William Shakespeare
-
Tragedies
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus
- Hamlet
- Julius Caesar
- King Lear
- Macbeth
- Othello
- Romeo and Juliet
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
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Histories
- King Henry IV Part 1
- King Henry IV Part 2
- King Henry V
- King Henry VI Part 1
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- King Henry VI Part 3
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Comedies
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- All's Well That Ends Well
- As You Like It
- Cymbeline
- Love's Labour's Lost
- Measure for Measure
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre
- The Comedy of Errors
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Winter's Tale
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
-
Poetry
- A Lover's Complaint
- Sonnets 1 to 50
- Sonnets 50 to 100
- Sonnets 100 to 154
- The Passionate Pilgrim
- The Phoenix and the Turtle
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Venus and Adonis
The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1592)
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SCENE 1. Padua. A public place.
[Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO.]
LUCENTIO.
- Tranio, since for the great desire I had
- To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
- I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy,
- The pleasant garden of great Italy,
- And by my father's love and leave am arm'd
- With his good will and thy good company,
- My trusty servant well approv'd in all,
- Here let us breathe, and haply institute
- A course of learning and ingenious studies.
- Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
- Gave me my being and my father first,
- A merchant of great traffic through the world,
- Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.
- Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,
- It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv'd,
- To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
- And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
- Virtue and that part of philosophy
- Will I apply that treats of happiness
- By virtue specially to be achiev'd.
- Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left
- And am to Padua come as he that leaves
- A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,
- And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
TRANIO.
- Mi perdonato, gentle master mine;
- I am in all affected as yourself;
- Glad that you thus continue your resolve
- To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
- Only, good master, while we do admire
- This virtue and this moral discipline,
- Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;
- Or so devote to Aristotle's checks
- As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd.
- Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
- And practise rhetoric in your common talk;
- Music and poesy use to quicken you;
- The mathematics and the metaphysics,
- Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:
- No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;
- In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
LUCENTIO.
- Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
- If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
- We could at once put us in readiness,
- And take a lodging fit to entertain
- Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
- But stay awhile; what company is this?
TRANIO.
- Master, some show to welcome us to town.
[Enter BAPTISTA, KATHERINA, BIANCA, GREMIO,and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.]
BAPTISTA.
- Gentlemen, importune me no further,
- For how I firmly am resolv'd you know;
- That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter
- Before I have a husband for the elder.
- If either of you both love Katherina,
- Because I know you well and love you well,
- Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
GREMIO.
- To cart her rather: she's too rough for me.
- There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?
KATHERINA.
- [To BAPTISTA] I pray you, sir, is it your will
- To make a stale of me amongst these mates?
HORTENSIO.
- Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you,
- Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.
KATHERINA.
- I' faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;
- I wis it is not halfway to her heart;
- But if it were, doubt not her care should be
- To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool,
- And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
HORTENSIO.
- From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!
GREMIO.
- And me, too, good Lord!
TRANIO.
- Husht, master! Here's some good pastime toward:
- That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.
LUCENTIO.
- But in the other's silence do I see
- Maid's mild behaviour and sobriety.
- Peace, Tranio!
TRANIO.
- Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.
BAPTISTA.
- Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
- What I have said,—Bianca, get you in:
- And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
- For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl.
KATHERINA.
- A pretty peat! it is best
- Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.
BIANCA.
- Sister, content you in my discontent.
- Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:
- My books and instruments shall be my company,
- On them to look, and practise by myself.
LUCENTIO.
- Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak.
HORTENSIO.
- Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?
- Sorry am I that our good will effects
- Bianca's grief.
GREMIO.
- Why will you mew her up,
- Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,
- And make her bear the penance of her tongue?
BAPTISTA.
- Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv'd.
- Go in, Bianca.
[Exit BIANCA.]
- And for I know she taketh most delight
- In music, instruments, and poetry,
- Schoolmasters will I keep within my house
- Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
- Or, Signior Gremio, you, know any such,
- Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
- I will be very kind, and liberal
- To mine own children in good bringing up;
- And so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay;
- For I have more to commune with Bianca.
[Exit.]
KATHERINA.
- Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?
- What! shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike,
- I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!
