Gru. [Aside.] I would I were as sure of a good dinner.

Enter TRANIO bravely apparelled, and BIONDELLO.

Tra. 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?

Gre. He that has the two fair daughters, -is't he you mean?

23

Gre. Hark you, sir; you mean not her to
Tra. Perhaps, him and her, sir: what have you to do?
Pet. Not her that chides, sir, at any hand,24 I pray.

Tra. I love no chiders, sir. - Biondello, let's away.
Luc. [Aside.] Well begun, Tranio.

Hor. Sir, a word ere you go:

Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?

Tra. An if I be, sir, is it any offence?

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

Tra. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free

Tra. For what reason, I beseech you?

Gre. For this reason, if you'll know,

That she's the choice love of Signior Gremio.

Hor. That she's the chosen of Signior Hortensio. Tra. 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,

23 Of course Gremio has woo on his tongue: why he is not permitted to speak it, is not very apparent.

24 At any hand has occurred a little before, in the same sense, at any

rate.

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.

Gre. What, what, this gentleman will out-talk us all!
Luc. Sir, give him head: I know he'll prove a jade.25
Pet. Hortensio, to what end are all these words?
Hor. Sir, let me be so bold as ask you this,
Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter?
Tra. 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.

Pet. Sir, sir, the first's for me; let her go by.
Gre. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules;
And let it be more than Alcides' 26 twelve.

Pet. 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.

Tra. 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.

25 Jade was used for an unreliable horse. So in Julius Cæsar, iv. 2: "Hollow men, like horses hot at hand, make gallant show and promise of their mettle; but, when they should endure the bloody spur, they fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, sink in the trial."

26 Hercules was a descendant of Alceus, hence in the Greek idiom called Alcides.

Hor. 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.27

Tra. Sir, I shall not be slack: in sign whereof,
Please ye we may contrive 28 this afternoon,
And quaff carouses to our mistress' health;
And do as adversaries 29 do in law,-

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

Gru. Bion.

}

O excellent motion!

Fellows,30 let's be gone.

[Exeunt.

Hor. The motion's good indeed, and be it so : — Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.

ACT II.

SCENE I. - Padua. A Room in BAPTISTA'S House.

Enter CATHARINA, and BIANCA with her hands bound.

Bian. Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,
To make a bondmaid and a slave of me ;
That I disdain: but, for these other gauds,
Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself,
Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;

27 Shakespeare always uses beholding where we should use beholden; the active form with the passive sense. See vol. i., page 233, note 24.

28 Contrive here means wear out, pass away, or spend; from contrivi, the preterite of the Latin contero. So in Damon and Pithias, 1571: “In travelling countries, we three have contriv'd full many a year."

29 Adversaries for opposing counsel in a law-suit.

30 Grumio and Biondello probably address each other here, and also Lucentio, as fellow-servants. They would hardly use fellows in speaking to the others present.

Or, what you will command me, will I do,
So well I know my duty to my elders.

Cath. Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell
Whom thou lovest best: see thou dissemble not.
Bian. Believe me, sister, of all men alive,

I never yet beheld that special face

Which I could fancy more than any

other.

Cath. Minion, thou liest: is't not Hortensio ?
Bian. If you
affect him, sister, here I swear
I'll plead for you myself, but you shall have him.
Cath. O, then belike you fancy riches more :
You will have Gremio to keep you fair.

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

Cath. If that be jest, then all the rest was so. [Strikes her.

Enter BAPTISTA.

Bap. 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 hilding1 of a devilish spirit,

Why dost thou wrong her that did ne'er wrong thee?
When did she cross thee with a bitter word?

Cath. Her silence flouts me, and I'll be revenged.
[Flies after BIANCA.

1 Hilding is from the Saxon healdan, which properly means to hold, keep, or rule, as in a state of servitude or thraldom. So that the radical sense of hilding seems to be slave or thrall; hence the word grew to be a general term of reproach. It was applied to both sexes, but with somewhat different shades of meaning. So, in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5, old Capulet applies it to his daughter as an opprobrious term serving merely to vent his wrath.

Bap. [Holding her back.] What, in my sight? — Bianca,

get thee in.

[Exit BIANCA.

Cath. Will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband;
I must dance barefoot on her wedding-day,
And, for your love to her, lead apes in Hell.2
Talk not to me: I will go sit and weep,
Till I can find occasion of revenge.

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

[Exit.

Enter GREMIO, with LUCENTIO in the habit of a mean Man; PETRUCHIO, with HORTENSIO as a Musician; and TRANIO, with BIONDELLO bearing a lute and books.

Gre. Good morrow, neighbour Baptista.

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

Pet. And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter Call'd Catharina, fair and virtuous?

Bap. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Catharina.

Gre. You are too blunt: go to it orderly.

Pet. 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 behaviour,-
Am bold to show myself a forward guest

2 "Leading apes in Hell" is no doubt part of an ancient proverb. As Steevens explains, it seems to have been thought, in the olden time, that women who refused to be mothers were condemned to have the care of apes in leading-strings after death. So, in Much Ado, Beatrice, after jesting off all sorts of men from her hand, adds, "Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his apes into Hell." —To dance barefoot was another proverbial phrase for being an old maid. So says Halliwell,