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    The Taming of the Shrew
    The Taming of the Shrew
    The Taming of the Shrew
    Ebook163 pages1 hour

    The Taming of the Shrew

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

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    A rough-and-tumble farce centered around a lively battle of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew brims with action and bawdy humor. The unconventional romance between a lusty fortune-hunter and a bitter shrew unfolds to the accompaniment of witty, fast-paced dialogue and physical humor in this excellent introduction to Shakespearean comedy.
    The freebooter Petruchio arrives in Padua to hear of Katharina, a beautiful heiress whose waspish rants and caustic personality have repelled all attempts at courtship. Professing to admire a woman of spirit, Petruchio immediately sets about his wooing. The initial encounter between "Kate" and her wily suitor is spiked with impassioned exchanges of blows as well as jests. After a madcap wedding ceremony, the still-protesting Kate is whisked away to be "killed with kindness" and reborn as a loving wife.
    One of the Bard's earliest and most popular plays, The Taming of the Shrew is rife with subplots involving his customary devices of disguise and mistaken identity. The vivid language, studded with elaborate puns, is an engaging complement to the play's slapstick humor. Reprinted complete and unabridged in this inexpensive edition, The Taming of the Shrew will delight any reader with its wonderful wordplay and rollicking good spirits.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateFeb 29, 2012
    ISBN9780486110233
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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    Reviews for The Taming of the Shrew

    3.5/5

    1,677 ratings31 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This may be my favorite Shakespeare, but I haven't read them all yet. This is my favorite so far. I love the way the man keeps pushing in on Kate until she receives his love.
    • 2/5
      It's bawdy and crass; juvenile humor. I guess this explains why I enjoyed it in high school, but didn't enjoy it as much as an adult.
    • 4/5
      As always, a great edition from the Arden publishers.
    • 2/5
      I had to read this one when I was in high school for an AP Lit course (man, I hated that course). Lit teachers have so many opportunities to choose some really amazing, relevant lit, and while I think Shakespeare is still relevant today, the way this book was taught was miserable. There were moments when the discussions in class were interesting, but it wasn't any thanks to the instructor or the play itself, I don't think. Of course, in high school fashion we watched the movie afterwards, and I found I enjoyed it better (and actually understood the play better, too). It was okay, but not one of my favorites among the Shakespeare pile of plays.
    • 3/5
      What can I say...I love Shakespeare's poetic language, wit and his insight into the human condition. But, I must be honest and tell you that I had to force myself to finish this book because I'm an independent, liberated, modern woman and I don't think there's anything funny about the way Pet. mentally abused Kate. Here we have a lying rouge who is cast as a hero as he uses psychological war-fare, humiliation and starvation to bend the will of a wealthy woman, just to get her money. This is the kind of thing we read about in the news; some wealthy woman being taken-in by a playboy that she met on an internet dating site. It wasn't funny back in the day and it isn't funny now.Good thing he didn't try that with Lorena Bobbitt...SMILE!!!
    • 5/5
      My Favourite book in the entire world.
    • 5/5
      This is honestly mu favorite work by Shakespeare. I love the humor within it. I have read this for classes I have performed Katherine's final Monologue. I know people find that this plays has become a past idea of thinking of how women should behave since we are in a modern day world that that works for men and women to be equal without bowing down. However, at the time this play was written, that was not yet the thinking. No matter what, this is and always will be a favorite of mine.
    • 5/5
      My favorite Shakespeare comedy, and a personaly favorite in classical literature.
    • 3/5
      Amazing.....
    • 2/5
      What an odd, misogynistic play. Most interesting was the induction with Christopher Sly, a drunkard who is tricked into believing he is a rich lord. This plot line, included to set up the whole identity switch storyline, is never resolved in my text. I know Shakespeare is considered a master playwright of the English language and I do truly appreciate his work, but isn't he a bit unoriginal at times? There's the whole "borrowing" stories from other authors and then the fact that many of his stories feature the same motifs--funny servants, identity mixups, instalove followed by marriages, rich Italians in search of dowries and hot wives, mean fathers. I guess the Elizabethan theatre-going crowd had a specific niche, and Shakespeare knew how to work within it. Which, if you think about it, isn't that different from our generation being obsessed with vampires and paranormal romances. In 5 centuries, will our descendants look back at our reading tastes and wonder why it all seems the same?
    • 3/5
      Part of Saddleback’s Illustrated Classics series. A simplified and condensed retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew as a graphic novel. The illustrations are done primarily in jewel tones and depict clothing and scenery appropriate to the play’s context. Footnotes define words or concepts likely to be unfamiliar to readers. Act and scene breaks from the play are not included in the novel, so it is not easy to relate the story to the original text of Shakespeare’s play, which may be important to some educators. Blue boxes provide setting information while the characters’ words are in yellow boxes making it easy to distinguish between the two. Pictures and names of the main characters are included at the beginning of the novel, but even with this guidance and the visual clues provided in the illustrations it may be difficult for readers to keep track of the various characters and their motivations. A more complete list of characters including a description of their role in the story would have been helpful. In combination with instruction, this could still be an important tool for introducing The Taming of the Shrew to hi-lo readers, particularly in communicating the inherent comedy of the play. Recommended. Ages 11 & up.
    • 2/5
      I had to give it a second star because some of the jokes were funny but really, this is just horrible. I'm not saying it should never be performed because it's a part of our cultural heritage and significant for influencing a lot of later works but I really think it's unsuitable for casual performance, for entertainment of general audiences. I saw it performed at a summer park show and Petruccio's player kept stopping to apologize out of character because the audience was booing him so loudly.
    • 2/5
      Read this twice, once for high school and once for college, and both times I despised it. I don't remember why, but I think it was some feminist outrage that I had...
    • 4/5
      I read this play when I was in the sixth grade and at that time I did not completely understand the meaning of "male ego" or "abusive relationships". As the message hidden in this play depicts that women of those times had to succumb dutifully to their "chauvinist" husbands, years later I came to realize how the society of that era looked down upon the uprising and independent women of all times.

