Read The Taming of the Shrew Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
To Grumio
And bring our horses unto Long-lane end.—
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let’s see, I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by
dinnertime
186
.
KATE
I dare assure you, sir, ’tis almost two,
And ’twill be
suppertime
188
ere you come there.
PETRUCHIO
It shall be seven ere I go to horse.
Look,
what
190
I speak, or do, or think to do,
You are still
crossing
191
it. Sirs, let’t alone.
I will not go today, and ere I do,
It shall be what o’clock I say it is.
HORTENSIO
Why, so this gallant will command the sun.
Aside
[
Exeunt
]
Location:
Padua
Enter Tranio
[
disguised as Lucentio
]
, and the Pedant dressed like Vincentio, booted and bareheaded
TRANIO
Sir, this is the house. Please it you that I call?
PEDANT
Ay, what else? And
but
2
I be deceived,
Signior Baptista may remember me,
Near twenty years ago, in Genoa,
Where we were lodgers at the
Pegasus
5
.
TRANIO
’Tis well, and
hold your own
6
, in any case,
With such austerity as
’longeth
7
to a father.
Enter Biondello
PEDANT
I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy.
’Twere good he were
schooled
9
.
TRANIO
Fear you not him.— Sirrah Biondello,
Now do your duty
throughly
11
, I advise you:
Imagine ’twere the
right
12
Vincentio.
BIONDELLO
Tut, fear not me.
TRANIO
But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?
BIONDELLO
I told him that your father was at Venice,
And that you
looked for
16
him this day in Padua.
TRANIO
Thou’rt a
tall
17
fellow. Hold thee that to drink.
Gives money
Here comes Baptista:
set your countenance
18
, sir.
Enter Baptista and Lucentio
Signior Baptista, you are happily met.
Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of.
To the Pedant
I pray you
stand
21
good father to me now,
Give me Bianca for my
patrimony
22
.
PEDANT
Soft
23
son!
Sir, by your leave, having come to Padua
To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
Of love between your daughter and himself:
And,
for
28
the good report I hear of you,
And for the love he beareth to your daughter,
And she to him, to
stay
30
him not too long,
I am content, in a good father’s care,
To have him matched. And if you
please to like
No worse than I
32
, upon some agreement
Me shall you find ready and willing
With
one consent
35
to have her so bestowed,
For
curious
36
I cannot be with you,
Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.
BAPTISTA
Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.
Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
Right true it is, your son Lucentio here
Doth love my daughter and she loveth him,
Or both dissemble deeply their affections.
And therefore if you say no more than this,
That like a father you will deal with him
And
pass
45
my daughter a sufficient dower,
The match is made and all is done.
Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
TRANIO
I thank you, sir. Where then do you
know
48
best
We be
affied
49
and such assurance ta’en
As shall with either part’s agreement stand?
BAPTISTA
Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know
Pitchers have ears
52
, and I have many servants.
Besides, old Gremio is
heark’ning still
53
,
And
haply
54
we might be interrupted.
TRANIO
Then at my lodging, an it like you.
There doth my father
lie
56
, and there, this night,
We’ll
pass
57
the business privately and well.
Send for your daughter by your servant here.
Indicates Lucentio, and winks at him
My boy shall fetch the
scriv’ner
59
presently.
The worst is this, that at so slender warning
You are like to have a thin and slender
pittance
61
.
BAPTISTA
It likes me well. Cambio,
hie
62
you home,
And bid Bianca make her ready straight.
And, if you will, tell what hath happened:
Lucentio’s father is arrived in Padua,
And how she’s
like
66
to be Lucentio’s wife.
[
Exit Lucentio
]
BIONDELLO
I pray the gods she may with all my heart!
Exit
TRANIO
Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
Enter Peter
Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way?
Welcome! One
mess
70
is like to be your cheer.
Come, sir, we will better it in Pisa.
BAPTISTA
I follow you.
Exeunt
[
Tranio, Pedant and Baptista
]
Enter Lucentio
[
disguised as Cambio
]
and Biondello
BIONDELLO
Cambio!
LUCENTIO
What say’st thou, Biondello?
BIONDELLO
You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?
LUCENTIO
Biondello, what of that?
BIONDELLO
Faith, nothing. But
has
77
left me here behind to
expound the meaning or moral of his signs and
tokens
78
.
LUCENTIO
I pray thee
moralize
79
them.
BIONDELLO
Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the
deceiving father of a deceitful son.
