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.
Exit BIONDELLO
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.
Exeunt TRANIO, Pedant, and BAPTISTA
Re-enter BIONDELLO
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.
Exit
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.
Exit
Scene 5
A public road.
Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO, and Servants
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.
Enter VINCENTIO
To VINCENTIO
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.
Exeunt all but HORTENSIO
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.
Exit
Act 5
Scene 1
Padua. Before LUCENTIO’S house.
GREMIO discovered. Enter behind BIONDELLO, LUCENTIO, and BIANCA
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.
Exeunt LUCENTIO, BIANCA, and BIONDELLO
GREMIO I marvel Cambio comes not all this while.
Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, VINCENTIO, GRUMIO, with Attendants
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.
Knocks
GREMIO They’re busy within; you were best knock louder.
Pedant looks out of the window
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 [To VINCENTIO] Why, how now, gentleman! why, this
is flat knavery, to take upon you another man’s name.
Pedant Lay hands on the villain: I believe a’ means to
cozen somebody in this city under my countenance.
Re-enter BIONDELLO
BIONDELLO I have seen them in the church together: God send
’em good shipping! But who is here? mine old