      While the reason for this play may or may not have been to contemplate women rights and gender equality, nothing makes it anything less than an excellent read, perhaps a minute literary classic in my say!

      First of all, notoriously famous for the dark comedy, this play in my opinion is the best Shakespearean Comedy. The play consisting of extremely comical, vivid and humorous energetic ploys never offered me a chance to put it down and stop reading.

      From the beginning of the play the readers get an entertaining idea of how terrifying a shrew, the leading character Kate is because of her amusingly foul mouth and vicious temper. Pair that with an equally determined and witty leading male character, Petruchio, who employs comical methods to shape Kate, and you get a splendid comedy. The play proceeds with an interesting insight into how Kate gradually evolves into his devoted wife and a polite woman.

      The characters and their dialogues fashion the utmost wit and brilliant excitement all through out the play. Every scene is composed of numerous hilarious and amusing acts that just grip the readers to continue being indulged in the entertaining story.

      The play also stands out because of its unique structure. Most Shakespearean plays comprise of romance, banishment, and disguise as a key theme to the plot.
      For instance, one never fails to identify the certain styles of Shakespeare; namely one method would be: Male characters in the beginning disguise themselves and they fall for the wrong women who were also disguised. However, everyone reconcile with their true one in the end after a series of farce incidents.
      Another signature style would be: Groups of high ranked men and their king are banished to the forsaken islands or forests by a nemesis. Then the noble men and their king would regain power and get invited back in the end by the strange love marriage between the children of the king and his nemesis!

