Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all; Bap. Well may'st thou woo, and happy be thy speed! Re-enter HORTENSIO, with his head broken. Bap. How now, my friend! why dost thou look so pale? Hor. For fear, I promise you, if I look pale. Bap. What, will my daughter prove a good musician? Hor. I think, she'll sooner prove a soldier: Iron may hold with her, but never lutes. Bap. Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute? And twangling Jack, with twenty such vile terms, Pet. Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench! I love her ten times more than e'er I did: Bap. Well, go with me, and be not so discomfited: Pet. I pray you do; I will attend her here, [Exeunt BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, and HORTENSIO. 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. Enter KATHARINA. Good-morrow, Kate, for that's your name, I hear. Kath. Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing: They call me Katharine that do talk of me. Pet. You lie, in faith; for you are call'd plain Kate, Remove you hence. I knew you at the first, Pet. Kath. A joint-stool. Why, what's a moveable? Pet. Thou hast hit it: come, sit on me. Kath. Asses are made to bear, and so are you. Pet. Women are made to bear, and so are you. Kath. No such jade to bear you, if me you mean. Pet. Alas, good Kate! I will not burden thee; For, knowing thee to be but young and light,— Kath. Too light for such a swain as you to catch, And yet as heavy as my weight should be. Pet. Should be? should buz. Kath. Well ta'en, and like a buzzard. Pet. O, slow-wing'd turtle! shall a buzzard take thee? Kath. Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard. Whose tongue? Kath. Yours, if you talk of tails; and so farewell. Pet. What! with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again: Good Kate, I am a gentleman. Kath. If you strike me you are no gentleman, Pet. A herald, Kate? O! put me in thy books. Pet. A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen. Kath. No cock of mine; you crow too like a craven. Pet. Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so Pet. Nay, hear you, Kate: in sooth, you 'scape not [Holding her. so. Kath. I chafe you, if I tarry: let me go. For thou art pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous, 212 O! be thou Dian, and let her be Kate, Kath. Yes; keep you warm. Pet. Marry, so I mean, sweet Katharine, 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 Katharine to my wife. Re-enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, and TRANIO. Bap. Now, signior Petruchio, how speed you with my daughter? Pet. How but well, sir? how but well? It were impossible I should speed amiss. Bap. Why, how now, daughter Katharine! in your dumps? Kath. Call you me, daughter? now, I promise you, A mad-cap ruffian, and a swearing Jack, Pet. Father, 'tis thus:-yourself and all the world, For she's not froward, but modest as the dove; And to conclude,-we have 'greed so well together, And, kiss me Kate, we will be married o' Sunday. [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINE, severally. Kath. I'll see thee hang'd on Sunday first. Gre. Hark, Petruchio: she says, she'll see thee hang'd first. Tra. "Twas a commodity lay fretting by you: 'Twill bring you gain, or perish on the seas. Tra. Is this your speeding? nay then, good night our pact. Pet. Be patient, gentlemen; I choose her for myself: How much she loves me. O, the kindest Kate! Bap. The gain I seek is quiet in the match. Tra. And I am one, that love Bianca more 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? Gre. First, as you know, my house within the city In In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns; Bap. I know not what to say; but give me your hands: God send you joy! Petruchio, 'tis a match. Gre. Tra. Amen, say we: we will be witnesses. If whilst I live she will be only mine. Tra. That "only" came well in.-Sir, list to me: Gre. Two thousand ducats by the year of land! Tra. Gremio, 'tis known, my father hath no less Gre. Nay, I have offer'd all, I have no more; Bap. I must confess, your offer is the best; Gre. And may not young men die, as well as old? I am thus resolv'd.-On Sunday next, you know, And so I take my leave, and thank you both. [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I-A Room in BAPTISTA'S House. Hor. Tut, wrangling pedant! I avouch, this is Luc. Preposterous ass, that never read so far Hor. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. Luc. That will be never:-tune your instrument. Bian. Where left we last? Luc. Here, madam :—— Hac ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus; Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis. Bian. Construe them. Luc. Hac 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. Hor. [Returning.] Madam, my instrument's in tune. [HORTENSIO plays. Bian. Let's hear. O fie! the treble jars. Luc. Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. Bian. Now let me see if I can construe it: Hac 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. Hor. Madam, 'tis now in tune. Luc. All but the base. Hor. 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. [Aside. acides Bian. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust. Luc. Mistrust it not; for, sure, Was Ajax, call'd so from his grandfather. Bian. 