And watch our vantage in this business: Re-enter GREMIO. Signior Gremio! came you from the church? The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff, Tra. What said the wench, when he arose again? Gre. Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd and swore, As if the vicar meant to cozen him. But after many ceremonies done, 14 Quaint had formerly a more favourable meaning than strange, awkward, fantastical, and was used in commendation, as neat, elegant, dainty, dexterous. Thus in the third scene of the fourth act of this play : "I never saw a better fashioned gown, More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable." Where it seems to mean spruce, trim, neat, like the French cointe. We have "quaint spirits" in the Midsummer-Night's Dream. And Prospero calls Ariel," my quaint Ariel." He calls for wine :-A health, quoth he; as if But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking. This done, he took the bride about the neck; [Musick. Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, BAP- Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your I know think to dine with me to-day, you And have prepared great store of wedding cheer; 15 The custom of having wine and sops distributed immediately after the marriage ceremony in the church is very ancient. It existed even among our Gothic ancestors, and is mentioned in the ordinances of the household of Henry VII. "For the Marriage of a Princess:"-" Then pottes of Ipocrice to be ready, and to bee put into cupps with soppe, and to be borne to the estates; and to take a soppe and drinke." It was also practised at the marriage of Philip and Mary, in Winchester Cathedral; and at the marriage of the Elector Palatine to the daughter of James I. in 1612-13. It appears to have been the custom at all marriages. In Jonson's Magnetic Lady it is called a knitting cup: In Middleton's No Wit like a Woman's, the contracting cup. The kiss was also part of the ancient marriage ceremony, as appears from a rubric in one of the Salisbury Missals. 16 This speech is printed as prose in the first folio, and reduced to irregular verse in the second. Bap. Is't possible, you will away to-night? To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife: Gre. Pet. It cannot be. Kath. Pet. I am content. Kath. Let me entreat you. Let me entreat you. Are you content to stay? Pet. I am content you shall entreat me stay, But yet not stay, entreat me how you can. Pet. Grumio, my horse! Gru. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses. Kath. Nay, then, Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day; boots are green your For me, I'll not be gone, till I please myself ;"Tis like you'll prove a jolly surly groom, That take it on you at the first so roundly. 17 Pet. O, Kate, content thee; pr'ythee, be not angry. Kath. I will be angry. What hast thou to do?— Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure. Gre. Ay, marry, sir; now it begins to work. 17 There is a familiar phrase of the same kind still in use, " Be off while your shoes are good." Kath. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner :— I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist. Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command: Obey the bride, you that attend on her: Go to the feast, revel and domineer 18, Be mad and merry, -or go hang yourselves; She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, I'll buckler thee against a million. [Exeunt PET. KATH. and Gru. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones! Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing. Tra. Of all mad matches, never was the like! Bap. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants For to supply the places at the table, 18 Domineer, i. e. bluster or swagger. So in Tarleton's Jests: "T. having been domineering very late at night with two of his friends." You know there wants no junkets 19 at the feast.Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place, And let Bianca take her sister's room. Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, Gentlemen, let's go. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. A Hall in Petruchio's Country House. Enter GRUMIO. Grumio. YE, fye on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed1? was ever man so weary? I 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 may'st slide from my shoulder to my heel, with no greater but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis. Curt. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? a run 19 Junkets, i. e. delicacies. Rayed, i. e. bewrayed, dirty. 2 A little pot soon hot is a common proverb. |