|
|
|
SLY: |
|
Ay, it stands so that I may hardly |
|
tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into |
|
my dreams again: I will therefore tarry in |
|
despite of the flesh and the blood. |
|
|
|
Messenger: |
|
Your honour's players, heating your amendment, |
|
Are come to play a pleasant comedy; |
|
For so your doctors hold it very meet, |
|
Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, |
|
And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy: |
|
Therefore they thought it good you hear a play |
|
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, |
|
Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life. |
|
|
|
SLY: |
|
Marry, I will, let them play it. Is not a |
|
comondy a Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick? |
|
|
|
Page: |
|
No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff. |
|
|
|
SLY: |
|
What, household stuff? |
|
|
|
Page: |
|
It is a kind of history. |
|
|
|
SLY: |
|
Well, well see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side |
|
and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Tranio, since for the great desire I had |
|
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts, |
|
I am arrived 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 approved in all, |
|
Here let us breathe and haply institute |
|
A course of learning and ingenious studies. |
|
Pisa renown'd for grave citizens |
|
Gave me my being and my father first, |
|
A merchant of great traffic through the world, |
|
Vincetino come of Bentivolii. |
|
Vincetino's son brought up in Florence |
|
It shall become to serve all hopes conceived, |
|
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 achieved. |
|
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 cheques |
|
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured: |
|
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 a while: what company is this? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Master, some show to welcome us to town. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Gentlemen, importune me no farther, |
|
For how I firmly am resolved you know; |
|
That is, not bestow my youngest daughter |
|
Before I have a husband for the elder: |
|
If either of you both love Katharina, |
|
Because I know you well and love you well, |
|
Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
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. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I'faith, sir, you shall never need to fear: |
|
I wis it is not half way 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. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIA: |
|
From all such devils, good Lord deliver us! |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
And me too, good Lord! |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Hush, 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 behavior 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. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
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 took and practise by myself. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Hark, Tranio! thou may'st 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 resolved: |
|
Go in, 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. Katharina, you may stay; |
|
For I have more to commune with Bianca. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
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? |
|
|
|
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 cakes 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 Bianco'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 father be 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 whipped 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 all by helping Baptista's eldest daughter |
|
to a husband we set his youngest free for a husband, |
|
and then have to't a fresh. 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. |
|
|
|
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 eldest 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 advised, 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 lie 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. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
So had you need. |
|
In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is, |
|
And I am tied to be obedient; |
|
For so your father charged 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. |
|
Sirrah, where have you been? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Where have I been! Nay, how now! where are you? |
|
Master, has my fellow Tranio stolen your clothes? Or |
|
you stolen 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 countenance 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 into 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. |
|
|
|
First Servant: |
|
My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. |
|
|
|
SLY: |
|
Yes, by Saint Anne, do I. 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! |
|
|
|
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 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. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Help, masters, help! my master is mad. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain! |
|
|
|
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 case 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 deceased; |
|
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'ldst thank me but a little for my counsel: |
|
And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich |
|
And very rich: but thou'rt 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 have 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 Katharina 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; an 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 Binaca, |
|
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 rehearsed, |
|
That ever Katharina will be woo'd; |
|
Therefore this order hath Baptista ta'en, |
|
That none shall have access unto Bianca |
|
Till Katharina the curst have got a husband. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Katharina the curst! |
|
A title for a maid of all titles the worst. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace, |
|
And offer me disguised 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! |
|
Master, master, look about you: who goes there, ha? |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Peace, Grumio! it is the rival of my love. |
|
Petruchio, stand by a while. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
A proper stripling and an amorous! |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
O, very well; I have perused 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 paper too, |
|
And let me have them very well perfumed |
|
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 assured, |
|
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 promised to inquire carefully |
|
About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca: |
|
And by good fortune I have lighted well |
|
On this young man, for learning and behavior |
|
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 promised 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 beloved of me. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Beloved of me; and that my deeds shall prove. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
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 Katharina, |
|
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: |
|
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. |
|
|
|
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 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: |
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
What, in my sight? Bianca, get thee in. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Was ever gentleman thus grieved as I? |
|
But who comes here? |
|
|
|
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, |
|
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, |
|
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. |
|
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! |
|
Sirrah, lead these gentlemen |
|
To my daughters; and tell them both, |
|
These are their tutors: bid them use them well. |
|
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. |
|
|
|
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? |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Why, no; for she hath broke the lute to me. |
|
I did but tell her she mistook her frets, |
|
And bow'd her hand to teach her fingering; |
|
When, with a most impatient devilish spirit, |
|
'Frets, call you these?' quoth she; 'I'll fume |
|
with them:' |
|
And, with that word, she struck me on the head, |
|
And through the instrument my pate made way; |
|
And there I stood amazed for a while, |
|
As on a pillory, looking through the lute; |
|
While she did call me rascal fiddler |
|
And twangling Jack; with twenty such vile terms, |
|
As had she studied to misuse me so. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench; |
|
I love her ten times more than e'er I did: |
|
O, how I long to have some chat with her! |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Well, go with me and be not so discomfited: |
|
Proceed in practise with my younger daughter; |
|
She's apt to learn and thankful for good turns. |
|
Signior Petruchio, will you go with us, |
|
Or shall I send my daughter Kate to you? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I pray you do. |
|
I will attend her here, |
|
And woo her with some spirit when she comes. |
|
Say that she rail; why then I'll tell her plain |
|
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale: |
|
Say that she frown, I'll say she looks as clear |
|
As morning roses newly wash'd with dew: |
|
Say she be mute and will not speak a word; |
|
Then I'll commend her volubility, |
|
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence: |
|
If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks, |
|
As though she bid me stay by her a week: |
|
If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day |
|
When I shall ask the banns and when be married. |
|
But here she comes; and now, Petruchio, speak. |
|
Good morrow, Kate; for that's your name, I hear. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing: |
|
They call me Katharina that do talk of me. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
You lie, in faith; for you are call'd plain Kate, |
|
And bonny Kate and sometimes Kate the curst; |
|
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom |
|
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate, |
|
For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate, |
|
Take this of me, Kate of my consolation; |
|
Hearing thy mildness praised in every town, |
|
Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded, |
|
Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs, |
|
Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Moved! in good time: let him that moved you hither |
|
Remove you hence: I knew you at the first |
|
You were a moveable. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, what's a moveable? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
