Complete Plays, The (407 page)

Petruchio

Born in Verona, old Antonio’s son:
My father dead, my fortune lives for me;
And I do hope good days and long to see.

Gremio

O sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange!
But if you have a stomach, to’t i’ God’s name:
You shall have me assisting you in all.
But will you woo this wild-cat?

Petruchio

Will I live?

Grumio

Will he woo her? ay, or I’ll hang her.

Petruchio

Why came I hither but to that intent?
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea puff’d up with winds
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven’s artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud ’larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets’ clang?
And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer’s fire?
Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.

Grumio

For he fears none.

Gremio

Hortensio, hark:
This gentleman is happily arrived,
My mind presumes, for his own good and ours.

Hortensio

I promised we would be contributors
And bear his charging of wooing, whatsoe’er.

Gremio

And so we will, provided that he win her.

Grumio

I would I were as sure of a good dinner.

Enter Tranio brave, and Biondello

Tranio

Gentlemen, God save you. If I may be bold,
Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way
To the house of Signior Baptista Minola?

Biondello

He that has the two fair daughters: is’t he you mean?

Tranio

Even he, Biondello.

Gremio

Hark you, sir; you mean not her to —

Tranio

Perhaps, him and her, sir: what have you to do?

Petruchio

Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.

Tranio

I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let’s away.

Lucentio

Well begun, Tranio.

Hortensio

Sir, a word ere you go;
Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?

Tranio

And if I be, sir, is it any offence?

Gremio

No; if without more words you will get you hence.

Tranio

Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free
For me as for you?

Gremio

 
But so is not she.

Tranio

For what reason, I beseech you?

Gremio

For this reason, if you’ll know,
That she’s the choice love of Signior Gremio.

Hortensio

That she’s the chosen of Signior Hortensio.

Tranio

Softly, my masters! if you be gentlemen,
Do me this right; hear me with patience.
Baptista is a noble gentleman,
To whom my father is not all unknown;
And were his daughter fairer than she is,
She may more suitors have and me for one.
Fair Leda’s daughter had a thousand wooers;
Then well one more may fair Bianca have:
And so she shall; Lucentio shall make one,
Though Paris came in hope to speed alone.

Gremio

What! this gentleman will out-talk us all.

Lucentio

Sir, give him head: I know he’ll prove a jade.

Petruchio

Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

Hortensio

Sir, let me be so bold as ask you,
Did you yet ever see Baptista’s daughter?

Tranio

No, sir; but hear I do that he hath two,
The one as famous for a scolding tongue
As is the other for beauteous modesty.

Petruchio

Sir, sir, the first’s for me; let her go by.

Gremio

Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules;
And let it be more than Alcides’ twelve.

Petruchio

Sir, understand you this of me in sooth:
The younges t daughter whom you hearken for
Her father keeps from all access of suitors,
And will not promise her to any man
Until the elder sister first be wed:
The younger then is free and not before.

Tranio

If it be so, sir, that you are the man
Must stead us all and me amongst the rest,
And if you break the ice and do this feat,
Achieve the elder, set the younger free
For our access, whose hap shall be to have her
Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.

Hortensio

Sir, you say well and well you do conceive;
And since you do profess to be a suitor,
You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman,
To whom we all rest generally beholding.

Tranio

Sir, I shall not be slack: in sign whereof,
Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,
And quaff carouses to our mistress’ health,
And do as adversaries do in law,
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

Grumio

Biondello

O excellent motion! Fellows, let’s be gone.

Hortensio

The motion’s good indeed and be it so,
Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.

Exeunt

A
CT
II

S
CENE
I. P
ADUA
. A
ROOM
IN
B
APTISTA
’
S
HOUSE
.

Enter Katharina and Bianca

Bianca

Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,
To make a bondmaid and a slave of me;
That I disdain: but for these other gawds,
Unbind my hands, I’ll pull them off myself,
Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;
Or what you will command me will I do,
So well I know my duty to my elders.

Katharina

Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell
Whom thou lovest best: see thou dissemble not.

Bianca

Believe me, sister, of all the men alive
I never yet beheld that special face
Which I could fancy more than any other.

Katharina

Minion, thou liest. Is’t not Hortensio?

Bianca

If you affect him, sister, here I swear I’ll plead for you myself, but you shall have him.

Katharina

O then, belike, you fancy riches more:
You will have Gremio to keep you fair.

Bianca

Is it for him you do envy me so?
Nay then you jest, and now I well perceive
You have but jested with me all this while:
I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.

Katharina

If that be jest, then all the rest was so.

Strikes her

Enter Baptista

Baptista

Why, how now, dame! whence grows this insolence?
Bianca, stand aside. Poor girl! she weeps.
Go ply thy needle; meddle not with her.
For shame, thou helding of a devilish spirit,
Why dost thou wrong her that did ne’er wrong thee?
When did she cross thee with a bitter word?

Katharina

Her silence flouts me, and I’ll be revenged.

Flies after Bianca

Baptista

What, in my sight? Bianca, get thee in.

