The Taming Of The Shrew

1 Flourish. Enter Lucentio and Tranio.
2 LUCENTIO.
3 Tranio, since for the great desire I had
4 To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
5 I am arriv’d for fruitful Lombardy,
6 The pleasant garden of great Italy,
7 And by my father’s love and leave am arm’d
8 With his good will and thy good company,
9 My trusty servant well approv’d in all,
10 Here let us breathe, and haply institute
11 A course of learning and ingenious studies.
12 Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
13 Gave me my being and my father first,
14 A merchant of great traffic through the world,
15 Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.
16 Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,
17 It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv’d,
18 To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
19 And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
20 Virtue and that part of philosophy
21 Will I apply that treats of happiness
22 By virtue specially to be achiev’d.
23 Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left
24 And am to Padua come as he that leaves
25 A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,
26 And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
27 TRANIO.
28 _Mi perdonato_, gentle master mine;
29 I am in all affected as yourself;
30 Glad that you thus continue your resolve
31 To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
32 Only, good master, while we do admire
33 This virtue and this moral discipline,
34 Let’s be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;
35 Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks
36 As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur’d.
37 Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
38 And practise rhetoric in your common talk;
39 Music and poesy use to quicken you;
40 The mathematics and the metaphysics,
41 Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:
42 No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en;
43 In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
44 LUCENTIO.
45 Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
46 If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
47 We could at once put us in readiness,
48 And take a lodging fit to entertain
49 Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
50 But stay awhile; what company is this?
51 TRANIO.
52 Master, some show to welcome us to town.
53 [_Lucentio and Tranio stand aside._]
54 Enter Baptista, Katherina, Bianca, Gremio and Hortensio.
55 BAPTISTA.
56 Gentlemen, importune me no farther,
57 For how I firmly am resolv’d you know;
58 That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter
59 Before I have a husband for the elder.
60 If either of you both love Katherina,
61 Because I know you well and love you well,
62 Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
63 GREMIO.
64 To cart her rather: she’s too rough for me.
65 There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?
66 KATHERINA.
67 [_To Baptista_] I pray you, sir, is it your will
68 To make a stale of me amongst these mates?
69 HORTENSIO.
70 Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you,
71 Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.
72 KATHERINA.
73 I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;
74 I wis it is not half way to her heart;
75 But if it were, doubt not her care should be
76 To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,
77 And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
78 HORTENSIO.
79 From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!
80 GREMIO.
81 And me, too, good Lord!
82 TRANIO.
83 Husht, master! Here’s some good pastime toward:
84 That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.
85 LUCENTIO.
86 But in the other’s silence do I see
87 Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.
88 Peace, Tranio!
89 TRANIO.
90 Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.
91 BAPTISTA.
92 Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
93 What I have said,—Bianca, get you in:
94 And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
95 For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.
96 KATHERINA.
97 A pretty peat! it is best put finger in the eye, and she knew why.
98 BIANCA.
99 Sister, content you in my discontent.
100 Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:
101 My books and instruments shall be my company,
102 On them to look, and practise by myself.
103 LUCENTIO.
104 Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak.
105 HORTENSIO.
106 Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?
107 Sorry am I that our good will effects
108 Bianca’s grief.
109 GREMIO.
110 Why will you mew her up,
111 Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,
112 And make her bear the penance of her tongue?
113 BAPTISTA.
114 Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv’d.
115 Go in, Bianca.
116 [_Exit Bianca._]
117 And for I know she taketh most delight
118 In music, instruments, and poetry,
119 Schoolmasters will I keep within my house
120 Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
121 Or, Signior Gremio, you, know any such,
122 Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
123 I will be very kind, and liberal
124 To mine own children in good bringing up;
125 And so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay;
126 For I have more to commune with Bianca.
127 [_Exit._]
128 KATHERINA.
129 Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What! shall I be appointed
130 hours, as though, belike, I knew not what to take and what to leave?
131 Ha!
132 [_Exit._]
133 GREMIO.
134 You may go to the devil’s dam: your gifts are so good here’s none will
135 hold you. Their love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our
136 nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake’s dough on both sides.
137 Farewell: yet, for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any
138 means light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I will
139 wish him to her father.
140 HORTENSIO.
141 So will I, Signior Gremio: but a word, I pray. Though the nature of our
142 quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us
143 both,—that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress, and be
144 happy rivals in Bianca’s love,—to labour and effect one thing
145 specially.
146 GREMIO.
147 What’s that, I pray?
148 HORTENSIO.
149 Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
150 GREMIO.
151 A husband! a devil.
152 HORTENSIO.
153 I say, a husband.
154 GREMIO.
155 I say, a devil. Thinkest thou, Hortensio, though her father be very
156 rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?
157 HORTENSIO.
158 Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud
159 alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, and a man could
160 light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.
161 GREMIO.
162 I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition: to
163 be whipp’d at the high cross every morning.
164 HORTENSIO.
165 Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten apples. But come;
166 since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth
167 friendly maintained, till by helping Baptista’s eldest daughter to a
168 husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to’t
169 afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets
170 the ring. How say you, Signior Gremio?