A join'd-stool. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Thou hast hit it: come, sit on me. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Asses are made to bear, and so are you. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Women are made to bear, and so are you. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
No such jade as you, if me you mean. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Alas! good Kate, I will not burden thee; |
|
For, knowing thee to be but young and light-- |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Too light for such a swain as you to catch; |
|
And yet as heavy as my weight should be. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Should be! should--buzz! |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Well ta'en, and like a buzzard. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
O slow-wing'd turtle! shall a buzzard take thee? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
If I be waspish, best beware my sting. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
My remedy is then, to pluck it out. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies, |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Who knows not where a wasp does |
|
wear his sting? In his tail. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
In his tongue. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Whose tongue? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
What, with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again, |
|
Good Kate; I am a gentleman. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
That I'll try. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
So may you lose your arms: |
|
If you strike me, you are no gentleman; |
|
And if no gentleman, why then no arms. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
A herald, Kate? O, put me in thy books! |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
What is your crest? a coxcomb? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
No cock of mine; you crow too like a craven. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
It is my fashion, when I see a crab. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, here's no crab; and therefore look not sour. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
There is, there is. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Then show it me. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Had I a glass, I would. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
What, you mean my face? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Well aim'd of such a young one. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Now, by Saint George, I am too young for you. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Yet you are wither'd. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
'Tis with cares. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I care not. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Nay, hear you, Kate: in sooth you scape not so. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I chafe you, if I tarry: let me go. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
No, not a whit: I find you passing gentle. |
|
'Twas told me you were rough and coy and sullen, |
|
And now I find report a very liar; |
|
For thou are pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous, |
|
But slow in speech, yet sweet as spring-time flowers: |
|
Thou canst not frown, thou canst not look askance, |
|
Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will, |
|
Nor hast thou pleasure to be cross in talk, |
|
But thou with mildness entertain'st thy wooers, |
|
With gentle conference, soft and affable. |
|
Why does the world report that Kate doth limp? |
|
O slanderous world! Kate like the hazel-twig |
|
Is straight and slender and as brown in hue |
|
As hazel nuts and sweeter than the kernels. |
|
O, let me see thee walk: thou dost not halt. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Go, fool, and whom thou keep'st command. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Did ever Dian so become a grove |
|
As Kate this chamber with her princely gait? |
|
O, be thou Dian, and let her be Kate; |
|
And then let Kate be chaste and Dian sportful! |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Where did you study all this goodly speech? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
It is extempore, from my mother-wit. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
A witty mother! witless else her son. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Am I not wise? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Yes; keep you warm. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Marry, so I mean, sweet Katharina, in thy bed: |
|
And therefore, setting all this chat aside, |
|
Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented |
|
That you shall be my wife; your dowry 'greed on; |
|
And, Will you, nill you, I will marry you. |
|
Now, Kate, I am a husband for your turn; |
|
For, by this light, whereby I see thy beauty, |
|
Thy beauty, that doth make me like thee well, |
|
Thou must be married to no man but me; |
|
For I am he am born to tame you Kate, |
|
And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate |
|
Conformable as other household Kates. |
|
Here comes your father: never make denial; |
|
I must and will have Katharina to my wife. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Now, Signior Petruchio, how speed you with my daughter? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
How but well, sir? how but well? |
|
It were impossible I should speed amiss. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Why, how now, daughter Katharina! in your dumps? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Call you me daughter? now, I promise you |
|
You have show'd a tender fatherly regard, |
|
To wish me wed to one half lunatic; |
|
A mad-cup ruffian and a swearing Jack, |
|
That thinks with oaths to face the matter out. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Father, 'tis thus: yourself and all the world, |
|
That talk'd of her, have talk'd amiss of her: |
|
If she be curst, it is for policy, |
|
For she's not froward, but modest as the dove; |
|
She is not hot, but temperate as the morn; |
|
For patience she will prove a second Grissel, |
|
And Roman Lucrece for her chastity: |
|
And to conclude, we have 'greed so well together, |
|
That upon Sunday is the wedding-day. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I'll see thee hang'd on Sunday first. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Hark, Petruchio; she says she'll see thee |
|
hang'd first. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Is this your speeding? nay, then, good night our part! |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Be patient, gentlemen; I choose her for myself: |
|
If she and I be pleased, what's that to you? |
|
'Tis bargain'd 'twixt us twain, being alone, |
|
That she shall still be curst in company. |
|
I tell you, 'tis incredible to believe |
|
How much she loves me: O, the kindest Kate! |
|
She hung about my neck; and kiss on kiss |
|
She vied so fast, protesting oath on oath, |
|
That in a twink she won me to her love. |
|
O, you are novices! 'tis a world to see, |
|
How tame, when men and women are alone, |
|
A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew. |
|
Give me thy hand, Kate: I will unto Venice, |
|
To buy apparel 'gainst the wedding-day. |
|
Provide the feast, father, and bid the guests; |
|
I will be sure my Katharina shall be fine. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
I know not what to say: but give me your hands; |
|
God send you joy, Petruchio! 'tis a match. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Amen, say we: we will be witnesses. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Father, and wife, and gentlemen, adieu; |
|
I will to Venice; Sunday comes apace: |
|
We will have rings and things and fine array; |
|
And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o'Sunday. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Faith, gentlemen, now I play a merchant's part, |
|
And venture madly on a desperate mart. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
'Twas a commodity lay fretting by you: |
|
'Twill bring you gain, or perish on the seas. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
The gain I seek is, quiet in the match. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
No doubt but he hath got a quiet catch. |
|
But now, Baptists, to your younger daughter: |
|
Now is the day we long have looked for: |
|
I am your neighbour, and was suitor first. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
And I am one that love Bianca more |
|
Than words can witness, or your thoughts can guess. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Youngling, thou canst not love so dear as I. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Graybeard, thy love doth freeze. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
But thine doth fry. |
|
Skipper, stand back: 'tis age that nourisheth. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
But youth in ladies' eyes that flourisheth. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Content you, gentlemen: I will compound this strife: |
|
'Tis deeds must win the prize; and he of both |
|
That can assure my daughter greatest dower |
|
Shall have my Bianca's love. |
|
Say, Signior Gremio, What can you assure her? |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
First, as you know, my house within the city |
|
Is richly furnished with plate and gold; |
|
Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands; |
|
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry; |
|
In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns; |
|
In cypress chests my arras counterpoints, |
|
Costly apparel, tents, and canopies, |
|
Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl, |
|
Valance of Venice gold in needlework, |
|
Pewter and brass and all things that belong |
|
To house or housekeeping: then, at my farm |
|
I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail, |
|
Sixscore fat oxen standing in my stalls, |
|
And all things answerable to this portion. |
|
Myself am struck in years, I must confess; |
|
And if I die to-morrow, this is hers, |
|
If whilst I live she will be only mine. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
That 'only' came well in. Sir, list to me: |
|
I am my father's heir and only son: |
|
If I may have your daughter to my wife, |
|
I'll leave her houses three or four as good, |
|
Within rich Pisa walls, as any one |
|
Old Signior Gremio has in Padua; |
|
Besides two thousand ducats by the year |
|
Of fruitful land, all which shall be her jointure. |
|
What, have I pinch'd you, Signior Gremio? |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Two thousand ducats by the year of land! |
|
My land amounts not to so much in all: |
|
That she shall have; besides an argosy |
|
That now is lying in Marseilles' road. |
|
What, have I choked you with an argosy? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Gremio, 'tis known my father hath no less |
|