      To a great relief this play consisted of none of those techniques which therefore was a remarkably fresh way of journeying through a wonderful Shakespeare comedy.
    • 4/5
      Another school required read but this one is slightly different. This was my very first Shakespeare, and at twelve even! I have loved it ever since then. I haven't read it in almost ten years and felt it was due time to re-read. Being older now I was able to appreciate more of the humor, especially the witty bickering between Petruchio and Katherine (the shrew) in their first scene together. It's long been my favorite because of how clever and quick it is. I smiled the entire time at how ridiculous it is. I was very happy to get to read it again.
    • 3/5
      A better play to see than read. There's room for a lot of physical comedy here, and I think it shows that WS was better at tragedy than broad farce. Still, it's noted as having been read four times. "Kiss Me, Kate!" is more fun.
    • 2/5
      I'm sure we could argue the feminist interpretation for ages, but though full of Shakespeare's usual wit I couldn't figure out what he was going for here and it ended up just being a frustrating read.
    • 3/5
      Really funny. Although, yes, it is technically sexist. When I heard that last speech performed live, there was no real mutual respect it seemed, and maybe it was a little dull. But when the mutual respect is clear, you realize it isn't just Kate who has changed, but her husband as well. Thus it becomes clear that they respect each other, and truly, while it appears that she is 'beneath him' and always agreeing with everything he says, there is an air that she is only learning to not be contrary and she thus becomes able to be in a relationship, in a partnership.
    • 3/5
      I bet every older sister secretly likes this play.
    • 3/5
      Lluchthartige komedie. Over hoe de hevige Katherine trouwt met Petruccio en daardoor haar plaats in de maatschappij vindt waardoor haar rebels karakter ?getemd? wordt; verschillende verhaallijnen, nogal rommelig, met typische rolomkeringen; thema van de ideale vrouw, nogal dubieus aangebracht. -brutaal optreden om Katherine te breken-vaders die hun dochters als koopwaar verhandelen-betekenis van de inleiding is duister-onverklaarbare wendingenUiteenlopende interpretaties over het optreden van Petruccio. Die gedraagt zich brutaal om Katherine uit evenwicht te brengen (?being mad herself, she is madly mated?), in act IV.1 licht hij zijn motieven toe. Bekende slotsc?ne: uitval Katherine tegen ongehoorzame vrouwen (niet duidelijk wat het doel is): ?Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper/Thy head, thy sovereign?
    • 3/5
      Lluchthartige komedie. Over hoe de hevige Katherine trouwt met Petruccio en daardoor haar plaats in de maatschappij vindt waardoor haar rebels karakter “getemd” wordt; verschillende verhaallijnen, nogal rommelig, met typische rolomkeringen; thema van de ideale vrouw, nogal dubieus aangebracht. -brutaal optreden om Katherine te breken-vaders die hun dochters als koopwaar verhandelen-betekenis van de inleiding is duister-onverklaarbare wendingenUiteenlopende interpretaties over het optreden van Petruccio. Die gedraagt zich brutaal om Katherine uit evenwicht te brengen (“being mad herself, she is madly mated”), in act IV.1 licht hij zijn motieven toe. Bekende slotscène: uitval Katherine tegen ongehoorzame vrouwen (niet duidelijk wat het doel is): “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper/Thy head, thy sovereign”
    • 3/5
      Well, Toto, we're a long way from Beatrice and Benedick here, that's for sure! This is among the plays that are Much better watched than read, if only because directors and actors can make subtle adaptations and add nuance to situations and characters who are, as written, fairly brutal and unattractive. Done “right,” this is a very entertaining play – I particularly enjoyed the BBC's “Shakespeare Retold” version, starring Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell. As with “Much Ado About Nothing,” though, “The Taming of the Shrew” features one interesting couple and one dull one. Bianca and her swain actually spend very little time together, but it's plenty. Katherine and Petruchio may or may not be suited to each other, but we'll never know because Petruchio has all the power and no qualms about using it. What “saves” the play is Katherine's own sheer nastiness, as evidenced by her unwarranted brutality to both her sister and her tutor. She's been bullying her family and servants, so we don't feel terribly sorry for her when she receives the same treatment from her new husband. The clowns in “Shrew” are irritating rather than witty, and the framing device adds little. Still, it's Shakespeare, and there are some clever wordplays, images, and amusing bits of dialog. And Katherine and Petruchio do seem to have arranged an amicable detente by the end, where we can feasibly imagine them going along for several years before one of them murders the other.
    • 4/5
      The introductory scenes with Sly were a surprise to me! I was also somewhat surprised by how much of the musical Kiss Me Kate is directly from the play.
    • 2/5
      I'm sure we could argue the feminist interpretation for ages, but though full of Shakespeare's usual wit I couldn't figure out what he was going for here and it ended up just being a frustrating read.
    • 4/5
      It sounds like an extreme and ludicrous statement, but I don't actually know that Shakespeare has a more interpretable play. It all comes down to that moment at the end: Katherine's gonna come out and deliver her closing speech (and for those who still somehow see this as straight-up misogyny, consider all the past versions that haven't done so, and that the ultimate power of meaningmaking is here in Kate's hands--okay, and those of her director--which is easy enough to see as a definitive repudiation of Petruchio's efforts to take away her reality and signifying power with all the no-no-the-sun-is-the-moon stuff earlier). And I mean, relations between the sexes? A friend of mine says about class relations (which are also, naturally, at play here, and what is Kate from one perspective but another tinker, an overturner of the social order? A hero?), he says, "of course it's complicated, it's a gas, baby, you dig?" You can play the speech totally straight--but even then, like, what does Shakespeare think about it? Has Kate found strong manlove or been broken by a sadist?