Vincentio his fon, brought up in Florence, Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, In the next line, which should begin a new fentence, Vincentio his fon, is the fame as Vincentio's fon, which Mr. Heath not apprehending, has proposed to alter Vincentio into Lucentio. It may be added, that Shakspeare in other places expresses the genitive cafe in the fame improper manner. See Troilus and Cressida, Act II. fc. i: "Mars his ideot." And Twelfth Night, Act III. fc. iii: "The Count his gallies." TYRWHITT. Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.] The old copy reads-Vincentio's. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. I am not fure that it is right. Our author might have written: Vincentio's fon, come of the Bentivolii. If that be the true reading, this line should be connected with the following, and a colon placed after world in the preceding line; as is the cafe in the original copy, which adds some support to the emendation now proposed : Vincentio's fon, come of the Bentivolii, $ Vincentio his fon,] The old copy reads-Vincentio's. STEEVENS. Vincentio's is here used as a quadrifyllable. Mr. Pope, I suppose, not perceiving this, unnecessarily reads-Vincentio his fon, which has been too hastily adopted by the subsequent editors. MALONE. Could I have read the line, as a verse, without Mr. Pope's emendation, I would not have admitted it. STEEVENS. 6 - to ferve all hopes conceiv'd,] To fulfil the expectations of his friends. MALONE. Virtue, and that part of philofophy-] Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read to virtue; but formerly ply and apply were indifferently used, as to ply or apply his studies. JOHNSON. The word ply is afterwards used in this scene, and in the fame manner, by Tranio : "For who shall bear your part, &c. Keep house and ply his book?" M. MASON. Will I apply, that treats of happiness TRA. Mi perdonate, gentle mafter mine, 9 So, in The Nice Wanton, an ancient interlude, 1560: "O ye children, let your time be well spent, Applye your learning, and your elders obey." Again, in Gafcoigne's Supposes, 1566: "I feare he applyes his study so, that he will not leave the minute of an houre from his booke." MALONE. 8 Mi perdonate, Old copy-Me pardonato. The emendation was suggested by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. 9 Ariftotle's checks, are, I suppose, the harsh rules of Ariftotle. STEEVENS. Such as tend to check and restrain the indulgence of the passions. MALONE. Tranio is here descanting on academical learning, and mentions by name fix of the seven liberal sciences. I fufpect this to be a mif-print, made by fome copyift or compofitor, for ethicks. The sense confirms it. BLACKSTONE. 2 Talk logick-) Old copy-Balk. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 3 ends well: to quicken you;] i. e. animate. So, in All's well that "Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary." STEEVENS. Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you: Luc. Gramercies, Tranio, well doft thou advise. TRA. Master, fome show, to welcome us to town. Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand afide. BAP. Gentlemen, importune me no further, For how I firmly am resolv'd you know; That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter, Before I have a husband for the elder: If either of you both love Katharina, Because I know you well, and love you well, Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure. GRE. To cart her rather: She's too rough for me :There, there Hortenfio, will you any wife? KATH. I pray you, fir, [To BAP.] is it your will To make a stale of me amongst these mates? Hor. Mates, maid! how mean you that? no mates for you, Unless you were of gentler, milder mould. KATH. I'faith, fir, you shall never need to fear; I wis, it is not half way to her heart: But, if it were, doubt not, her care should be To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool, And paint your face, and use you like a fool. Hor. From all fuch devils, good Lord, deliver us! GRE. And me too, good Lord! ! by birth a pedler, by education a card-maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying'st knave in Christendom. What, I am not bestraught: Here's enemy, Justice Shallow. Very probably too, this fat ale-wife might be a real character. STEEVENS. Wilnecotte is a village in Warwickshire, with which Shakspeare was well acquainted, near Stratford. The house kept by our genial hostess, still remains, but is at present a mill. The meanest hovel to which Shakspeare has an allufion, interests curiofity, and acquires an importance: at least, it becomes the object of a poetical antiquarian's inquiries. T. WARTON. Burton Dorset is a village in Warwickshire. RITSON. There is likewise a village in Warwickshire called Burton Haftings. Among Sir A. Cockayn's poems (as Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens have observed) there is an epigram on Sly and his ale, addressed to Mr. Clement Fisher of Wincot. The text is undoubtedly right. There is a village in Warwickshire called Barton on the Heath, where Mr. Dover, the founder of the Cotswold games, lived. 2 MALONE. I am not bestraught:) I once thought that if our poet did not design to put a corrupted word into the mouth of the Tinker, we ought to read-distraught, i. e. distracted. So, in Romeo and Juliet : "O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught," &c. For there is no verb extant from which the participle bestraught can be formed. In Albion's England, however, by Warner, 1602, I meet with the word as spelt by Shakspeare: " Now teares had drowned further speech, till she as one "Did crie," &c. bestrought Again, in the old Song, beginning, "When griping grief," &c. " Be-ftraughted heads relyef hath founde." Again, in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the 4th Book of Virgil's Æneid: "Well near bestraught, upstart his heare for dread." STEEVENS. I SERV. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn. 2 SERV. O, this it is that makes your servants droop. LORD. Hence comes it that your kindred shun your house, As beaten hence by your strange lunacy. Wilt thou have musick? hark! Apollo plays, [Musick. And twenty caged nightingales do fing: foar 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 fwift As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe. 2 SERV. Doft thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight Adonis, painted by a running brook; Beftraught feems to have been synonymous to distraught or diftracted. See Minsheu's DICT. 1617: "Bestraft, a Lat. distractus mente. Vi. Mad and Bedlam." MALONE. |