Than three great argosies; besides two galliases, |
|
And twelve tight galleys: these I will assure her, |
|
And twice as much, whate'er thou offer'st next. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Nay, I have offer'd all, I have no more; |
|
And she can have no more than all I have: |
|
If you like me, she shall have me and mine. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Why, then the maid is mine from all the world, |
|
By your firm promise: Gremio is out-vied. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
I must confess your offer is the best; |
|
And, let your father make her the assurance, |
|
She is your own; else, you must pardon me, |
|
if you should die before him, where's her dower? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
That's but a cavil: he is old, I young. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
And may not young men die, as well as old? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Well, gentlemen, |
|
I am thus resolved: on Sunday next you know |
|
My daughter Katharina is to be married: |
|
Now, on the Sunday following, shall Bianca |
|
Be bride to you, if you this assurance; |
|
If not, Signior Gremio: |
|
And so, I take my leave, and thank you both. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Adieu, good neighbour. |
|
Now I fear thee not: |
|
Sirrah young gamester, your father were a fool |
|
To give thee all, and in his waning age |
|
Set foot under thy table: tut, a toy! |
|
An old Italian fox is not so kind, my boy. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
A vengeance on your crafty wither'd hide! |
|
Yet I have faced it with a card of ten. |
|
'Tis in my head to do my master good: |
|
I see no reason but supposed Lucentio |
|
Must get a father, call'd 'supposed Vincentio;' |
|
And that's a wonder: fathers commonly |
|
Do get their children; but in this case of wooing, |
|
A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir: |
|
Have you so soon forgot the entertainment |
|
Her sister Katharina welcomed you withal? |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
But, wrangling pedant, this is |
|
The patroness of heavenly harmony: |
|
Then give me leave to have prerogative; |
|
And when in music we have spent an hour, |
|
Your lecture shall have leisure for as much. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Preposterous ass, that never read so far |
|
To know the cause why music was ordain'd! |
|
Was it not to refresh the mind of man |
|
After his studies or his usual pain? |
|
Then give me leave to read philosophy, |
|
And while I pause, serve in your harmony. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong, |
|
To strive for that which resteth in my choice: |
|
I am no breeching scholar in the schools; |
|
I'll not be tied to hours nor 'pointed times, |
|
But learn my lessons as I please myself. |
|
And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down: |
|
Take you your instrument, play you the whiles; |
|
His lecture will be done ere you have tuned. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
That will be never: tune your instrument. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Where left we last? |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Here, madam: |
|
'Hic ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus; |
|
Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.' |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Construe them. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
'Hic ibat,' as I told you before, 'Simois,' I am |
|
Lucentio, 'hic est,' son unto Vincentio of Pisa, |
|
'Sigeia tellus,' disguised thus to get your love; |
|
'Hic steterat,' and that Lucentio that comes |
|
a-wooing, 'Priami,' is my man Tranio, 'regia,' |
|
bearing my port, 'celsa senis,' that we might |
|
beguile the old pantaloon. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Madam, my instrument's in tune. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Let's hear. O fie! the treble jars. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Now let me see if I can construe it: 'Hic ibat |
|
Simois,' I know you not, 'hic est Sigeia tellus,' I |
|
trust you not; 'Hic steterat Priami,' take heed |
|
he hear us not, 'regia,' presume not, 'celsa senis,' |
|
despair not. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Madam, 'tis now in tune. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
All but the base. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars. |
|
How fiery and forward our pedant is! |
|
Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love: |
|
Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
In time I may believe, yet I mistrust. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Mistrust it not: for, sure, AEacides |
|
Was Ajax, call'd so from his grandfather. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
I must believe my master; else, I promise you, |
|
I should be arguing still upon that doubt: |
|
But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you: |
|
Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray, |
|
That I have been thus pleasant with you both. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
You may go walk, and give me leave a while: |
|
My lessons make no music in three parts. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait, |
|
And watch withal; for, but I be deceived, |
|
Our fine musician groweth amorous. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Madam, before you touch the instrument, |
|
To learn the order of my fingering, |
|
I must begin with rudiments of art; |
|
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort, |
|
More pleasant, pithy and effectual, |
|
Than hath been taught by any of my trade: |
|
And there it is in writing, fairly drawn. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Why, I am past my gamut long ago. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Yet read the gamut of Hortensio. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
|
|
Servant: |
|
Mistress, your father prays you leave your books |
|
And help to dress your sister's chamber up: |
|
You know to-morrow is the wedding-day. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Farewell, sweet masters both; I must be gone. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
But I have cause to pry into this pedant: |
|
Methinks he looks as though he were in love: |
|
Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble |
|
To cast thy wandering eyes on every stale, |
|
Seize thee that list: if once I find thee ranging, |
|
Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forced |
|
To give my hand opposed against my heart |
|
Unto a mad-brain rudesby full of spleen; |
|
Who woo'd in haste and means to wed at leisure. |
|
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool, |
|
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior: |
|
And, to be noted for a merry man, |
|
He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage, |
|
Make feasts, invite friends, and proclaim the banns; |
|
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd. |
|
Now must the world point at poor Katharina, |
|
And say, 'Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife, |
|
If it would please him come and marry her!' |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Patience, good Katharina, and Baptista too. |
|
Upon my life, Petruchio means but well, |
|
Whatever fortune stays him from his word: |
|
Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise; |
|
Though he be merry, yet withal he's honest. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Would Katharina had never seen him though! |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Go, girl; I cannot blame thee now to weep; |
|
For such an injury would vex a very saint, |
|
Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Master, master! news, old news, and such news as |
|
you never heard of! |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Is it new and old too? how may that be? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Why, is it not news, to hear of Petruchio's coming? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Is he come? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Why, no, sir. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
What then? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
He is coming. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
When will he be here? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
When he stands where I am and sees you there. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
But say, what to thine old news? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Why, Petruchio is coming in a new hat and an old |
|
jerkin, a pair of old breeches thrice turned, a pair |
|
of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, |
|
another laced, an old rusty sword ta'en out of the |
|
town-armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; |
|
with two broken points: his horse hipped with an |
|
old mothy saddle and stirrups of no kindred; |
|
besides, possessed with the glanders and like to mose |
|
in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected |
|
with the fashions, full of wingdalls, sped with |
|
spavins, rayed with yellows, past cure of the fives, |
|
stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the |
|
bots, swayed in the back and shoulder-shotten; |
|
near-legged before and with, a half-chequed bit |
|
and a head-stall of sheeps leather which, being |
|
restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been |
|
often burst and now repaired with knots; one girth |
|
six time pieced and a woman's crupper of velure, |
|
which hath two letters for her name fairly set down |
|
in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Who comes with him? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
O, sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned |
|
like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg and a |
|
kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red |
|
and blue list; an old hat and 'the humour of forty |
|
fancies' pricked in't for a feather: a monster, a |
|
very monster in apparel, and not like a Christian |
|
footboy or a gentleman's lackey. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion; |
|
Yet oftentimes he goes but mean-apparell'd. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
I am glad he's come, howsoe'er he comes. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Why, sir, he comes not. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Didst thou not say he comes? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Who? that Petruchio came? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Ay, that Petruchio came. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
No, sir, I say his horse comes, with him on his back. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Why, that's all one. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Nay, by Saint Jamy, |
|
I hold you a penny, |
|
A horse and a man |
|
Is more than one, |
|
And yet not many. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Come, where be these gallants? who's at home? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