--and you can play it ironically, in about a billion permutations.So well done, Shakespeare. (You're suuuuuch a good writer. I'm sooooo impressed.) But here's what came to me watching this guy the other day at Bard on the Beach, not about that director's interpretation--which was basically "two stong-willed eccentrics find each other, embrace, and turn their rapier tongues on the rest of the world"--not about any interpretation at all, but about what the last scene says about real life. Because you can have your single simple reading of a play if you wanna and walk away and not have any problems come of it, but when you do that with real life there's that certain excess that'll always trip you up and mug you and leave you unsure where it all went wrong.So what came out at me was the way both things are true. Petruchio can king-of-the-castle Katherine around all he wants and it will always be repulsive, to our sensibilities as well as (it has been convincingly argued) those of the Elizabethans. That doesn't mean it's the whole story here. In that final scene, when Kate is the only obedient wife, what we see is a dark shadow over the future of these marriages--and leaving aside for the moment whether that includes Kate and Petruchio's and what the implications of that are, think about the others. Lucentio's marriage to Bianca and Hortensio's to the Widow may be under threat because the wives are not obedient--or maybe they're just gonna make their husbands into buffoons and that's in the normal way of things--but what is it that makes either of those eventualities a problem? It's that they're weaklings. And calling them out on that doesn't make Petruchio any less of a bully. But forget the bully thing for a second: he's also a man who knows what he wants and won't settle for any less. And in this milieu, Katherine doesn't have the same privilege--she has to be a shrew or a possession. But are the other wives much happier with their carping men? Not at all. The men still have all the power on paper, but their sense of manhood depends on a submission they're not going to be able to secure.And I hope we've left all the submission stuff behind. What we need in our relationships is to be responsible for ourselves. Kate's paradox is that in submitting completely to her husband she has total freedom to move--he kisses her hand rather than step on it. It's repulsive. But they're strong people who (perhaps? depending on your interpretation?) respect each other. And I think there's something to be said for a partner who just rides out your storms, who has themself enough in hand to make their expectations clear (thankfully, today this is a mutual process). And I have spent a lot of time trying to please people I was with and needing to protect them to feel okay myself, and that that's emotional brinksmanship and will never actually help them feel better, and then I'll feel distress too. The great thing about The Taming of the Shrew is to see a marriage without any tally of needs and catalogue of fears and litany of resentments and haunting cloud of failures--where whatever anyone does it'll be laughed off in the end. The question it leaves me with is whether the only way to have that is for marriage to be something even worse--a chattel relationship instead of one between messy, needy, hypersensitive equals.
    • 5/5
      Enjoyable, funny and entertaining Bacon was a gifted writer.
    • 5/5
      My second review (check out my review of The Count of Monte Cristo) and this book is an amazing play. I had to read this for school and I thought this was going to be boring and non-entertaining but, to my surprise, It is hilarious! This book is a clever comedy in which Shakespeare shows two very different sisters and a plot so complex and difficult It is interesting. Some people may think Shakespeare is dull and I can see why but, this is a book i recommend from middle school to the rest of your life. You see Bianca (the innocent, boy fanatic girl who is very vain) and Kate (a feminist who is more reserved to herself and never wants to marry). Kate is very strong and has her dignity. This play is a page turner for sure. I have also seen the movie and the TV series (now gone) and none of them compare to the humorous English vernacular of Shakespeare. (Even though Elizabeth Taylor plays one hell of a Kate!)- Paulina
    • 4/5
      This is a clever play. However, it revolves massively around the directors interpretation of Bianca (sweet and innocent, or scheming and bitchy) and more importantly on the dynamic between Petruchio and Katherine (does he break her, or does she finally understand him and willing go along with it). I really wanted it to be the later but, as a feminist, I couldn't understand how a free minded woman would say the things said in Kate's last speech.And one MAJOR nit pick; where did Sly go? He's there at the beginning, but not anywhere else.
    • 5/5
      I recently read this in my tenth grade English class. Of course, the play itself was at it always is: hilarious and incredible. Every time I read something by Shakespeare, I marvel at his creativity, originality, and skill for crafting puns and witty wordplay.The version of this book that I read included many other sections relating to Shakespeare's works: his life, his writings, and how his plays were shown, plus a section entitled "A Modern Perspective," which was somewhat of an overview of the themes in the play and revealed many things people in my English class missed while reading the text (not that they actually looked at the extra stuff: that's like watching Lord of the Rings without the bonus footage). I found all of the extra details quite interesting and it gave me enough background to participate fully in class discussions where most of my peers were left behind. Thank you, Folger Library!
    • 4/5
      The author made an interesting choice to make the story of his own research the focus of this book. I think it worked really well in this case, given that there's so little known about the actual John Henry. Nelson is very up-front about the fact that much of his results are based on theory or conjecture, but overall the transparency of his research process gives a lot of weight to his conclusions. This is an interesting book both for what it tells us about the research process, but also for what we learn about John Henry's world.