LUCENTIO
And what of him?
BIONDELLO
His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.
LUCENTIO
And then?
BIONDELLO
The old priest at Saint Luke’s church is at your
command
86
at all hours.
LUCENTIO
And what of all this?
BIONDELLO
I cannot tell, except they are busied about a
counterfeit assurance
89
. Take you assurance of her,
cum
privilegio ad imprimendum solum
. To th’church, take the
priest, clerk and some
sufficient
91
honest witnesses. If this be
not
that you look for
92
, I have no more to say, but bid Bianca
farewell forever and a day.
LUCENTIO
Hear’st thou, Biondello?
BIONDELLO
I cannot tarry: I knew a wench married in an
afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a
rabbit, and so may you, sir. And so, adieu, sir. My master
hath appointed me to go to Saint Luke’s to bid the priest be
ready to come
against you come
99
with your appendix.
Exit
LUCENTIO
I may, and will, if she be so contented.
She will be pleased, then wherefore should I doubt?
Hap
102
what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her.
It shall
go hard
103
if Cambio go without her.
Exit
Location:
on the road
Enter Petruchio, Kate, Hortensio
[
and Servants
]
PETRUCHIO
Come on, a God’s name, once more toward our father’s.
Good Lord, how bright and
goodly
2
shines the moon!
KATE
The moon? The sun: it is not moonlight now.
PETRUCHIO
I say it is the moon that shines so bright.
KATE
I know it is the sun that shines so bright.
PETRUCHIO
Now, by my mother’s son, and that’s myself,
It shall be moon, or star, or what I
list
7
,
Or ere
8
I journey to your father’s house.—
Go on, and fetch our horses back again.—
To the Servants
Evermore crossed and crossed, nothing but crossed!
HORTENSIO
Say as he says, or we shall never go.
To Kate
KATE
Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.
An if you please to call it a
rush-candle
14
,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.
PETRUCHIO
I say it is the moon.
KATE
I know it is the moon.
PETRUCHIO
Nay, then you lie. It is the blessèd sun.
KATE
Then, God be blessed, it is the blessèd sun.
But sun it is not, when you say it is not,
And the moon changes even as your mind.
What you will have it named, even that it is,
And so it shall be so for Katherine.
HORTENSIO
Petruchio,
go thy ways
24
, the field is won.
Aside
PETRUCHIO
Well, forward, forward! Thus the
bowl should run
25
,
And not unluckily
against the bias
26
.
But, soft, company is coming here.
Enter Vincentio
Good morrow, gentle mistress.
Where away?
28
To Vincentio
Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly too,
To Kate
Hast thou beheld a
fresher
30
gentlewoman?
Such war of white and red within her cheeks!
What stars do
spangle
32
heaven with such beauty,
As those two eyes become that heav’nly face?—
Fair lovely maid, once more good day to thee.—
To Vincentio
Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty’s sake.
To Kate
HORTENSIO
A
36
will make the man mad, to make the woman of him.
Aside
KATE
Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet,
Whither away, or where is thy abode?
Happy the parents of so fair a child;
Happier the man,
whom
40
favourable stars
Allots thee for his lovely bedfellow!
PETRUCHIO
Why, how now, Kate? I hope thou art not mad.
This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered,
And not a maiden, as thou say’st he is.
KATE
Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes,
That have been so bedazzled with the sun
That everything I look on seemeth
green
47
.
Now I perceive thou art a reverend father.
Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking.
PETRUCHIO
Do, good old grandsire, and withal make known
Which way thou travellest: if along with us,
We shall be joyful of thy company.
VINCENTIO
Fair sir, and you my merry mistress,
That with your strange
encounter
54
much amazed me,
My name is called Vincentio, my dwelling Pisa,
And bound I am to Padua, there to visit
A son of mine, which long I have not seen.
PETRUCHIO
What is his name?
VINCENTIO
Lucentio, gentle sir.
PETRUCHIO
Happily met, the happier for thy son.
And now by law, as well as reverend age,
I may entitle thee my loving
father
62
.
The sister to my wife, this gentlewoman,
Thy son by
this
64
hath married. Wonder not,
Nor be not grieved: she is of good
esteem
65
,
Her dowry wealthy, and of worthy birth;
Beside, so qualified as may
beseem
67
The spouse of any noble gentleman.
Let me embrace with old Vincentio,
And wander we to see thy
honest
70
son,
Who will of thy arrival be full joyous.