[Exit.]
GREMIO.
- You may go to the devil's dam: your gifts are so good
- here's none will hold you. Their love is not so great,
- Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly
- out; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell: yet, for the love I
- bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man to
- teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her
- father.
HORTENSIO.
- So will I, Signior Gremio: but a word, I pray. Though
- the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon
- advice, it toucheth us both,—that we may yet again have access to
- our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love,—to labour
- and effect one thing specially.
GREMIO.
- What's that, I pray?
HORTENSIO.
- Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
GREMIO.
- A husband! a devil.
HORTENSIO.
- I say, a husband.
GREMIO.
- I say, a devil. Thinkest thou, Hortensio, though her
- fatherbe very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to
- hell?
HORTENSIO.
- Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to
- endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the
- world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all
- faults, and money enough.
GREMIO.
- I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this
- condition: to be whipp'd at the high cross every morning.
HORTENSIO.
- Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten
- apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it
- shall be so far forth friendly maintained, till by helping
- Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free
- for a husband, and then have to't afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man
- be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you,
- Signior Gremio?
GREMIO.
- I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in
- Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed
- her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on.
[Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO.]
TRANIO.
- I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
- That love should of a sudden take such hold?
LUCENTIO.
- O Tranio! till I found it to be true,
- I never thought it possible or likely;
- But see, while idly I stood looking on,
- I found the effect of love in idleness;
- And now in plainness do confess to thee,
- That art to me as secret and as dear
- As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was,
- Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
- If I achieve not this young modest girl.
- Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst:
- Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.
TRANIO.
- Master, it is no time to chide you now;
- Affection is not rated from the heart:
- If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so:
- Redime te captum quam queas minimo.
LUCENTIO.
- Gramercies, lad; go forward; this contents;
- The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.
TRANIO.
- Master, you look'd so longly on the maid.
- Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.
LUCENTIO.
- O, yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
- Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
- That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
- When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.
TRANIO.
- Saw you no more? mark'd you not how her sister
- Began to scold and raise up such a storm
- That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
LUCENTIO.
- Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
- And with her breath she did perfume the air;
- Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.
TRANIO.
- Nay, then, 'tis time to stir him from his trance.
- I pray, awake, sir: if you love the maid,
- Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:
- Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,
- That till the father rid his hands of her,
- Master, your love must live a maid at home;
- And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
- Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors.
LUCENTIO.
- Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
- But art thou not advis'd he took some care
- To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
TRANIO.
- Ay, marry, am I, sir, and now 'tis plotted.
LUCENTIO.
- I have it, Tranio.
TRANIO.
- Master, for my hand,
- Both our inventions meet and jump in one.
LUCENTIO.
- Tell me thine first.
TRANIO.
- You will be schoolmaster,
- And undertake the teaching of the maid:
- That's your device.
LUCENTIO.
- It is: may it be done?
TRANIO.
- Not possible; for who shall bear your part
- And be in Padua here Vincentio's son;
- Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends;
- Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?
LUCENTIO.
- Basta; content thee, for I have it full.
- We have not yet been seen in any house,
- Nor can we be distinguish'd by our faces
- For man or master: then it follows thus:
- Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
- Keep house and port and servants, as I should;
- I will some other be; some Florentine,
- Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
- 'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so: Tranio, at once
- Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak.
- When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
- But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
[They exchange habits]
TRANIO.
- So had you need.
- In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
- And I am tied to be obedient;
- For so your father charg'd me at our parting,
- 'Be serviceable to my son,' quoth he,
- Although I think 'twas in another sense:
- I am content to be Lucentio,
- Because so well I love Lucentio.
LUCENTIO.
- Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves;
- And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid
- Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.
- Here comes the rogue.
[Enter BIONDELLO.]
- Sirrah, where have you been?
BIONDELLO.
- Where have I been! Nay, how now! where are you?
- Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
- Or you stol'n his? or both? Pray, what's the news?
LUCENTIO.
- Sirrah, come hither: 'tis no time to jest,
- And therefore frame your manners to the time.
- Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
- Puts my apparel and my count'nance on,
- And I for my escape have put on his;
- For in a quarrel since I came ashore
- I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.
- Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
- While I make way from hence to save my life.
- You understand me?
BIONDELLO.
- I, sir! Ne'er a whit.
LUCENTIO.
- And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth:
- Tranio is changed to Lucentio.
BIONDELLO.
- The better for him: would I were so too!
TRANIO.
- So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,
- That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.
- But, sirrah, not for my sake but your master's, I advise
- You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies:
- When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
- But in all places else your master, Lucentio.
LUCENTIO.
- Tranio, let's go. One thing more rests, that thyself execute,
- to make one among these wooers: if thou ask me why,
- sufficeth my reasons are both good and weighty.
[Exeunt.]
[The Presenters above speak.]
FIRST SERVANT.
- My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.
SLY.
- Yes, by Saint Anne, I do. A good matter, surely: comes there
- any more of it?
PAGE.
- My lord, 'tis but begun.
SLY. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady: would
- 'twere done!
[They sit and mark.]
SCENE 2. Padua. Before HORTENSIO's house.
[Enter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO.]
PETRUCHIO.
- Verona, for a while I take my leave,
- To see my friends in Padua; but of all
- My best beloved and approved friend,
- Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
- Here, sirrah Grumio, knock, I say.
GRUMIO.
- Knock, sir! Whom should I knock? Is there any man has rebused
- your worship?
PETRUCHIO.
- Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.
GRUMIO.
- Knock you here, sir! Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I
- should knock you here, sir?
PETRUCHIO.
- Villain, I say, knock me at this gate;
- And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
GRUMIO.
- My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
- And then I know after who comes by the worst.
PETRUCHIO.
- Will it not be?
- Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;
- I'll try how you can sol,fa, and sing it.
[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.]
GRUMIO.
- Help, masters, help! my master is mad.
PETRUCHIO.
- Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!
[Enter HORTENSIO.]
HORTENSIO.
- How now! what's the matter? My old friend Grumio! and my
- good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona?
PETRUCHIO.
- Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?
- Con tutto il cuore ben trovato, may I say.
HORTENSIO.
- Alla nostra casa ben venuto; molto honorato signor mio Petruchio.
- Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel.
GRUMIO.
- Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this
- be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you, sir,
- he bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir: well, was it fit for
- a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I see,
- two-and-thirty, a pip out?
- Whom would to God I had well knock'd at first,
- Then had not Grumio come by the worst.
PETRUCHIO.
- A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
- I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
- And could not get him for my heart to do it.
GRUMIO.
- Knock at the gate! O heavens! Spake you not these words
- plain: 'Sirrah knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and
- knock me soundly'? And come you now with 'knocking at the gate'?
PETRUCHIO.
- Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
HORTENSIO.
- Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge;
- Why, this's a heavy chance 'twixt him and you,
- Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.
- And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale
- Blows you to Padua here from old Verona?
PETRUCHIO.
- Such wind as scatters young men through the world
- To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
- Where small experience grows. But in a few,
- Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
- Antonio, my father, is deceas'd,
- And I have thrust myself into this maze,
- Haply to wive and thrive as best I may;
- Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
- And so am come abroad to see the world.
HORTENSIO.
- Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee
- And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?
- Thou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel;
- And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,
- And very rich: but th'art too much my friend,
- And I'll not wish thee to her.
PETRUCHIO.
- Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we
- Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
- One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
- As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,
- Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
- As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
- As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse,
- She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
- Affection's edge in me, were she as rough
- As are the swelling Adriatic seas:
- I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
- If wealthily, then happily in Padua.
GRUMIO.
- Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is: why,
- give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an
- aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though
- she has as many diseases as two-and-fifty horses: why, nothing
- comes amiss, so money comes withal.
HORTENSIO.
- Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in,
- I will continue that I broach'd in jest.
- I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
- With wealth enough, and young and beauteous;
- Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman:
- Her only fault,—and that is faults enough,—
- Is, that she is intolerable curst
- And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure,
- That, were my state far worser than it is,
- I would not wed her for a mine of gold.
PETRUCHIO.
- Hortensio, peace! thou know'st not gold's effect:
- Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough;
- For I will board her, though she chide as loud
- As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.