    Book preview

    The Taming of the Shrew - William Shakespeare

    e9780486110233_covere9780486110233_i0001.jpge9780486110233_i0002.jpg

    Planet Friendly Publishing

    Made in the United States

    Printed on Recycled Paper

    Text: 30% Cover: 10%

    Learn more: www.greenedition.org

    At Dover Publications we’re committed to producing books in an earth-friendly manner and to helping our customers make greener choices.

    Manufacturing books in the United States ensures compliance with strict environmental laws and eliminotes the need for international freight shipping, a major contributor to global air pollution.

    And printing on recycled paper helps minimize our consumption of trees, water and fossil fuels. The text of The Taming of the Shrew was printed on paper made with 30% post-consumer waste, and the cover was printed on paper made with 10% post-consumer waste. According to Environmental Defense’s Paper Calculator, by using this innovative paper instead of conventional papers, we achieved the following environmental benefits:

    Trees Saved: 17 . Air Emissions Eliminated: 1,618 pounds

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    please visit us online at www.doverpublications.com/green

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    GENERAL EDITOR: PAUL NEGRI

    EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: ADAM FROST

    Theatrical Rights

    This Dover Thrift Edition may be used in its entirety, in adaptation or in any other way for theatrical productions, professional and amateur, in the United States, without fee, permission or acknowledgment. (This may not apply outside the United States, as copyright conditions may vary.)

    Bibliographical Note

    This Dover edition, first published in 1997, contains the unabridged text of The Taming of the Shrew as published in Volume IV of The Caxton Edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Caxton Publishing Company, London, n.d. The Note was prepared specially for this edition, and explanatory footnotes from the Caxton edition have been supplemented and revised.

    Copyright © 1997 by Dover Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Shakespeare, William, 1564—1616.

    The taming of the shrew / William Shakespeare.

    p. cm. — (Dover thrift editions)

    9780486110233

    1. Married people — Italy — Padua — Drama. I. Title. II. Series.

    [PR2832.A1 1997]

