Act I Sc. 1
“Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
Gave me my being, and my father first,
A merchant of great traffic through the world,
Vincentio[s] come of the Bentivoglii.
Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,
It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv’d,” etc.
In the first four lines I have, with previous editors, given the correct punctuation, and have omitted the superfluous s after Vincentio in the fourth. In the following line the metre shows that something is wrong, and it may be that ‘Vincentio’s’ should be Lucentio his, for nothing is more common than this confusion of proper names. (See on King John, ii. 1.) Hanmer I find also made this correction. At the same time it is equally probable that something has been omitted, and that we should read ‘only son,’ or ‘son and heir,’ as in v. 1. It is one of those cases in which choice is difficult. I have given the first in my Edition of the plays; but I now greatly prefer the third.
“Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks.”
Undoubtedly Ethics, the correction of Blackstone and Collier’s folio.
“Balk logic with acquaintance that you have.”
For ‘Balk’ the editors read talk, but it is right.
“Her list in strifeful terms with him to balk.”
F. Q. iii. 2. 12.
“Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise,
If Biondello thou wert come on shore.”
Here and elsewhere in this play, and nowhere else, the printer seems to have added an s to ‘Gramercie.’ I follow Collier’s folio in reading now were for ‘thou wert.’
“Good gentlemen, importune me no further.”
So I have printed it, but Pray or Now might be better.
“Now, gentlemen, that I may soon make good
What I have said... Bianca, get you in.”
“Gentlemen,
Content ye; I am resolved. Go in, Bianca.”
“Their love is not so great, Hortensio.”
The 3rd folio properly read Our for ‘Their.’
“Master, you look’d so longly on the maid.”
As ‘longly’ occurs nowhere else, it is probably only a printer’s error for longingly, which I have given. This omission of a syllable is by no means unusual. (See on M. for M. iv. 2; All’s Well, i. 3.)
“Because she will not be annoy’d with suitors.”
With Singer I read he for ‘she.’
“I will charm him first to keep his tongue.”
We should perhaps read charge for ‘charm’; for it is the tongue that is charmed. We have, however,
“And by a pair of women of her own,
Whom she had charm’d.”
A King and no King, v. 4.
Sc. 2
“Verona for a while I take my leave of.”
“I’ll try how you can sol, la, fa, and sing it.—
Help, masters, help!”
‘Masters’ is the correction of Theobald for mistress of the folio. Master and mistress are confounded also in v. 1, and in Mer. of Ven. iv. 1, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3, Tim. ii. 2. Mistress was frequently written misteris, which may have been partly the cause of the confusion.
“That gives not half so great a blow to hear.”
For ‘to hear,’ which makes very poor sense, Warburton most happily read to th’ ear. He was equally happy in Tim. i. 2.
“For his own good and yours.”
For ‘yours’ Thirlby most properly read ours.
“Bion. He that has the two fair daughters?”
For Bion. I read Gre., in which I had been anticipated by Capell, Tyrwhitt, and Heath; so that it is certain. In my Edition will be found the correct punctuation of the whole passage.
“And were his daughter fairer than she is.”
There is either an aposiopesis or a line lost after this; I think the latter.
“What! this gentleman will out-talk us all.”
There is apparently something wrong here. As ‘what!’ is almost invariably followed by an interrogative, I would read ‘will this gentleman’; we might also insert an adj. before ‘gentleman,’ or read all of us for ‘us all.’ The speech, however, as it is a single line, may be as the poet wrote it; I have therefore let it stand in my Edition.
“No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two.”
To avoid the jingle we might read ‘I do hear.’
“If it be so, sir, that you are the man.”
I have no doubt that for ‘that’ we should read then. (See Introd. p. 68.)
“And if you break the ice, and do this seek.”
For ‘seek’ I read deed; Rowe read feat.