You are welcome, sir. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
And yet I come not well. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
And yet you halt not. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Not so well apparell'd |
|
As I wish you were. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Were it better, I should rush in thus. |
|
But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride? |
|
How does my father? Gentles, methinks you frown: |
|
And wherefore gaze this goodly company, |
|
As if they saw some wondrous monument, |
|
Some comet or unusual prodigy? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Why, sir, you know this is your wedding-day: |
|
First were we sad, fearing you would not come; |
|
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided. |
|
Fie, doff this habit, shame to your estate, |
|
An eye-sore to our solemn festival! |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
And tells us, what occasion of import |
|
Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife, |
|
And sent you hither so unlike yourself? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: |
|
Sufficeth I am come to keep my word, |
|
Though in some part enforced to digress; |
|
Which, at more leisure, I will so excuse |
|
As you shall well be satisfied withal. |
|
But where is Kate? I stay too long from her: |
|
The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
See not your bride in these unreverent robes: |
|
Go to my chamber; Put on clothes of mine. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Not I, believe me: thus I'll visit her. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
But thus, I trust, you will not marry her. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Good sooth, even thus; therefore ha' done with words: |
|
To me she's married, not unto my clothes: |
|
Could I repair what she will wear in me, |
|
As I can change these poor accoutrements, |
|
'Twere well for Kate and better for myself. |
|
But what a fool am I to chat with you, |
|
When I should bid good morrow to my bride, |
|
And seal the title with a lovely kiss! |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
He hath some meaning in his mad attire: |
|
We will persuade him, be it possible, |
|
To put on better ere he go to church. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
I'll after him, and see the event of this. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
But to her love concerneth us to add |
|
Her father's liking: which to bring to pass, |
|
As I before unparted to your worship, |
|
I am to get a man,--whate'er he be, |
|
It skills not much. we'll fit him to our turn,-- |
|
And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa; |
|
And make assurance here in Padua |
|
Of greater sums than I have promised. |
|
So shall you quietly enjoy your hope, |
|
And marry sweet Bianca with consent. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Were it not that my fellow-school-master |
|
Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly, |
|
'Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage; |
|
Which once perform'd, let all the world say no, |
|
I'll keep mine own, despite of all the world. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
That by degrees we mean to look into, |
|
And watch our vantage in this business: |
|
We'll over-reach the greybeard, Gremio, |
|
The narrow-prying father, Minola, |
|
The quaint musician, amorous Licio; |
|
All for my master's sake, Lucentio. |
|
Signior Gremio, came you from the church? |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
As willingly as e'er I came from school. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
And is the bride and bridegroom coming home? |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
A bridegroom say you? 'tis a groom indeed, |
|
A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Curster than she? why, 'tis impossible. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Why he's a devil, a devil, a very fiend. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Tut, she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him! |
|
I'll tell you, Sir Lucentio: when the priest |
|
Should ask, if Katharina should be his wife, |
|
'Ay, by gogs-wouns,' quoth he; and swore so loud, |
|
That, all-amazed, the priest let fall the book; |
|
And, as he stoop'd again to take it up, |
|
The mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff |
|
That down fell priest and book and book and priest: |
|
'Now take them up,' quoth he, 'if any list.' |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
What said the wench when he rose again? |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Trembled and shook; for why, he stamp'd and swore, |
|
As if the vicar meant to cozen him. |
|
But after many ceremonies done, |
|
He calls for wine: 'A health!' quoth he, as if |
|
He had been aboard, carousing to his mates |
|
After a storm; quaff'd off the muscadel |
|
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face; |
|
Having no other reason |
|
But that his beard grew thin and hungerly |
|
And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking. |
|
This done, he took the bride about the neck |
|
And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack |
|
That at the parting all the church did echo: |
|
And I seeing this came thence for very shame; |
|
And after me, I know, the rout is coming. |
|
Such a mad marriage never was before: |
|
Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains: |
|
I know you think to dine with me to-day, |
|
And have prepared great store of wedding cheer; |
|
But so it is, my haste doth call me hence, |
|
And therefore here I mean to take my leave. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Is't possible you will away to-night? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I must away to-day, before night come: |
|
Make it no wonder; if you knew my business, |
|
You would entreat me rather go than stay. |
|
And, honest company, I thank you all, |
|
That have beheld me give away myself |
|
To this most patient, sweet and virtuous wife: |
|
Dine with my father, drink a health to me; |
|
For I must hence; and farewell to you all. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Let us entreat you stay till after dinner. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
It may not be. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Let me entreat you. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
It cannot be. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Let me entreat you. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I am content. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Are you content to stay? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I am content you shall entreat me stay; |
|
But yet not stay, entreat me how you can. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Now, if you love me, stay. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Grumio, my horse. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Ay, sir, they be ready: the oats have eaten the horses. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Nay, then, |
|
Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day; |
|
No, nor to-morrow, not till I please myself. |
|
The door is open, sir; there lies your way; |
|
You may be jogging whiles your boots are green; |
|
For me, I'll not be gone till I please myself: |
|
'Tis like you'll prove a jolly surly groom, |
|
That take it on you at the first so roundly. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
O Kate, content thee; prithee, be not angry. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I will be angry: what hast thou to do? |
|
Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Ay, marry, sir, now it begins to work. |
|
|
|
KATARINA: |
|
Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner: |
|
I see a woman may be made a fool, |
|
If she had not a spirit to resist. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command. |
|
Obey the bride, you that attend on her; |
|
Go to the feast, revel and domineer, |
|
Carouse full measure to her maidenhead, |
|
Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves: |
|
But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. |
|
Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret; |
|
I will be master of what is mine own: |
|
She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, |
|
My household stuff, my field, my barn, |
|
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing; |
|
And here she stands, touch her whoever dare; |
|
I'll bring mine action on the proudest he |
|
That stops my way in Padua. Grumio, |
|
Draw forth thy weapon, we are beset with thieves; |
|
Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man. |
|
Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch |
|
thee, Kate: |
|
I'll buckler thee against a million. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Of all mad matches never was the like. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister? |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
That, being mad herself, she's madly mated. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Neighbours and friends, though bride and |
|
bridegroom wants |
|
For to supply the places at the table, |
|
You know there wants no junkets at the feast. |
|
Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place: |
|
And let Bianca take her sister's room. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
She shall, Lucentio. Come, gentlemen, let's go. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Fie, fie on all tired jades, on all mad masters, and |
|
all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? was ever |
|
man so rayed? was ever man so weary? I am sent |
|
before to make a fire, and they are coming after to |
|
warm them. Now, were not I a little pot and soon |
|
hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my |
|
tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my |
|
belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me: but |
|
I, with blowing the fire, shall warm myself; for, |
|
considering the weather, a taller man than I will |
|
take cold. Holla, ho! Curtis. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Who is that calls so coldly? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
A piece of ice: if thou doubt it, thou mayst slide |
|
from my shoulder to my heel with no greater a run |
|
but my head and my neck. A fire good Curtis. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire; cast |
|
on no water. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
She was, good Curtis, before this frost: but, thou |
|
knowest, winter tames man, woman and beast; for it |
|
hath tamed my old master and my new mistress and |
|
myself, fellow Curtis. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and |
|
so long am I at the least. But wilt thou make a |
|
fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, |
|
whose hand, she being now at hand, thou shalt soon |
|
feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office? |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