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. Hor. [To LUCENTIO.] You may go walk, and give me leave awhile: My lessons make no music in three parts. Luc. Are you so formal, sir? [Aside.] Well, I must And watch withal; for, but I be deceiv'd, Hor. Madam, before you touch the instrument, I must begin with rudiments of art; To teach you gamut in a briefer sort, Bian. Why, I am past my gamut long ago. Call you this gamut? tut! I like it not: Enter a Servant. Serv. 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. Bian. Farewell, sweet masters, both: I must be [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant. Luc. 'Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. [Exit. gone. Hor. 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. [Exit. SCENE II.-The Same. Before BAPTISTA's House. Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO, KATHARINA, BIANCA, LUCENTIO, and Attendants. Bap. Signior Lucentio, this is the 'pointed day That Katharine and Petruchio should be married, 214 And yet we hear not of our son-in-law. Kath. No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forc'd If it would please him come and marry her." Tra. Patience, good Katharine, and Baptista too. Bion. Master, master! news, and such old news as you never heard of! Bap. Is it new and old too? how may that be? Bion. Why, is it not news to hear of Petruchio's coming? Bap. Is he come? Bion. Why, no, sir. Bap. When will he be here? Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparell'd. Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoe'er he comes. Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes? Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came. Bion. No, sir; I say, his horse comes, with him on his back, Bap. Why, that's all one. A horse and a man And yet not many. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO, strangely apparelled. And yet I come not well. Bap. And yet you halt not. As I wish you were. Not so well apparell'd, Pet. Were it much better, I should rush in thus. Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your wedding-day: Bion. When he stands where I am, and sees you there. Tra. But, say, what is thine old news? Bion. 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 armoury, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points: his horse heaped 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 wind-galls, sped with spavins, rayed with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots; swayed in the back, and shoulder-shotten; ne'er-legged before, and with a half-cheeked bit, and a head stall of sheep's-leather; which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots: one girth six times 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. Bap. Who comes with him? : Bion. 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 amours or 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. Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion; Tra. And tell us what occasion of import Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: Tra. See not your bride in these unreverent robes. Pet. Not I, believe me: thus I'll visit her. To me she's married, not unto my clothes. [Exeunt PETRUCHIO, GRUMIO, and BIONDELLO. Luc. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into, Signior Gremio, came you from the church? Gre. As willingly as e'er I came from school. Tra. And is the bride, and bridegroom, coming home? Gre. A bridegroom say you? 'tis a groom indeed; A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find. Tra. Curster than she? why, 'tis impossible. Gre. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very fiend. Tra. Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam. Gre. Tut! she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him. I'll tell you, sir, Lucentio: when the priest Should ask,-if Katharine should be his wife, "Ay, by gogs-wouns," quoth he; and swore so loud, That, all-amaz'd, the priest let fall the book, And, as he stoop'd again to take it up, This 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." Tra. What said the wench when he arose again? Gre. 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 But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, [Music. Pet. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains. I know, you think to dine with me to-day, Bap. Is't possible you will away to-night? That have beheld me give away myself To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife: Kath. Nay, then, Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day; Pet. O, Kate! content thee: pr'ythee, be not angry. Kath. I will be angry. What hast thou to do?Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure. Gre. Ay, marry, sir, now it begins to work. I see, a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist. Pet. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command.— She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, Draw forth thy weapon; we're beset with thieves: Fear not, sweet wench; they shall not touch thee, Kate: [Exeunt PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, and GRUMIO. Bap. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. Gre. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing. Tra. Of all mad matches never was the like. For to supply the places at the table, Tra. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? Bap. She shall, Lucentio.-Come, gentlemen; let's [Exeunt. go. |