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am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now, were not I a little pot, and soon 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 myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold. Holla hoa! Curtis !

Enter CURTIS.

Curt. Who is that calls so coldly?

Gru. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou mayst slide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis.

Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? Gru. O, ay, Curtis, ay; and therefore fire, fire cast on no water.1

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

Gru. She was, good Curtis, before this frost; but thou knowest, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.

Curt. Away, thou three-inch fool! I am no beast! Gru. Am I but three inches? Why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am I, at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand (she being now at hand) thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow 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?

1 There is an old popular catch of three parts in these words:--
"Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth,

Fire, fire;- -Fire, fire,

Cast on more water."

Gru. Why, Jack boy! ho boy!1 and as much news as thou wilt.

Curt. Come, you are so full of cony-catching.

Gru. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught ex- · treme cold. Where's the cook? Is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept; the serving-men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills 2 fair without, the carpets laid, and every thing in order?

Curt. All ready; and therefore I pray thee, news. Gru. First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out.

Curt. How?

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

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

Gru. Lend thine ear.

Curt. Here.

Gru. There.

[Striking him.

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

Gru. And therefore 'tis called a sensible tale; and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech listening. 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 crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse; thou shouldst have heard in how miry a place; how she was bemoiled;1 how he left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he swore;

1 This is the beginning of an old round in three parts; the music is given in the Variorum Shakspeare.

2 It is probable that a quibble was intended. Jack and jill signify two drinking vessels, as well as men and maid-servants.

3 The carpets were laid over the tables. The floors, as appears from the present passage and others, were strewed with rushes.

4 i. e. bedraggled, bemired.

how she prayed-that never prayed before; how I cried; how the horses 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 unexperienced to thy grave.

Curt. By this reckoning, he is more shrew than 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, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop, and the rest; let their heads be sleekly combed, their blue coats' brushed, and their garters of an indifferent knit; let them curtsey with their left legs; and not presume 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 callest for company to countenance her.

Curt. I call them forth to credit her.

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

Enter several Servants.

Nath. Welcome home, Grumio.

Phil. How now, Grumio?

Jos. What, Grumio!

Nich. Fellow Grumio!

Nath. How now, old lad?

Gru. Welcome, you ;-how now, you; what, you; -fellow, you;—and thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat?

1 Blue coats were the usual habits of servants. Scott, in Marmion, speaks of the "old blue-coated serving-man."

VOL. II.

64

Nath. All things is ready. How near is our master? Gru. E'en at hand, alighted by this; and therefore be not Cock's passion, silence!I hear my

master.

Enter PETRUCHIO and KAtharina.

Pet. Where be these knaves? What, no man at door,

To hold my stirrup, nor to take my horse!
Where is Nathaniel, Gregory, Philip?

All Serv. Here, here, sir; here, sir.

Pet. Here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! here, sir!-
You logger-headed and unpolished 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-horse
drudge!

Did I not bid thee meet me in the park,

And bring along these rascal knaves with thee?
Gru. Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made,
And Gabriel's pumps were all unpinked i'the heel;
There was no link1 to color Peter's hat,

And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing.
There were none fine, but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory;
The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly;

Yet, as they are, here are they come to meet you. Pet. Go, rascals, go, and fetch my supper in.— [Exeunt some of the Servants.

2

Where is the life that late I led ? —2
[Sings,
Where are those sit down, Kate, and welcome.
Soud, soud, soud, soud! 3

1 Green, in his Mihil Mumchance, says, "This cozenage is used likewise in selling old hats found upon dunghills, instead of newe, blackt over with the smoake of an olde link.”

2 This ballad was well suited to Petruchio, as appears by the answer in A Handeful of Pleasant Delites, 1584; which is called "Dame Beautie's replie to the lover late at libertie, and now complaineth him to be her captive," entitled, "Where is the life that late I led?”

3 A word coined by Shakspeare to express the noise made by a person heated and fatigued.

Re-enter Servants, with supper.

Why, when, I say?-Nay, good, sweet Kate, be merry Off with my boots, you rogues, you villains. When?

It was the friar of orders gray,

1

As he forth walked on his way,

[Sings.

Out, out, you rogue! you pluck my foot awry:
Take that, and mend the plucking off the other.-

[Strikes him. Be merry, Kate. Some water, here; what, ho! Where's my spaniel Troilus ?-Sirrah, get you hence, And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither;

[Exit Servant. One, Kate, that you must kiss, and be acquainted

with.

Where are my slippers ?--Shall I have some water? [A basin is presented to him.

Come, Kate, and.wash, and welcome heartily.

[Servant lets the ewer fall.

You whoreson villain! will you let it fall?

[Strikes him.

Kath. Patience, I pray you; 'twas a fault unwilling. Pet. A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-eared knave! Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. Will you give thanks, sweet Kate; or else shall I ?— What is this? mutton?

[blocks in formation]

Pet. 'Tis burnt; and so is all the meat.

What dogs are these!-Where is the rascal cook?
How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser,
And serve it thus to me that love it not?

There, take it to you, trenchers, cups, and all:

[Throws the meat, &c. about the stage.

1 Dr. Percy has constructed his beautiful ballad, "The Friar of Ordera Gray," from the various fragments and hints dispersed through Shak speare's plays, with a few supplemental stanzas.

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