While thou ly'ft warm at home, fecure and fafe, In (26) Then vale your ftomachs, &c ] This doctrine of conjugal obedience, that runs thro' all Catharine's fpeech, fhews the bufinefs of the play to be compleated in her being fo thoroughly reform'd. But this comedy has likewise a fubfervient walk, which from the beginning is connected to, and made a part of the main plot; viz. the marriage of Bianca. This marriage, according to the regulation of all the copies, is executed and clear'd up in the fourth act: and the fifth act is not made to begin till the whole company meet at Lucentio's apartment. By this regulation, there is not only an unreasonable difproportion in length betwixt the 4th and 5th acts; but a manifeft abfurdity committed in the conduct of the fable. By the divifion I have ventur'd at, thefe inconveniencies are remedied: and the action lies more uniform. For now the whole catastrophe is wound up in the 5th act: it begins with Lucentio going to church to marry Bianca: the true Vincentio arrives, In token of which duty, if he please, Pet. Why, there's a wench: come on, and kiss me, Kate, (27) We three are married, but you two are sped. [Exeunt Petruchio and Catharina. Hor. Now go thy ways, thou haft tam'd a curst shrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, fhe will be tam'd fo. [Exeunt omnes. Enter two fervants bearing Sly in his own apparel, and leave him on the Stage. Then enter a Tapfter. Sly awaking.] Sim, give's fome more wine all the Players gone? am not I a Lord? -what, Tap. A Lord, with a murrain! come, art thou drunk still? Sly. Who's this? Tapfter! oh, I have had the braveft dream that ever thou heardft in all thy life. Tap. Yea, merry, but thou hadst beft get thee home, for your wife will courfe you for dreaming here all night. arrives, to difcover the impofture carried on by the Pedant: and after this eclairciffement is hung in fufpence (always a pleafure to an audience,) till towards the middle of the 5th act; the main bufinefs is wound up, of Catharine approving herself to be a convert; and an instructer, in their duty, to the other new-married Ladies.If it be objected, that, by the change I make, the Lord and his fervants (who are characters out of the Drama) fpeak in the middle of an act; that is a matter of no importance. Their fhort interlocution was never defign'd to mark the intervals of the acts. (27) We two are married, but you two are fped.] This is the reading only of the modern copies, I have chofe to read with the older books. Petruchio, I think verily, would fay this: I, and you Lucentio, and you Hortenfio, are all under the fame predicament in one refpect, we are all three married; but you two are finely help'd up with wives, that don't know the duty of obedience. Sly. Sly. Will be? I know how to tame a fhrew. I dreamt upon it all this night, and thau haft swak'd me out of the best dream that ever I had. But I'll to my wife, and tame her 100, if fhe anger me. The End of the SECOND Volume. |