The Taming of the Shrew (13 page)

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.