Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark: or wilt thou hunt?
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them,
And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

1 Serv. Say thou wilt course, thy greyhounds are as swift

As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.

2 Serv. Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight

Adonis painted by a running brook,

And Cytherea all in sedges hid,

Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,

Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

Lord. We'll show thee Io as she was a maid, And how she was beguiled and surpris'd,

As lively painted as the deed was done.

3 Serv. Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood, Scratching her legs, that one shall swear she bleeds; And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,

So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

Lord. Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord: Thou hast a lady, far more beautiful

Than any woman in this waning age.

1 Serv. And, till the tears that she hath shed for

thee,

Like envious floods, o'er-ran her lovely face,
She was the fairest creature in the world ;
And yet she is inferior to none.

Sly. Am I a lord? and have I such a lady?
Or do I dream? or have I dream'd till now?
I do not sleep; I see, I hear, I speak:
I smell sweet savours, and I feel soft things.-
Upon my life, I am a lord, indeed,

And not a tinker, nor Christopher Sly.-
Well, bring our lady hither to our sight;
And once again, a pot o' the smallest ale.

2 Serv. Will't please your mightiness to wash your hands?

[Servants present an ewer, bason, and napkin.

O, how we joy to see your wit restor❜d!

O, that once more you knew but what you are!
These fifteen years you have been in a dream,
Or, when you wak'd, so wak'd as if you slept.

Sly. These fifteen years! by my fay, a goodly nap. But did I never speak of all that time?

1 Serv. O! yes, my lord, but very idle words;-
For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,
Yet would you say, ye were beaten out of door,
And rail upon the hostess of the house,

And say you would present her at the leet',
Because she brought stone jugs and no seal'd quarts.
Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket.
Sly. Ay, the woman's maid of the house.

3 Serv. Why, sir, you know no house, nor no such maid,

Nor no such men, as you have reckon'd up,-
As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of Greece3,
And Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell,

And twenty more such names and men as these,
Which never were, nor no man ever saw.

Sly. Now, Lord be thanked for my good amends!
All. Amen.

Sly. I thank thee; thou shalt not lose by it.

Enter the Page, as a lady, with Attendants.

Page. How fares my noble lord?

Sly. Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer enough. Where is my wife?

8

- leet,] i. e. At the Court-leet.

old John Naps of Greeee,] Blackstone suggested that we ought to read, o' the Green, instead "of Greece ;" and it is the more probable, when we reflect that green was formerly almost invariably spelt with a final e. "John Naps of

Greece" seems nonsense, notwithstanding it has been shown by Steevens that a hart of greece or grease, meant a fat hart: hence he argues that it was only a mode of calling John Naps a fat man.

Page. Here, noble lord: what is thy will with her? Sly. Are you my wife, and will not call me husband?

My men should call me lord: I am your good-man. Page. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband;

I am your wife in all obedience.

Sly. I know it well.-What must I call her?
Lord. Madam.

Sly. Al'ce madam, or Joan madam?

Lord. Madam, and nothing else: so lords call ladies. Sly. Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd,

And slept above some fifteen year and more.

Page. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me,

Being all this time abandon'd from your bed.

Sly. 'Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone.

Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.

Page. Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you

To pardon me yet for a night or two;

Or if not so, until the sun be set,

For your physicians have expressly charg'd,
In peril to incur your former malady,
That I should yet absent me from your bed.

I hope this reason stands for my excuse.

Sly. Ay, it stands so, that I may hardly tarry so long; but I would be loath to fall into my dreams again: I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Your honour's players, hearing your amend

ment,

Are come to play a pleasant comedy;

For so your doctors hold it very meet,

Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood,
And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:

Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play,
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.

Sly. Marry, I will let them play it. Is not a commonty a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling-trick?

Page. No, my good lord: it is more pleasing stuff. Sly. What, household stuff?

Page. It is a kind of history.

Sly. Well, we'll see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side.

And let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Padua. A public Place.

Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO.

Luc. Tranio, since, for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy;

And, by my father's love and leave, am arm'd
With his good will, and thy good company,
My trusty servant', well approv'd in all,
Here let us breathe, and haply institute10
A course of learning, and ingenious studies.
Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

9 My trusty servant,] Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, has Most.

10

- and HAPLY institute-] In the modern editions, "haply" is misprinted happily, which is a distinct word, with a different etymology. "Haply" means perhaps, and not fortunately. So at the end of the first scene of the Induction, the lord says,

In both cases, the line requires a word of two and not of three syllables. When the line requires that "haply" should be pronounced as a trisyllable, it was generally spelt "happily." A. iv. sc. 4, of this comedy affords examples of "happily" used in both senses.

Gave me my being; and my father, first
A merchant of great traffic through the world,
Vincentio's come of the Bentivolii'.

Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become, to serve all hopes conceiv'd,
To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study
Virtue, and that part of philosophy
Will I apply, that treats of happiness
By virtue specially to be achiev❜d.
Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left,
And am to Padua come, as he that leaves
A shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
Tra. Mi perdonate, gentle master mine,
I am in all affected as yourself,
Glad that you thus continue your resolve,
To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy:
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue, and this moral discipline,
Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray;
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks,
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd.
Talk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk:
Music and poesy use to quicken you:
The mathematics, and the metaphysics,

Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you.
No profit grows, where is no pleasure ta'en:-
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,

1 Vincentio's come of the Bentivolii.] i. e. "My father, first a merchant of great traffic through the world, Vincentio, is come of the Bentivolii." This is the old and rather obscure reading; but to vary from it, as has been usually done, makes the sense even less clear. By "Vincentio's son," in the next line, Lucentio, of course, means himself.

2 TALK logic-] Old copies, Balk. Corrected by Rowe.