I prithee, good Grumio, tell me, how goes the world? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and |
|
therefore fire: do thy duty, and have thy duty; for |
|
my master and mistress are almost frozen to death. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
There's fire ready; and therefore, good Grumio, the news. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Why, 'Jack, boy! ho! boy!' and as much news as |
|
will thaw. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Come, you are so full of cony-catching! |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Why, therefore fire; for I have caught extreme cold. |
|
Where's the cook? is supper ready, the house |
|
trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept; the |
|
serving-men in their new fustian, their white |
|
stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? |
|
Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, |
|
the carpets laid, and every thing in order? |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
All ready; and therefore, I pray thee, news. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
First, know, my horse is tired; my master and |
|
mistress fallen out. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
How? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Out of their saddles into the dirt; and thereby |
|
hangs a tale. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Let's ha't, good Grumio. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Lend thine ear. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Here. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
There. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
And therefore 'tis called a sensible tale: and this |
|
cuff was but to knock at your ear, and beseech |
|
listening. Now I begin: Imprimis, we came down a |
|
foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress,-- |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Both of one horse? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
What's that to thee? |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Why, a horse. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Tell thou the tale: but hadst thou not crossed me, |
|
thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell and she |
|
under her horse; thou shouldst have heard in how |
|
miry a place, how she was bemoiled, how he left her |
|
with the horse upon her, how he beat me because |
|
her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt |
|
to pluck him off me, how he swore, how she prayed, |
|
that never prayed before, how I cried, how the |
|
horses ran away, how her bridle was burst, how I |
|
lost my crupper, with many things of worthy memory, |
|
which now shall die in oblivion and thou return |
|
unexperienced to thy grave. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
By this reckoning he is more shrew than she. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Ay; and that thou and the proudest of you all shall |
|
find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? |
|
Call forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, |
|
Walter, Sugarsop and the rest: let their heads be |
|
sleekly combed their blue coats brushed and their |
|
garters of an indifferent knit: let them curtsy |
|
with their left legs and not presume to touch a hair |
|
of my master's horse-tail till they kiss their |
|
hands. Are they all ready? |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
They are. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Call them forth. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Do you hear, ho? you must meet my master to |
|
countenance my mistress. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Why, she hath a face of her own. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
Who knows not that? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Thou, it seems, that calls for company to |
|
countenance her. |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
I call them forth to credit her. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Why, she comes to borrow nothing of them. |
|
|
|
NATHANIEL: |
|
Welcome home, Grumio! |
|
|
|
PHILIP: |
|
How now, Grumio! |
|
|
|
JOSEPH: |
|
What, Grumio! |
|
|
|
NICHOLAS: |
|
Fellow Grumio! |
|
|
|
NATHANIEL: |
|
How now, old lad? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Welcome, you;--how now, you;-- what, you;--fellow, |
|
you;--and thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce |
|
companions, is all ready, and all things neat? |
|
|
|
NATHANIEL: |
|
All things is ready. How near is our master? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
E'en at hand, alighted by this; and therefore be |
|
not--Cock's passion, silence! I hear my master. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Where be these knaves? What, no man at door |
|
To hold my stirrup nor to take my horse! |
|
Where is Nathaniel, Gregory, Philip? |
|
|
|
ALL SERVING-MEN: |
|
Here, here, sir; here, sir. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! |
|
You logger-headed and unpolish'd grooms! |
|
What, no attendance? no regard? no duty? |
|
Where is the foolish knave I sent before? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Here, sir; as foolish as I was before. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
You peasant swain! you whoreson malt-horse drudge! |
|
Did I not bid thee meet me in the park, |
|
And bring along these rascal knaves with thee? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made, |
|
And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' the heel; |
|
There was no link to colour Peter's hat, |
|
And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing: |
|
There were none fine but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory; |
|
The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly; |
|
Yet, as they are, here are they come to meet you. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Go, rascals, go, and fetch my supper in. |
|
Where is the life that late I led-- |
|
Where are those--Sit down, Kate, and welcome.-- |
|
Sound, sound, sound, sound! |
|
Why, when, I say? Nay, good sweet Kate, be merry. |
|
Off with my boots, you rogues! you villains, when? |
|
It was the friar of orders grey, |
|
As he forth walked on his way:-- |
|
Out, you rogue! you pluck my foot awry: |
|
Take that, and mend the plucking off the other. |
|
Be merry, Kate. Some water, here; what, ho! |
|
Where's my spaniel Troilus? Sirrah, get you hence, |
|
And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither: |
|
One, Kate, that you must kiss, and be acquainted with. |
|
Where are my slippers? Shall I have some water? |
|
Come, Kate, and wash, and welcome heartily. |
|
You whoreson villain! will you let it fall? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Patience, I pray you; 'twas a fault unwilling. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
A whoreson beetle-headed, flap-ear'd knave! |
|
Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. |
|
Will you give thanks, sweet Kate; or else shall I? |
|
What's this? mutton? |
|
|
|
First Servant: |
|
Ay. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Who brought it? |
|
|
|
PETER: |
|
I. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
'Tis burnt; and so is all the meat. |
|
What dogs are these! Where is the rascal cook? |
|
How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser, |
|
And serve it thus to me that love it not? |
|
Theretake it to you, trenchers, cups, and all; |
|
You heedless joltheads and unmanner'd slaves! |
|
What, do you grumble? I'll be with you straight. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet: |
|
The meat was well, if you were so contented. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I tell thee, Kate, 'twas burnt and dried away; |
|
And I expressly am forbid to touch it, |
|
For it engenders choler, planteth anger; |
|
And better 'twere that both of us did fast, |
|
Since, of ourselves, ourselves are choleric, |
|
Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh. |
|
Be patient; to-morrow 't shall be mended, |
|
And, for this night, we'll fast for company: |
|
Come, I will bring thee to thy bridal chamber. |
|
|
|
NATHANIEL: |
|
Peter, didst ever see the like? |
|
|
|
PETER: |
|
He kills her in her own humour. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Where is he? |
|
|
|
CURTIS: |
|
In her chamber, making a sermon of continency to her; |
|
And rails, and swears, and rates, that she, poor soul, |
|
Knows not which way to stand, to look, to speak, |
|
And sits as one new-risen from a dream. |
|
Away, away! for he is coming hither. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Thus have I politicly begun my reign, |
|
And 'tis my hope to end successfully. |
|
My falcon now is sharp and passing empty; |
|
And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged, |
|
For then she never looks upon her lure. |
|
Another way I have to man my haggard, |
|
To make her come and know her keeper's call, |
|
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites |
|
That bate and beat and will not be obedient. |
|
She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat; |
|
Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not; |
|
As with the meat, some undeserved fault |
|
I'll find about the making of the bed; |
|
And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster, |
|
This way the coverlet, another way the sheets: |
|
Ay, and amid this hurly I intend |
|
That all is done in reverend care of her; |
|
And in conclusion she shall watch all night: |
|
And if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl |
|
And with the clamour keep her still awake. |
|
This is a way to kill a wife with kindness; |
|
And thus I'll curb her mad and headstrong humour. |
|
He that knows better how to tame a shrew, |
|
Now let him speak: 'tis charity to show. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Is't possible, friend Licio, that Mistress Bianca |
|
Doth fancy any other but Lucentio? |
|
I tell you, sir, she bears me fair in hand. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Sir, to satisfy you in what I have said, |
|
Stand by and mark the manner of his teaching. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Now, mistress, profit you in what you read? |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
What, master, read you? first resolve me that. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
I read that I profess, the Art to Love. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
And may you prove, sir, master of your art! |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart! |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Quick proceeders, marry! Now, tell me, I pray, |
|
You that durst swear at your mistress Bianca |
|
Loved none in the world so well as Lucentio. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
O despiteful love! unconstant womankind! |
|
I tell thee, Licio, this is wonderful. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Mistake no more: I am not Licio, |
|
Nor a musician, as I seem to be; |
|
But one that scorn to live in this disguise, |
|
For such a one as leaves a gentleman, |
