The Taming Of The Shrew

1 Enter Tranio and the Pedant dressed like Vincentio
2 TRANIO.
3 Sir, this is the house; please it you that I call?
4 PEDANT.
5 Ay, what else? and, but I be deceived,
6 Signior Baptista may remember me,
7 Near twenty years ago in Genoa,
8 Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.
9 TRANIO.
10 ’Tis well; and hold your own, in any case,
11 With such austerity as ’longeth to a father.
12 PEDANT.
13 I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy;
14 ’Twere good he were school’d.
15 Enter Biondello.
16 TRANIO.
17 Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello,
18 Now do your duty throughly, I advise you.
19 Imagine ’twere the right Vincentio.
20 BIONDELLO.
21 Tut! fear not me.
22 TRANIO.
23 But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?
24 BIONDELLO.
25 I told him that your father was at Venice,
26 And that you look’d for him this day in Padua.
27 TRANIO.
28 Th’art a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink.
29 Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir.
30 Enter Baptista and Lucentio.
31 Signior Baptista, you are happily met.
32 [_To the Pedant_] Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of;
33 I pray you stand good father to me now;
34 Give me Bianca for my patrimony.
35 PEDANT.
36 Soft, son!
37 Sir, by your leave: having come to Padua
38 To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
39 Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
40 Of love between your daughter and himself:
41 And,—for the good report I hear of you,
42 And for the love he beareth to your daughter,
43 And she to him,—to stay him not too long,
44 I am content, in a good father’s care,
45 To have him match’d; and, if you please to like
46 No worse than I, upon some agreement
47 Me shall you find ready and willing
48 With one consent to have her so bestow’d;
49 For curious I cannot be with you,
50 Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.
51 BAPTISTA.
52 Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.
53 Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
54 Right true it is your son Lucentio here
55 Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him,
56 Or both dissemble deeply their affections;
57 And therefore, if you say no more than this,
58 That like a father you will deal with him,
59 And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
60 The match is made, and all is done:
61 Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
62 TRANIO.
63 I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best
64 We be affied, and such assurance ta’en
65 As shall with either part’s agreement stand?
66 BAPTISTA.
67 Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know
68 Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants;
69 Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still,
70 And happily we might be interrupted.
71 TRANIO.
72 Then at my lodging, and it like you:
73 There doth my father lie; and there this night
74 We’ll pass the business privately and well.
75 Send for your daughter by your servant here;
76 My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
77 The worst is this, that at so slender warning
78 You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.
79 BAPTISTA.
80 It likes me well. Cambio, hie you home,
81 And bid Bianca make her ready straight;
82 And, if you will, tell what hath happened:
83 Lucentio’s father is arriv’d in Padua,
84 And how she’s like to be Lucentio’s wife.
85 LUCENTIO.
86 I pray the gods she may, with all my heart!
87 TRANIO.
88 Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
89 Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way?
90 Welcome! One mess is like to be your cheer;
91 Come, sir; we will better it in Pisa.
92 BAPTISTA.
93 I follow you.
94 [_Exeunt Tranio, Pedant and Baptista._]
95 BIONDELLO.
96 Cambio!
97 LUCENTIO.
98 What say’st thou, Biondello?
99 BIONDELLO.
100 You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?
101 LUCENTIO.
102 Biondello, what of that?
103 BIONDELLO.
104 Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind to expound the meaning or
105 moral of his signs and tokens.
106 LUCENTIO.
107 I pray thee moralize them.
108 BIONDELLO.
109 Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a
110 deceitful son.
111 LUCENTIO.
112 And what of him?
113 BIONDELLO.
114 His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.
115 LUCENTIO.
116 And then?
117 BIONDELLO.
118 The old priest at Saint Luke’s church is at your command at all hours.
119 LUCENTIO.
120 And what of all this?
121 BIONDELLO.
122 I cannot tell, except they are busied about a counterfeit assurance.
123 Take your assurance of her, _cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum_; to
124 the church! take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest
125 witnesses. If this be not that you look for, I have more to say, But
126 bid Bianca farewell for ever and a day.
127 [_Going._]
128 LUCENTIO.
129 Hear’st thou, Biondello?
130 BIONDELLO.
131 I cannot tarry: I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to
132 the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit; and so may you, sir; and so
133 adieu, sir. My master hath appointed me to go to Saint Luke’s to bid
134 the priest be ready to come against you come with your appendix.
135 [_Exit._]
136 LUCENTIO.
137 I may, and will, if she be so contented.
138 She will be pleas’d; then wherefore should I doubt?
139 Hap what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her;
140 It shall go hard if Cambio go without her:
141 [_Exit._]