And, let your father make her the assurance,
She is your own; else, you must pardon me :
If you should die before him, where's her dower?
Tra. That's but a cavil: he is old, I young.

Gre. And may not young men die, as well as old?
Bap. Well, gentlemen,

I'm thus resolved: On Sunday next you know
My daughter Catharine is to be married:
Now, on the Sunday following, shall Bianca
Be bride to you, if you make this assurance;
If not, to Signior Gremio:

And so, I take my leave, and thank you both.
Gre. Adieu, good neighbour.-

[Exit BAPTISTA.

Now I fear thee not:

Sirrah young gamester, your father were a fool
To give thee all, and in his waning age

Set foot under thy table: tut, a toy !

An old Italian fox is not so kind, my boy.

Tra. A vengeance on your crafty wither'd hide!
Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.24
'Tis in my head to do my master good:
I see no reason but supposed Lucentio
Must get a father, call'd supposed Vincentio ;
And that's a wonder: fathers commonly

Do get their children; but, in this case of wooing,
A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning.

[Exit.

[Exit.

24 A phrase from some game at cards, where the standing boldly upon a ten-spot was often successful. Nares explains, "I conceive the force of the phrase to have expressed, originally, the confidence or impudence of one who, with a ten, as at brag, faced or outfaced one who really had a faced card against him. To face meant, as it still does, to bully, to attack by impudence of face."

ACT III.

SCENE I.-Padua. A Room in BAPTISTA'S House.

Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA.

Luc. Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir :
Have you so soon forgot the entertainment
Her sister Catharine welcomed you withal?
Hor. But, wrangling pedant, this is
The patroness of heavenly harmony:
Then give me leave to have prerogative;
And when in music we have spent an hour,
Your lecture shall have leisure for as much.

Luc. Preposterous ass, that never read so far
To know the cause why music was ordain'd!
Was it not to refresh the mind of man
After his studies or his usual pain?

Then give me leave to read philosophy,

And, while I pause, serve in your harmony.

Hor. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine.
Bian. Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong,
To strive for that which resteth in my choice:
I am no breeching scholar 2 in the schools;
I'll not be tied to hours nor 'pointed times,
But learn my lessons as I please myself.
And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down:
Take you your instrument, play you the whiles;

1 Preposterous is here used in its proper classical sense of putting the last first, or hind-side-before.

2 A breeching scholar is a scholar liable to be breeched or flogged. So, in The Merry Wives, iv. 1, Sir Hugh Evans says to the boy, William Page, "if you forget your quies, your quæs, and your quods, you must be preeches."

His lecture will be done ere you have tuned.

Hor. [To BIANCA.] You'll leave his lecture when I am in

[Reads.] Hac ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus; Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.3

Bian. Construe them.

Luc. Hac ibat, as I told you before, -Simois, I am Lucentio, hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa,—Sigeia tellus, disguised thus to get your love ;-Hic steterat, and that Lucentio that comes a-wooing, - Priami, is my man Tranio,— regia, bearing my port, -celsa senis, that we might beguile the old pantaloon.4

Hor. [Coming forward.] Madam, my instrument's in

Bian. Now let me see if I can construe it :

Hac ibat Simois, I know you not,hic est Sigeia tellus, I

trust you not; - Hic steterat Priami, take heed he hear us

not, regia, presume not, — celsa senis, despair not.

Hor. Madam, 'tis now in tune.

All but the base.

Luc. Hor. The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars.— [Aside.] How fiery and forward is our pedant!

3 These verses are from Ovid's Epistola Heroïdum, Penelope Ulyssi, 33. ▲ Pantaloon was the name of a character that figured on the Italian stage. -The humour of translating Latin into English of a totally different sense

was not uncommon.

Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love:
Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet.

Bian. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.

Luc. Mistrust it not; for, sure, Æacides Was Ajax,-call'd so from his grandfather.

Bian. I must believe my master; else, I promise you, I should be arguing still upon that doubt:

But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you:

Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray,

That I have been thus pleasant with you both.

Hor. [To LUCENTIO.] You may go walk, and give me leave awhile :

My lessons make no music in three parts.

Luc. [Aside.] Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait, And watch withal; for, but I be deceived,

Our fine musician groweth amorous.

Hor. Madam, before you touch the instrument,
To learn the order of my fingering,

I must begin with rudiments of art;
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,

More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,

Than hath been taught by any of my trade :

And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.

Bian. Why, I am past my gamut long ago.

Hor. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.

Bian. [Reads.] Gamut I am, the ground of all accord,
A re, to plead Hortensio's passion;

B mi, Bianca, take him for thy lord,
C fa ut, that loves with all affection:
D sol re, one cliff, two notes have I:
E la mi, show pity, or I die.—
Call you this gamut? tut, I like it not:

5 Pedascule is Italian for pedant.

6 But in the exceptive sense, — be out that.

Old fashions please me best; I'm not so nice,7
To change true rules for odd inventions.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Mistress, your father prays you leave your books, And help to dress your sister's chamber up:

You know to-morrow is the wedding-day.

Bian. Farewell, sweet masters, both; I must be gone.
[Exeunt BIANCA and Servant.
Luc. Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. [Exit.
Hor. But I have cause to pry into this pedant:
Methinks he looks as though he were in love:

Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble,
To cast thy wondering eyes on every stale,8

Seize thee that list: if once I find thee ranging,

Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-The Same. Before BAPTISTA'S House. Enter BAPTISTA, TRANIO, CATHARINA, BIANCA, LUCENTIO, and others, with Attendants.

Bap. [To TRANIO.] Signior Lucentio, this is the 'pointed day

That Catharine and Petruchio should be married,

And yet we hear not of our son-in-law.

What will be said? what mockery will it be,

To want the bridegroom when the priest attends
To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage!

What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?

7 It is not always easy to keep up with nice as used by old writers. Here it has the sense, apparently, of simple, weak, or foolish. So in Gower: "A tale of them that be so nice, and feignen them selfe to be wise."

8 Stale was applied to any person or thing made stale by too much or

too free use; hence meaning a common woman or man.

9 To be quit with a person is to requite him, or to retort upon him.