171 GREMIO.
172 I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin
173 his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and
174 rid the house of her. Come on.
175 [_Exeunt Gremio and Hortensio._]
176 TRANIO.
177 I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
178 That love should of a sudden take such hold?
179 LUCENTIO.
180 O Tranio! till I found it to be true,
181 I never thought it possible or likely;
182 But see, while idly I stood looking on,
183 I found the effect of love in idleness;
184 And now in plainness do confess to thee,
185 That art to me as secret and as dear
186 As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was,
187 Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
188 If I achieve not this young modest girl.
189 Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst:
190 Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.
191 TRANIO.
192 Master, it is no time to chide you now;
193 Affection is not rated from the heart:
194 If love have touch’d you, nought remains but so:
195 _Redime te captum quam queas minimo._
196 LUCENTIO.
197 Gramercies, lad; go forward; this contents;
198 The rest will comfort, for thy counsel’s sound.
199 TRANIO.
200 Master, you look’d so longly on the maid.
201 Perhaps you mark’d not what’s the pith of all.
202 LUCENTIO.
203 O, yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
204 Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
205 That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
206 When with his knees he kiss’d the Cretan strand.
207 TRANIO.
208 Saw you no more? mark’d you not how her sister
209 Began to scold and raise up such a storm
210 That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
211 LUCENTIO.
212 Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
213 And with her breath she did perfume the air;
214 Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.
215 TRANIO.
216 Nay, then, ’tis time to stir him from his trance.
217 I pray, awake, sir: if you love the maid,
218 Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:
219 Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,
220 That till the father rid his hands of her,
221 Master, your love must live a maid at home;
222 And therefore has he closely mew’d her up,
223 Because she will not be annoy’d with suitors.
224 LUCENTIO.
225 Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father’s he!
226 But art thou not advis’d he took some care
227 To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
228 TRANIO.
229 Ay, marry, am I, sir, and now ’tis plotted.
230 LUCENTIO.
231 I have it, Tranio.
232 TRANIO.
233 Master, for my hand,
234 Both our inventions meet and jump in one.
235 LUCENTIO.
236 Tell me thine first.
237 TRANIO.
238 You will be schoolmaster,
239 And undertake the teaching of the maid:
240 That’s your device.
241 LUCENTIO.
242 It is: may it be done?
243 TRANIO.
244 Not possible; for who shall bear your part
245 And be in Padua here Vincentio’s son;
246 Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends;
247 Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?
248 LUCENTIO.
249 _Basta_, content thee, for I have it full.
250 We have not yet been seen in any house,
251 Nor can we be distinguish’d by our faces
252 For man or master: then it follows thus:
253 Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
254 Keep house and port and servants, as I should;
255 I will some other be; some Florentine,
256 Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
257 ’Tis hatch’d, and shall be so: Tranio, at once
258 Uncase thee; take my colour’d hat and cloak.
259 When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
260 But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
261 [_They exchange habits_]
262 TRANIO.
263 So had you need.
264 In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
265 And I am tied to be obedient;
266 For so your father charg’d me at our parting,
267 ‘Be serviceable to my son,’ quoth he,
268 Although I think ’twas in another sense:
269 I am content to be Lucentio,
270 Because so well I love Lucentio.
271 LUCENTIO.
272 Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves;
273 And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid
274 Whose sudden sight hath thrall’d my wounded eye.
275 Enter Biondello.
276 Here comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been?
277 BIONDELLO.
278 Where have I been? Nay, how now! where are you?
279 Master, has my fellow Tranio stol’n your clothes?
280 Or you stol’n his? or both? Pray, what’s the news?
281 LUCENTIO.
282 Sirrah, come hither: ’tis no time to jest,
283 And therefore frame your manners to the time.
284 Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
285 Puts my apparel and my count’nance on,
286 And I for my escape have put on his;
287 For in a quarrel since I came ashore
288 I kill’d a man, and fear I was descried.
289 Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
290 While I make way from hence to save my life.
291 You understand me?
292 BIONDELLO.
293 I, sir! Ne’er a whit.
294 LUCENTIO.
295 And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth:
296 Tranio is changed to Lucentio.
297 BIONDELLO.
298 The better for him: would I were so too!
299 TRANIO.
300 So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,
301 That Lucentio indeed had Baptista’s youngest daughter.
302 But, sirrah, not for my sake but your master’s, I advise
303 You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies:
304 When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
305 But in all places else your master, Lucentio.
306 LUCENTIO.
307 Tranio, let’s go.
308 One thing more rests, that thyself execute,
309 To make one among these wooers: if thou ask me why,
310 Sufficeth my reasons are both good and weighty.
311 [_Exeunt._]
312 [_The Presenters above speak._]
313 FIRST SERVANT.
314 My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.
315 SLY.
316 Yes, by Saint Anne, I do. A good matter, surely: comes there any more
317 of it?
318 PAGE.
319 My lord, ’tis but begun.
320 SLY.
321 ’Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady: would ’twere done!
322 [_They sit and mark._]