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.
Enter TRANIO brave, and BIONDELLO
TRANIO Gentlemen, God save you. If I may be bold,
Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way
To the house of Signior Baptista Minola?
BIONDELLO He that has the two fair daughters: is’t he you mean?
TRANIO Even he, Biondello.
GREMIO Hark you, sir; you mean not her to–
TRANIO Perhaps, him and her, sir: what have you to do?
PETRUCHIO Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.
TRANIO I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let’s away.
LUCENTIO 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.
BIONDELLO |
HORTENSIO The motion’s good indeed and be it so,
Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.
Exeunt
Act 2
Scene 1
Padua. A room in BAPTISTA’S house.
Enter KATHARINA and BIANCA
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.
Strikes her
Enter BAPTISTA
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.
Flies after BIANCA
BAPTISTA What, in my sight? Bianca, get thee in.
Exit BIANCA
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.
Exit
BAPTISTA Was ever gentleman thus grieved as I?
But who comes here?
Enter GREMIO, LUCENTIO in the habit of a mean man; PETRUCHIO, with HORTENSIO as a musician; and TRANIO, with BIONDELLO bearing a lute and books
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,
Presenting HORTENSIO
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,