|
And makes a god of such a cullion: |
|
Know, sir, that I am call'd Hortensio. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Signior Hortensio, I have often heard |
|
Of your entire affection to Bianca; |
|
And since mine eyes are witness of her lightness, |
|
I will with you, if you be so contented, |
|
Forswear Bianca and her love for ever. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
See, how they kiss and court! Signior Lucentio, |
|
Here is my hand, and here I firmly vow |
|
Never to woo her no more, but do forswear her, |
|
As one unworthy all the former favours |
|
That I have fondly flatter'd her withal. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
And here I take the unfeigned oath, |
|
Never to marry with her though she would entreat: |
|
Fie on her! see, how beastly she doth court him! |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Would all the world but he had quite forsworn! |
|
For me, that I may surely keep mine oath, |
|
I will be married to a wealthy widow, |
|
Ere three days pass, which hath as long loved me |
|
As I have loved this proud disdainful haggard. |
|
And so farewell, Signior Lucentio. |
|
Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, |
|
Shall win my love: and so I take my leave, |
|
In resolution as I swore before. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Mistress Bianca, bless you with such grace |
|
As 'longeth to a lover's blessed case! |
|
Nay, I have ta'en you napping, gentle love, |
|
And have forsworn you with Hortensio. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Tranio, you jest: but have you both forsworn me? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Mistress, we have. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Then we are rid of Licio. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
I' faith, he'll have a lusty widow now, |
|
That shall be wood and wedded in a day. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
God give him joy! |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Ay, and he'll tame her. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
He says so, Tranio. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Faith, he is gone unto the taming-school. |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
The taming-school! what, is there such a place? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Ay, mistress, and Petruchio is the master; |
|
That teacheth tricks eleven and twenty long, |
|
To tame a shrew and charm her chattering tongue. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
O master, master, I have watch'd so long |
|
That I am dog-weary: but at last I spied |
|
An ancient angel coming down the hill, |
|
Will serve the turn. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
What is he, Biondello? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Master, a mercatante, or a pedant, |
|
I know not what; but format in apparel, |
|
In gait and countenance surely like a father. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
And what of him, Tranio? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
If he be credulous and trust my tale, |
|
I'll make him glad to seem Vincentio, |
|
And give assurance to Baptista Minola, |
|
As if he were the right Vincentio |
|
Take in your love, and then let me alone. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
God save you, sir! |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
And you, sir! you are welcome. |
|
Travel you far on, or are you at the farthest? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Sir, at the farthest for a week or two: |
|
But then up farther, and as for as Rome; |
|
And so to Tripoli, if God lend me life. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
What countryman, I pray? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Of Mantua. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Of Mantua, sir? marry, God forbid! |
|
And come to Padua, careless of your life? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
My life, sir! how, I pray? for that goes hard. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
'Tis death for any one in Mantua |
|
To come to Padua. Know you not the cause? |
|
Your ships are stay'd at Venice, and the duke, |
|
For private quarrel 'twixt your duke and him, |
|
Hath publish'd and proclaim'd it openly: |
|
'Tis, marvel, but that you are but newly come, |
|
You might have heard it else proclaim'd about. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Alas! sir, it is worse for me than so; |
|
For I have bills for money by exchange |
|
From Florence and must here deliver them. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Well, sir, to do you courtesy, |
|
This will I do, and this I will advise you: |
|
First, tell me, have you ever been at Pisa? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Ay, sir, in Pisa have I often been, |
|
Pisa renowned for grave citizens. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Among them know you one Vincentio? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
I know him not, but I have heard of him; |
|
A merchant of incomparable wealth. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
He is my father, sir; and, sooth to say, |
|
In countenance somewhat doth resemble you. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
To save your life in this extremity, |
|
This favour will I do you for his sake; |
|
And think it not the worst of an your fortunes |
|
That you are like to Sir Vincentio. |
|
His name and credit shall you undertake, |
|
And in my house you shall be friendly lodged: |
|
Look that you take upon you as you should; |
|
You understand me, sir: so shall you stay |
|
Till you have done your business in the city: |
|
If this be courtesy, sir, accept of it. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
O sir, I do; and will repute you ever |
|
The patron of my life and liberty. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Then go with me to make the matter good. |
|
This, by the way, I let you understand; |
|
my father is here look'd for every day, |
|
To pass assurance of a dower in marriage |
|
'Twixt me and one Baptista's daughter here: |
|
In all these circumstances I'll instruct you: |
|
Go with me to clothe you as becomes you. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
No, no, forsooth; I dare not for my life. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
The more my wrong, the more his spite appears: |
|
What, did he marry me to famish me? |
|
Beggars, that come unto my father's door, |
|
Upon entreaty have a present aims; |
|
If not, elsewhere they meet with charity: |
|
But I, who never knew how to entreat, |
|
Nor never needed that I should entreat, |
|
Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep, |
|
With oath kept waking and with brawling fed: |
|
And that which spites me more than all these wants, |
|
He does it under name of perfect love; |
|
As who should say, if I should sleep or eat, |
|
'Twere deadly sickness or else present death. |
|
I prithee go and get me some repast; |
|
I care not what, so it be wholesome food. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
What say you to a neat's foot? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
'Tis passing good: I prithee let me have it. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
I fear it is too choleric a meat. |
|
How say you to a fat tripe finely broil'd? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I like it well: good Grumio, fetch it me. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
I cannot tell; I fear 'tis choleric. |
|
What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
A dish that I do love to feed upon. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Why then, the beef, and let the mustard rest. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Nay then, I will not: you shall have the mustard, |
|
Or else you get no beef of Grumio. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Why then, the mustard without the beef. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave, |
|
That feed'st me with the very name of meat: |
|
Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you, |
|
That triumph thus upon my misery! |
|
Go, get thee gone, I say. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort? |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Mistress, what cheer? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Faith, as cold as can be. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Pluck up thy spirits; look cheerfully upon me. |
|
Here love; thou see'st how diligent I am |
|
To dress thy meat myself and bring it thee: |
|
I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks. |
|
What, not a word? Nay, then thou lovest it not; |
|
And all my pains is sorted to no proof. |
|
Here, take away this dish. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I pray you, let it stand. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
The poorest service is repaid with thanks; |
|
And so shall mine, before you touch the meat. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I thank you, sir. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Signior Petruchio, fie! you are to blame. |
|
Come, mistress Kate, I'll bear you company. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
|
|
Haberdasher: |
|
Here is the cap your worship did bespeak. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, this was moulded on a porringer; |
|
A velvet dish: fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy: |
|
Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, |
|
A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap: |
|
Away with it! come, let me have a bigger. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I'll have no bigger: this doth fit the time, |
|
And gentlewomen wear such caps as these |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
When you are gentle, you shall have one too, |
|
And not till then. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak; |
|
And speak I will; I am no child, no babe: |
|
Your betters have endured me say my mind, |
|
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears. |
|
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, |
|
Or else my heart concealing it will break, |
|
And rather than it shall, I will be free |
|
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap, |
|
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie: |
|
I love thee well, in that thou likest it not. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Love me or love me not, I like the cap; |
|
And it I will have, or I will have none. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Thy gown? why, ay: come, tailor, let us see't. |
|
O mercy, God! what masquing stuff is here? |
|
What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon: |
|
What, up and down, carved like an apple-tart? |
|
Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, |
|
Like to a censer in a barber's shop: |
|
Why, what, i' devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this? |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
You bid me make it orderly and well, |
|
