make it orderly and well, According to the fashion, and the time. PET. Marry, and did; but if you be remember'd, I did not bid you mar it to the time. Go, hop me over every kennel home, For you shall hop without my custom, fir: Again, in a receipt to bake lampreys. MS. Book of Cookery. Temp. Hen. 6: and then cover the coffyn, but fave a litell hole to blow into the coffyn, with thy mouth, a gode blaft; and fodenly ftoppe, that the wynde abyde withynne to ryfe up the coffyn that it falle nott down." DOUCE. 7 cenfer-] Cenfers in barber's fhops are now difufed, but they may eafily be imagined to have been veffels which, for the emiffion of the fmoke, were cut with great number and varieties of interftices. JOHNSON. In K. Henry VI. Part II. Doll calls the beadle "thou thin man in a cenfer." MALONE. I learn from an ancient print, that these cenfers resembled in shape our modern brafieres. They had pierced convex covers, and stood on feet. They not only ferved to sweeten a barber's fhop, but See note on King to keep his water warm, and dry his cloths on. Henry IV. Part II, Act V. fc. iv. STEEVENS. KATH. I never faw a better-fashion'd gown, More quaint, more pleafing, nor more commendable: Belike, you mean to make a puppet of me. PET. Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee. TAI. She fays, your worship means to make a puppet of her. PET. O monftrous arrogance! Thou lieft, thou thread, Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail, TAI. Your worship is deceiv'd; the gown is made Just as my mafter had direction: Grumio gave order how it fhould be done. GRU. I gave him no order, I gave him the ftuff. thau thread, Thou thimble,] We fhould only read: O monftrous arrogance! thou lieft, thou thimble. He calls him afterwards-a fkein of thread. RITSON. The tailor's trade, having an appearance of effeminacy, has always been, among the rugged English, liable to farcafms and contempt. JOHNSON. 9 2 be-mete-] i. e. be-measure thee. STEEVENS. faced many things.] i. e. turned up many gowns, &c. with facings, &c.] So, in K. Henry IV : "To face the garment of rebellion "With fome fine colour." STEEVENS. |