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.
Re-enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, and TRANIO
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.
TRANIO |
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.
Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA severally
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.
Exit BAPTISTA
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.
Exit
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.
Exit
Act 3
Scene 1
Padua. BAPTISTA’S house.
Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA
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;