GRU. Fie, fie, on all tired jades! on all mad masters! and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed?" 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

Was ever man so rayed?] Rayed, say the commentators, is befouled, bemired: perhaps here it rather means, chafed, excoriated,

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

frayed, from the French rayer.

greater a 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.

CURT. Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported? GRU. She was, good Curtis, before this frost : but, thou know'st, winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tamed my old master and my new mistress, and myself,a fellow Curtis.

CURT. Away, you 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 prithee, 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?

GRU. Why, Jack, boy! ho, boy!" and as much news as thou wilt.*

CURT. Come, you are so full of coneycatching. GRU. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept; the serving-men in their new fustian, the white stockings, and every officer his wedding garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, and everything in order?

CURT. All ready: and, therefore, I pray thee, news?

GRU. First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out.

a And myself, fellow Curtis.] For myself, Warburton substituted thyself, and, notwithstanding the ingenious defence of myself by other critics, was perhaps right.

b Jack, boy! ho, boy!] This is the commencement of an old round in three parts, of which Hawkins has given the notes in the Variorum Shakespeare.

e Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without,-] A quibble. Certain drinking vessels were called Jacks and Jills, which terms, too, were commonly applied to the male and female servants. The same pun is found in the "Puritan," 1607. "I owe money to several hostesses, and you know such jills will quickly be upon a man's jack."

d The carpets laid,-] The carpets here meant were coverings for the tables. The floors were strewed with rushes.

e Burst;] That is, broken. So in the opening scene of the In

GRU. Lend thine ear. CURT. Here.

GRU. There.

[Striking him.

CURT. This 'tis 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 of 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; 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; 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.

e

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 slickly 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 horsetail, till they kiss their hands. Are they all ready?

CURT. They are.

GRU. Call them forth.

--- I beseech your grace,

Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye."
Richard II. Act II. Sc. 3.

But by "an indifferent knit" is simply meant a passable, or tolerable knit. So in "Twelfth Night," Act I. Sc. 5,

"as, item, two lips indifferent red."

g. To countenance my mistress.] That is, to receive or entertain her. "The old Law was, that when a Man was Fin'd, he was to be Fin'd Salvo Contenemento, so as his Countenance might be safe, taking Countenance in the same sense as your Country man does, when he says, if you will come unto my House, I will show you the best Countenance I can, that is not the best Face, but the best Entertainment."-SELDEN'S Table-Talk, Art. Fines.

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 loggerheaded and unpolish'd 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 malthorse drudge!

Did I not bid thee meet me in the park,