According to the fashion and the time. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Marry, and did; but if you be remember'd, |
|
I did not bid you mar it to the time. |
|
Go, hop me over every kennel home, |
|
For you shall hop without my custom, sir: |
|
I'll none of it: hence! make your best of it. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I never saw a better-fashion'd gown, |
|
More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable: |
|
Belike you mean to make a puppet of me. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
She says your worship means to make |
|
a puppet of her. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, |
|
thou thimble, |
|
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail! |
|
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou! |
|
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread? |
|
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant; |
|
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard |
|
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest! |
|
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr'd her gown. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
Your worship is deceived; the gown is made |
|
Just as my master had direction: |
|
Grumio gave order how it should be done. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
But how did you desire it should be made? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Marry, sir, with needle and thread. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
But did you not request to have it cut? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Thou hast faced many things. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
I have. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Face not me: thou hast braved many men; brave not |
|
me; I will neither be faced nor braved. I say unto |
|
thee, I bid thy master cut out the gown; but I did |
|
not bid him cut it to pieces: ergo, thou liest. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Read it. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
The note lies in's throat, if he say I said so. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in |
|
the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom |
|
of brown thread: I said a gown. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Proceed. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
I confess the cape. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
I confess two sleeves. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Ay, there's the villany. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Error i' the bill, sir; error i' the bill. |
|
I commanded the sleeves should be cut out and |
|
sewed up again; and that I'll prove upon thee, |
|
though thy little finger be armed in a thimble. |
|
|
|
Tailor: |
|
This is true that I say: an I had thee |
|
in place where, thou shouldst know it. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
I am for thee straight: take thou the |
|
bill, give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
God-a-mercy, Grumio! then he shall have no odds. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
You are i' the right, sir: 'tis for my mistress. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Go, take it up unto thy master's use. |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
Villain, not for thy life: take up my mistress' |
|
gown for thy master's use! |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, sir, what's your conceit in that? |
|
|
|
GRUMIO: |
|
O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for: |
|
Take up my mistress' gown to his master's use! |
|
O, fie, fie, fie! |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown tomorrow: |
|
Take no unkindness of his hasty words: |
|
Away! I say; commend me to thy master. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's |
|
Even in these honest mean habiliments: |
|
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; |
|
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich; |
|
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, |
|
So honour peereth in the meanest habit. |
|
What is the jay more precious than the lark, |
|
Because his fathers are more beautiful? |
|
Or is the adder better than the eel, |
|
Because his painted skin contents the eye? |
|
O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse |
|
For this poor furniture and mean array. |
|
if thou account'st it shame. lay it on me; |
|
And therefore frolic: we will hence forthwith, |
|
To feast and sport us at thy father's house. |
|
Go, call my men, and let us straight to him; |
|
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 dinner-time. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two; |
|
And 'twill be supper-time ere you come there. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
It shall be seven ere I go to horse: |
|
Look, what I speak, or do, or think to do, |
|
You are still crossing it. Sirs, let't alone: |
|
I will not go to-day; and ere I do, |
|
It shall be what o'clock I say it is. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Sir, this is the house: please it you that I call? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Ay, what else? and but I be deceived |
|
Signior Baptista may remember me, |
|
Near twenty years ago, in Genoa, |
|
Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
'Tis well; and hold your own, in any case, |
|
With such austerity as 'longeth to a father. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
I warrant you. |
|
But, sir, here comes your boy; |
|
'Twere good he were school'd. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello, |
|
Now do your duty throughly, I advise you: |
|
Imagine 'twere the right 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 look'd for him this day in Padua. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Thou'rt a tall fellow: hold thee that to drink. |
|
Here comes Baptista: set your countenance, sir. |
|
Signior Baptista, you are happily met. |
|
Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of: |
|
I pray you stand good father to me now, |
|
Give me Bianca for my patrimony. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Soft 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 the good report I hear of you |
|
And for the love he beareth to your daughter |
|
And she to him, to stay him not too long, |
|
I am content, in a good father's care, |
|
To have him match'd; and if you please to like |
|
No worse than I, upon some agreement |
|
Me shall you find ready and willing |
|
With one consent to have her so bestow'd; |
|
For curious 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 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 best |
|
We be affied 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, and I have many servants: |
|
Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still; |
|
And happily we might be interrupted. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Then at my lodging, an it like you: |
|
There doth my father lie; and there, this night, |
|
We'll pass the business privately and well. |
|
Send for your daughter by your servant here: |
|
My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently. |
|
The worst is this, that, at so slender warning, |
|
You are like to have a thin and slender pittance. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
It likes me well. Biondello, hie 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 to be Lucentio's wife. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
I pray the gods she may with all my heart! |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone. |
|
Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way? |
|
Welcome! one mess is like to be your cheer: |
|
Come, sir; we will better it in Pisa. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
I follow you. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Cambio! |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
What sayest thou, Biondello? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
You saw my master wink and laugh upon you? |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Biondello, what of that? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind, to |
|
expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
I pray thee, moralize 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 of Saint Luke's church is at your |
|
command at all hours. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
And what of all this? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
I cannot tell; expect they are busied about a |
|
counterfeit assurance: take you assurance of her, |
|
'cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum:' to the |
|
church; take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient |
|
honest witnesses: If this be not that you look for, |
|
I have no more to say, But bid Bianca farewell for |
|
ever and a day. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Hearest 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 with your appendix. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
I may, and will, if she be so contented: |
|
She will be pleased; then wherefore should I doubt? |
|
Hap what hap may, I'll roundly go about her: |
|
It shall go hard if Cambio go without her. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Come on, i' God's name; once more toward our father's. |
|
Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon! |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
The moon! the sun: it is not moonlight now. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I say it is the moon that shines so bright. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
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, |
|
Or ere I journey to your father's house. |
|
Go on, and fetch our horses back again. |
|
Evermore cross'd and cross'd; nothing but cross'd! |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Say as he says, or we shall never go. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
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, |
|
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
I say it is the moon. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
I know it is the moon. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed 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 Katharina. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Petruchio, go thy ways; the field is won. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Well, forward, forward! thus the bowl should run, |
|
And not unluckily against the bias. |
|
But, soft! company is coming here. |
|
Good morrow, gentle mistress: where away? |
|
Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly too, |
|
Hast thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman? |
|
Such war of white and red within her cheeks! |
|
What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty, |
|
As those two eyes become that heavenly face? |
|
Fair lovely maid, once more good day to thee. |
|
Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's sake. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