    822.3’3 — dc21 97-6768

    CIP

    Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

    29765912

    www.doverpublications.com

    Note

    IT IS FITTING THAT a play concerned with questions of identity and appearance should itself have a murky and uncertain history: such is the case with William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1592 — 1594). The diary of the Elizabethan playhouse owner Philip Henslowe notes a performance in June 1594 of the tamynge of A shrowe, now thought to be a reference to Shakespeare’s comedy despite the variant title. A problem of identification arises, however, due to the existence of an anonymously written play also called The Taming of a Shrew, which was entered into the Stationers’ Register in May of 1594 and printed later that year. For a long time it was thought that A Shrew was Shakespeare’s source, or that both plays were the offspring of a still older version, now lost. There is no evidence of a third version, however, and today it is considered most likely that A Shrew is either a direct imitation of Shakespeare’s work by a rival dramatist, or a pirated version reconstructed from memory and rushed into print. It has also been suggested that, as the comedy is not mentioned by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia (1598), it might have once been called Love’s Labour’s Won, the mysterious and otherwise unknown play which Meres there attributes to Shakespeare. The Taming of the Shrew, as we know it today, seems not to have made its way into print until 1623, when it was included in the First Folio.

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Theatrical Rights

    Bibliographical Note

    Copyright Page

    Note

    Dramatis Personæ

    INDUCTION.

    ACT I.

    ACT II.

    ACT III.

    ACT IV

    ACT V.

    DOVER · THRIFT · EDITIONS

    Dramatis Personæ

    e9780486110233_i0003.jpg

    BAPTIST, a rich gentleman ot Padua.

    VINCENTIO, an old gentleman of Pisa.

    LUCENTIO, son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca.

    PETRUCHIO, a gentleman of Verona, a suitor to Katharina.

    e9780486110233_i0004.jpg

    Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Baptista and Petruchio.

    SCENE: Padua, and Petruchio’s country house.

    INDUCTION.

    SCENE I. Before an Alehouse on a Heath.

    Enter HOSTESS and SLY

    SLY. I’ll pheeze¹ you, in faith.

    HOST. A pair of stocks, you rogue!

    SLY. Y’ are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; look in the chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore paucas pallabris;² let the world slide: sessa!³

    HOST. You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?

    SLY. No, not a denier. Go by, Jeronimy:⁴ go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.

    HOST. I know my remedy; I must go fetch the thirdborough.⁵ [Exit.

    SLY. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I’ll answer him by law: I’ll not budge an inch, boy: let him come, and kindly.

    [Falls asleep.

    Horns winded. Enter a Lord from hunting, with his train

    LORD. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds:

    Brach⁶ Merriman, the poor cur is emboss’d;⁷

    And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth’d brach.

    Saw’st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good

    At the hedge-corner, in the coldest fault?⁸

    I would not lose the dog for twenty pound.

    FIRST HUN. Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord;

    He cried upon it at the merest loss,

    And twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent:

    Trust me, I take him for the better dog.

    LORD. Thou art a fool: if Echo were as fleet,

    I would esteem him worth a dozen such.

    But sup them well and look unto them all:

    To-morrow I intend to hunt again.

    FIRST HUN. I will, my lord.

    LORD. What’s here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe?

    SEC. HUN. He breathes, my lord. Were he not warm’d with ale,

    This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly.

    LORD. O monstrous beast! how like a swine he lies!

    Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image!

    Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.

    What think you, if he were convey’d to bed,

    Wrapp’d in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,

    A most delicious banquet by his bed,

    And brave attendants near him when he wakes,

    Would not the beggar then forget himself?

    FIRST HUN. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot choose.

    SEC. HUN. It would seem strange unto him when he waked.

    LORD. Even as a flattering dream or worthless fancy.

    Then take him up and manage well the jest:

    Carry him gently to my fairest chamber

    And hang it round with all my wanton pictures:

    Balm his foul head in warm distilled waters

    And burn sweet wood to make the lodging sweet:

    Procure me music ready when he wakes,

    To make a dulcet and a heavenly sound;

    And if he chance to speak, be ready straight

    And with a low submissive reverence

    Say What is it your honour will command?

    Let one attend him with a silver basin

    Full of rose-water and bestrew’d with flowers;

    Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper,⁹

    And say Will ’t please your lordship cool your hands?

    Some one be ready with a costly suit,

    And ask him what apparel he will wear;

    Another tell him of his hounds and horse,

    And that his lady mourns at his disease:

    Persuade him that he hath been lunatic;

    And when he says he is, say that

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