ge.

And, honest Company, I thank you all,
That have beheld me give away myfelf
To this most patient, sweet and virtuous wife.
Dine with my father, drink a health to me,
For I must hence, and farewel to you all.

Tra. Let us intreat you stay 'till after dinner.
Pet. It may not be.
Gre. Let me intreat you.

Pet. It cannot be.

Cath. Let me intreat you.

Pet. I am content

Cath. Are you content to stay?

Pet. I am content, you shall intreat me, stay;

But yet not stay, intreat me how you can.

Cath. Now, if you love me, stay.

Pet. Grumio, my horses.

Gru. Ay, Sir, they be ready :

the horfes.

Cath. Nay, then,

* the oats have eaten

Do what thou canst, I will not go to day;

No, nor to-morrow, nor 'till I please myself:
The door is open, Sir, there lies your way,
You may be jogging, while your boots are green;
For me, I'll not go, `till I please myself:
'Tis like, you'll prove a jolly furly groom,
That take it on you at the first so roundly.
Pet. O, Kate, content thee, pr'ythee, be not angry.
Cath. I will be angry; what haft thou to do?

f Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leifure.

Gre. Ay, marry, Sir; now it begins to work.
Cath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner.

, I see, a woman may be made a fool,
If she had not a spirit to resist.

Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command. Obey the Bride, you that attend on her: Go to the feast, revel and domineer;

Carouse full measure to her maiden-head;

* The oats have eaten the horses.] That is, the Distemper is so call'd.

Be

Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves;
But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret,
I will be master of what is mine own;
She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house,
My houshold-stuff, my field, my barn,
My horfe, my ox, my ass, my any thing;
And here she stands, touch her who ever dare.
I'll bring my action on the proudest he,
That stops my way in Padua: Grumio,
Draw forth thy weapon; we're beset with thieves;
Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man:

Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee,

Kate;

I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exeunt Pet. and Cath.

Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with

laughing.

Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like.
Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your fifter?
Bian. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated.
Gre. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and Friends, tho' Bride and Bride

groom want

For to fupply the places at the table;
You know, there wants no junkets at the feaft:
Lucentio, you fupply the Bridegroom's place;
And let Bianca take her Sifter's room.

Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it?

Bap. She shall, Lucentio: Gentlemen, let's go.

[Exeunt.

ACT +

ACT IV. SCENE I.

FIE

Petruchio's Country House.

Enter Grumio.
GRUMIO.

fie on all tired jades, and all mad masters, and all foul ways! was ever man so beaten? was ever man so raide? was ever man so weary? I am fent before, to make a fire; and they are coming after, to warm them: now were I not a little pot, and foon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my -belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me; but I with blowing the fire shall warm myfelf; for, confidering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold: holla, hoa, Curtis!

te

Enter Curtis.

Curt. Who is it that calls so coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou may'st - flide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. Oh, ay, Curtis, ay; and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water.

?

Curt. Is she so hot a Shrew, as she's reported?

Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost; but thou know'st, winter tames man, woman and beast; for ithath tam'd my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.

Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beast. Gru. Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot, and fo long am I at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our miftress, whose hand, the being now at hand, thou shalt foon

foon feel to thy cold comfort, for being flow in thy hot office.

Curt. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, how goes

the world?

Gru. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death.

Curt. There's fire ready; and therefore, good Grumio, the news.

Gru. Why, Jack boy, ho boy, and as much news as thou wilt.

Curt. Come, you are fo full of conycatching.

Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is supper ready, the house trimm'd, rushes strew'd, cobwebs swept, the servingmen in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding garment on; * be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without, carpets laid, and every thing in order?

Curt. All ready: and therefore, I pray thee, what news? Gru. First, know, my horse is tired, my master and

mistress fall'n out.

Curt. How?

Gru. Out of their faddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale.

Curt. Let's ha't, good Grumio.

Gru. Lend thine ear.

Curt. Here.

Gru. There.

[Strikes him.

Curt. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale.

Gru. And therefore 'tis call'd a sensible tale: and

this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and befeech liftning. Now I begin: imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress.

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ce

Gru. What's that to thee?

Curt. Why, a horse.

Gru. Tell thou the tale But hadst thou not croft me, thou should'st have heard how her horfe fell, and she under her horse: thou should'st have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoil'd, of how he left her with the horfe upon her, how he beat me because her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he fwore, how she pray'd that never pray'd before; how I cry'd; how the horfes ran away; how her bridle was burst; how I lost my crupper; with many things of worthy memory, which now shall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienc'd to thy grave.

Curt. By this reckoning he is more shrew then she. Gru. Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall find, when he comes home. But what talk I of this? call forth Nathaniel, Jofeph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarfop, and the rest: let their heads be sleekly comb'd, their blue coats brush'd, and their garters of an indifferent knit; let them curt'sy with their left legs, and not prefume to touch a hair of my master's horse-tail, 'till they kiss their hands. Are they all ready?

Curt. They are.

Gru. Call them forth.

Curt. Do you hear, ho? you must meet my master to countenance my mistress.

Gru. Why, she hath a face of her own.

Curt. Who knows not that?

Gru. Thou, it seems, that call'st for company to

countenance her.

Curt. I call them forth to credit her.

1

Enter four or five Serving-men.

Gru. Why, she comes to borrow nothing of them.

Nat. Welcome home, Grumio.

Phil. How now, Grumio?

Jos.