A' will make the man mad, to make a woman of him. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
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 favourable stars |
|
Allot thee for his lovely bed-fellow! |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, how now, Kate! I hope thou art not mad: |
|
This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, wither'd, |
|
And not a maiden, as thou say'st he is. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, |
|
That have been so bedazzled with the sun |
|
That everything I look on seemeth green: |
|
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 much amazed me, |
|
My name is call'd 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 we met; the happier for thy son. |
|
And now by law, as well as reverend age, |
|
I may entitle thee my loving father: |
|
The sister to my wife, this gentlewoman, |
|
Thy son by this hath married. Wonder not, |
|
Nor be grieved: she is of good esteem, |
|
Her dowery wealthy, and of worthy birth; |
|
Beside, so qualified as may beseem |
|
The spouse of any noble gentleman. |
|
Let me embrace with old Vincentio, |
|
And wander we to see thy honest son, |
|
Who will of thy arrival be full joyous. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
But is it true? or else is it your pleasure, |
|
Like pleasant travellers, to break a jest |
|
Upon the company you overtake? |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
I do assure thee, father, so it is. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Come, go along, and see the truth hereof; |
|
For our first merriment hath made thee jealous. |
|
|
|
HORTENSIO: |
|
Well, Petruchio, this has put me in heart. |
|
Have to my widow! and if she be froward, |
|
Then hast thou taught Hortensio to be untoward. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Softly and swiftly, sir; for the priest is ready. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
I fly, Biondello: but they may chance to need thee |
|
at home; therefore leave us. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Nay, faith, I'll see the church o' your back; and |
|
then come back to my master's as soon as I can. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
I marvel Cambio comes not all this while. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Sir, here's the door, this is Lucentio's house: |
|
My father's bears more toward the market-place; |
|
Thither must I, and here I leave you, sir. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
You shall not choose but drink before you go: |
|
I think I shall command your welcome here, |
|
And, by all likelihood, some cheer is toward. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
They're busy within; you were best knock louder. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
What's he that knocks as he would beat down the gate? |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Is Signior Lucentio within, sir? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
He's within, sir, but not to be spoken withal. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
What if a man bring him a hundred pound or two, to |
|
make merry withal? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Keep your hundred pounds to yourself: he shall |
|
need none, so long as I live. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Nay, I told you your son was well beloved in Padua. |
|
Do you hear, sir? To leave frivolous circumstances, |
|
I pray you, tell Signior Lucentio that his father is |
|
come from Pisa, and is here at the door to speak with him. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Thou liest: his father is come from Padua and here |
|
looking out at the window. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Art thou his father? |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Ay, sir; so his mother says, if I may believe her. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Lay hands on the villain: I believe a' means to |
|
cozen somebody in this city under my countenance. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
I have seen them in the church together: God send |
|
'em good shipping! But who is here? mine old |
|
master Vincentio! now we are undone and brought to nothing. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Hope I may choose, sir. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Come hither, you rogue. What, have you forgot me? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Forgot you! no, sir: I could not forget you, for I |
|
never saw you before in all my life. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
What, you notorious villain, didst thou never see |
|
thy master's father, Vincentio? |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
What, my old worshipful old master? yes, marry, sir: |
|
see where he looks out of the window. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Is't so, indeed. |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
Help, help, help! here's a madman will murder me. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Help, son! help, Signior Baptista! |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Prithee, Kate, let's stand aside and see the end of |
|
this controversy. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Sir, what are you that offer to beat my servant? |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
What am I, sir! nay, what are you, sir? O immortal |
|
gods! O fine villain! A silken doublet! a velvet |
|
hose! a scarlet cloak! and a copatain hat! O, I |
|
am undone! I am undone! while I play the good |
|
husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at |
|
the university. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
How now! what's the matter? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
What, is the man lunatic? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Sir, you seem a sober ancient gentleman by your |
|
habit, but your words show you a madman. Why, sir, |
|
what 'cerns it you if I wear pearl and gold? I |
|
thank my good father, I am able to maintain it. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Thy father! O villain! he is a sailmaker in Bergamo. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
You mistake, sir, you mistake, sir. Pray, what do |
|
you think is his name? |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
His name! as if I knew not his name: I have brought |
|
him up ever since he was three years old, and his |
|
name is Tranio. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Away, away, mad ass! his name is Lucentio and he is |
|
mine only son, and heir to the lands of me, Signior Vincentio. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Lucentio! O, he hath murdered his master! Lay hold |
|
on him, I charge you, in the duke's name. O, my |
|
son, my son! Tell me, thou villain, where is my son Lucentio? |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Call forth an officer. |
|
Carry this mad knave to the gaol. Father Baptista, |
|
I charge you see that he be forthcoming. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Carry me to the gaol! |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Stay, officer: he shall not go to prison. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Talk not, Signior Gremio: I say he shall go to prison. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Take heed, Signior Baptista, lest you be |
|
cony-catched in this business: I dare swear this |
|
is the right Vincentio. |
|
|
|
Pedant: |
|
Swear, if thou darest. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Nay, I dare not swear it. |
|
|
|
TRANIO: |
|
Then thou wert best say that I am not Lucentio. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Yes, I know thee to be Signior Lucentio. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Away with the dotard! to the gaol with him! |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Thus strangers may be hailed and abused: O |
|
monstrous villain! |
|
|
|
BIONDELLO: |
|
O! we are spoiled and--yonder he is: deny him, |
|
forswear him, or else we are all undone. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Lives my sweet son? |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Pardon, dear father. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
How hast thou offended? |
|
Where is Lucentio? |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Here's Lucentio, |
|
Right son to the right Vincentio; |
|
That have by marriage made thy daughter mine, |
|
While counterfeit supposes bleared thine eyne. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
Here's packing, with a witness to deceive us all! |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Where is that damned villain Tranio, |
|
That faced and braved me in this matter so? |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio? |
|
|
|
BIANCA: |
|
Cambio is changed into Lucentio. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Love wrought these miracles. Bianca's love |
|
Made me exchange my state with Tranio, |
|
While he did bear my countenance in the town; |
|
And happily I have arrived at the last |
|
Unto the wished haven of my bliss. |
|
What Tranio did, myself enforced him to; |
|
Then pardon him, sweet father, for my sake. |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
I'll slit the villain's nose, that would have sent |
|
me to the gaol. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
But do you hear, sir? have you married my daughter |
|
without asking my good will? |
|
|
|
VINCENTIO: |
|
Fear not, Baptista; we will content you, go to: but |
|
I will in, to be revenged for this villany. |
|
|
|
BAPTISTA: |
|
And I, to sound the depth of this knavery. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not frown. |
|
|
|
GREMIO: |
|
My cake is dough; but I'll in among the rest, |
|
Out of hope of all, but my share of the feast. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Husband, let's follow, to see the end of this ado. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
First kiss me, Kate, and we will. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
What, in the midst of the street? |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
What, art thou ashamed of me? |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
No, sir, God forbid; but ashamed to kiss. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Why, then let's home again. Come, sirrah, let's away. |
|
|
|
KATHARINA: |
|
Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay. |
|
|
|
PETRUCHIO: |
|
Is not this well? Come, my sweet Kate: |
|
Better once than never, for never too late. |
|
|
|
LUCENTIO: |
|
At last, though long, our jarring notes agree: |
|
And time it is, when raging war is done, |
|
To smile at scapes and perils overblown. |
|
My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, |
|
While I with self-same kindness welcome thine. |
|
Brother Petruchio, sister Katharina, |
|
And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow, |
|
Feast with the best, and welcome to my house: |
|
My banquet is to close our stomachs up, |
|
After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down; |
|
For now we sit to chat as well as eat. |