HORTENSIO.
- Her father is Baptista Minola,
- An affable and courteous gentleman;
- Her name is Katherina Minola,
- Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue.
PETRUCHIO.
- I know her father, though I know not her;
- And he knew my deceased father well.
- I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her;
- And therefore let me be thus bold with you,
- To give you over at this first encounter,
- Unless you will accompany me thither.
GRUMIO.
- I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts. O' my
- word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding
- would do little good upon him. She may perhaps call him half a
- score knaves or so; why, that's nothing; and he begin once, he'll
- rail in his rope-tricks. I'll tell you what, sir, an she stand him
- but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure
- her with it that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a
- cat. You know him not, sir.
HORTENSIO.
- Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee,
- For in Baptista's keep my treasure is:
- He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
- His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca,
- And her withholds from me and other more,
- Suitors to her and rivals in my love;
- Supposing it a thing impossible,
- For those defects I have before rehears'd,
- That ever Katherina will be woo'd:
- Therefore this order hath Baptista ta'en,
- That none shall have access unto Bianca
- Till Katherine the curst have got a husband.
GRUMIO.
- Katherine the curst!
- A title for a maid of all titles the worst.
HORTENSIO.
- Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace,
- And offer me disguis'd in sober robes,
- To old Baptista as a schoolmaster
- Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca;
- That so I may, by this device at least
- Have leave and leisure to make love to her,
- And unsuspected court her by herself.
GRUMIO.
- Here's no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the
- young folks lay their heads together!
[Enter GREMIO, and LUCENTIO disguised, with books under his arm.]
- Master, master, look about you: who goes there, ha?
HORTENSIO.
- Peace, Grumio! 'tis the rival of my love. Petruchio,
- stand by awhile.
GRUMIO.
- A proper stripling, and an amorous!
GREMIO.
- O! very well; I have perus'd the note.
- Hark you, sir; I'll have them very fairly bound:
- All books of love, see that at any hand,
- And see you read no other lectures to her.
- You understand me. Over and beside
- Signior Baptista's liberality,
- I'll mend it with a largess. Take your papers too,
- And let me have them very well perfum'd;
- For she is sweeter than perfume itself
- To whom they go to. What will you read to her?
LUCENTIO.
- Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you,
- As for my patron, stand you so assur'd,
- As firmly as yourself were still in place;
- Yea, and perhaps with more successful words
- Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.
GREMIO.
- O! this learning, what a thing it is.
GRUMIO.
- O! this woodcock, what an ass it is.
PETRUCHIO.
- Peace, sirrah!
HORTENSIO.
- Grumio, mum! God save you, Signior Gremio!
GREMIO.
- And you are well met, Signior Hortensio.
- Trow you whither I am going? To Baptista Minola.
- I promis'd to enquire carefully
- About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca;
- And by good fortune I have lighted well
- On this young man; for learning and behaviour
- Fit for her turn, well read in poetry
- And other books, good ones, I warrant ye.
HORTENSIO.
- 'Tis well; and I have met a gentleman
- Hath promis'd me to help me to another,
- A fine musician to instruct our mistress:
- So shall I no whit be behind in duty
- To fair Bianca, so belov'd of me.
GREMIO.
- Belov'd of me, and that my deeds shall prove.
GRUMIO.
- [Aside.] And that his bags shall prove.
HORTENSIO.
- Gremio, 'tis now no time to vent our love:
- Listen to me, and if you speak me fair,
- I'll tell you news indifferent good for either.
- Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met,
- Upon agreement from us to his liking,
- Will undertake to woo curst Katherine;
- Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.
GREMIO.
- So said, so done, is well.
- Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?
PETRUCHIO.
- I know she is an irksome brawling scold;
- If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.
GREMIO.
- No, say'st me so, friend? What countryman?
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.
- [Aside] For he fears none.
GREMIO.
- Hortensio, hark:
- This gentleman is happily arriv'd,
- My mind presumes, for his own good and ours.
HORTENSIO.
- I promis'd we would be contributors,
- And bear his charge 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, bravely apparelled;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.
- [Aside] 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 youngest 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.]