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, fweet wench, they fhall not touch thee, Kate;
I'll buckler thee against a million.

[Exe. Pet. and Kath. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones.

Gre. Went they not quickly, I fhould die with laughing.
Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like.

Luc. Mistress, what's your opinion of your fister?
Bian. That being mad her self, she's madly mated.
Gre. I warrant him Petruchio is Kated.

Bap. Neighbours and friends, tho' bride and bridegroom

want

For to fupply the places at the table;

You know there wants no junkets at the feast:
Lucentio, you fupply the bridegroom's place.
And let Bianca take her fifter's room.

Tra. Shall fweet Bianca practise how to bride it?
Bap. She fhall, Lucentio: gentlemen, let's go.

[Exeunt.

ACT

F

ACT IV. SCENE I

Petruchio's Country House.

Enter Grumio.

GRUMIO.

IE, fie on all tired jades, on all mad masters, and all foul ways! was ever man fo beaten ? was ever man fo raide? was ever man fo 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 fhall warm my self; for confidering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold: holla, hoa, Curtis!

Enter Curtis.

Curt. Who is it that calls fo coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou may'st slide 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 fhe fo hot a fhrew as fhe's reported?

Gru. She was, good Curtis, before the froft; but thou know'ft winter tames man, woman and beast, for it hath tam'd my old master, and my new miftrefs, and my felf, fellow Curtis.

6

Curt.

Curt. Away, you three-inch'd fool; I am no beast.

Gru. Am I but three inches? why thy horn is a foot, and so long am I at the leaft. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand, she being now at hand, thou shalt 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 mafter 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 cony catching.

Gru. Why therefore fire; for I have caught extream cold. Where's the cook? is fupper ready, the house trimm'd, rushes ftrew'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 horfe is tired, my mafter 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.

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

[Strikes him.

Gru. And therefore 'tis call'd a fenfible tale: and this cuff

VOL. II.

T t

was

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.

Curt. Both on one horse?

Gru. What's that to thee?
Curt. Why a horse.

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

Curt. By this reckoning he is more fhrew than fhe.

Gru. Ay, and that thou and the proudeft of you all fhall find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? call forth Nathaniel, Jofeph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugerfop, and the rest: let their heads be fleekly comb'd, their blue coats brush'd, and their garters of an indifferent knit; let them curt'fie with their left legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my master's horse tail, 'till they kifs 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 the hath a face of her own.

Curt. Who knows not that?

Gra. Thou it feems, that call'ft for company to countenance her.

Curt. I call them forth to credit her.

Enter

Enter four or five Serving-men.

Gru. Why she comes to borrow nothing of them.

Nat. Welcome home, Grumio.
Phil. How now, Grumio?

Jof. What, Grumio!

Nich. Fellow Grumio!

Y

Nath. How now, old lado ed word I had ved til Gru. Welcome you; how now you; what you; fellow you; and thus much for greeting. Now, my fpruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat?

Nat. All things are ready; how near is our master? rub ada Gru. E'en at hand, alighted by this; and therefore be not--* cock's paffion, filence, I hear my master.

Pet. Where be thefe knaves? what, no man at door to hold my stirrup, nor to take my horse? where is Nathaniel, Gre gory, Philip?

All Ser. Here, here, Sir; here, Sir.

Pet. Here Sir, here Sir, here Sir, here Sir? You loggerheaded and unpolish'd grooms: What? no attendance? no regard? no duty? Where is the foolish knave I sent before?

Gru. Here Sir, as foolish as I was before.

Pet. You peasant swain, you whoreson, malt-horfe drudge, Did not I bid thee meet me in the park,

And bring along the rafcal knaves with thee?

Gru. Nathaniel's coat, Sir, was not fully made: And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' th' heel : There was no link to colour Peter's hat,