Exit Bianca

Katharina

What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband;
I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day
And for your love to her lead apes in hell.
Talk not to me: I will go sit and weep
Till I can find occasion of revenge.

Exit

Baptista

Was ever gentleman thus grieved as I?
But who comes here?

Enter Gremio, Lucentio in the habit of a mean man; Petruchio, with Hortensio as a musician; and Tranio, with Biondello bearing a lute and books

Gremio

Good morrow, neighbour Baptista.

Baptista

Good morrow, neighbour Gremio.
God save you, gentlemen!

Petruchio

And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter
Call’d Katharina, fair and virtuous?

Baptista

I have a daughter, sir, called Katharina.

Gremio

You are too blunt: go to it orderly.

Petruchio

You wrong me, Signior Gremio: give me leave.
I am a gentleman of Verona, sir,
That, hearing of her beauty and her wit,
Her affability and bashful modesty,
Her wondrous qualities and mild behavior,
Am bold to show myself a forward guest
Within your house, to make mine eye the witness
Of that report which I so oft have heard.
And, for an entrance to my entertainment,
I do present you with a man of mine,

Presenting Hortensio

Cunning in music and the mathematics,
To instruct her fully in those sciences,
Whereof I know she is not ignorant:
Accept of him, or else you do me wrong:
His name is Licio, born in Mantua.

Baptista

You’re welcome, sir; and he, for your good sake.
But for my daughter Katharina, this I know,
She is not for your turn, the more my grief.

Petruchio

I see you do not mean to part with her,
Or else you like not of my company.

Baptista

Mistake me not; I speak but as I find.
Whence are you, sir? what may I call your name?

Petruchio

Petruchio is my name; Antonio’s son,
A man well known throughout all Italy.

Baptista

I know him well: you are welcome for his sake.

Gremio

Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray,
Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too:
Baccare! you are marvellous forward.

Petruchio

O, pardon me, Signior Gremio; I would fain be doing.

Gremio

I doubt it not, sir; but you will curse your wooing. Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it. To express the like kindness, myself, that have been more kindly beholding to you than any, freely give unto you this young scholar,

Presenting Lucentio

that hath been long studying at Rheims; as cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages, as the other in music and mathematics: his name is Cambio; pray, accept his service.

Baptista

A thousand thanks, Signior Gremio.
Welcome, good Cambio.

To Tranio

But, gentle sir, methinks you walk like a stranger: may I be so bold to know the cause of your coming?

Tranio

Pardon me, sir, the boldness is mine own,
That, being a stranger in this city here,
Do make myself a suitor to your daughter,
Unto Bianca, fair and virtuous.
Nor is your firm resolve unknown to me,
In the preferment of the eldest sister.
This liberty is all that I request,
That, upon knowledge of my parentage,
I may have welcome ’mongst the rest that woo
And free access and favour as the rest:
And, toward the education of your daughters,
I here bestow a simple instrument,
And this small packet of Greek and Latin books:
If you accept them, then their worth is great.

Baptista

Lucentio is your name; of whence, I pray?

Tranio

Of Pisa, sir; son to Vincentio.

Baptista

A mighty man of Pisa; by report
I know him well: you are very welcome, sir,
Take you the lute, and you the set of books;
You shall go see your pupils presently.
Holla, within!

Enter a Servant

Sirrah, lead these gentlemen
To my daughters; and tell them both,
These are their tutors: bid them use them well.

Exit Servant, with Lucentio and Hortensio, Biondello following

We will go walk a little in the orchard,
And then to dinner. You are passing welcome,
And so I pray you all to think yourselves.

Petruchio

Signior Baptista, my business asketh haste,
And every day I cannot come to woo.
You knew my father well, and in him me,
Left solely heir to all his lands and goods,
Which I have better’d rather than decreased:
Then tell me, if I get your daughter’s love,
What dowry shall I have with her to wife?

Baptista

After my death the one half of my lands,
And in possession twenty thousand crowns.

Petruchio

And, for that dowry, I’ll assure her of
Her widowhood, be it that she survive me,
In all my lands and leases whatsoever:
Let specialties be therefore drawn between us,
That covenants may be kept on either hand.

Baptista

Ay, when the special thing is well obtain’d,
That is, her love; for that is all in all.

Petruchio

Why, that is nothing: for I tell you, father,
I am as peremptory as she proud-minded;
And where two raging fires meet together
They do consume the thing that feeds their fury:
Though little fire grows great with little wind,
Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all:
So I to her and so she yields to me;
For I am rough and woo not like a babe.

Baptista

Well mayst thou woo, and happy be thy speed!
But be thou arm’d for some unhappy words.

Petruchio

Ay, to the proof; as mountains are for winds,
That shake not, though they blow perpetually.

Re-enter Hortensio, with his head broke

Baptista

How now, my friend! why dost thou look so pale?

Hortensio

For fear, I promise you, if I look pale.

Baptista

What, will my daughter prove a good musician?

Hortensio

I think she’ll sooner prove a soldier
Iron may hold with her, but never lutes.

Baptista

Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute?