TPTT The Taming of the Shrew: ACT I
Introduction
INDUCTION
ACT I
SCENE I. Padua. A public place.
SCENE II. Padua. Before HORTENSIO'S house.
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II. Padua. Before HORTENSIO'S house.
Enter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO
PETRUCHIO
      Verona, for a while I take my leave,
      To see my friends in Padua, but of all
      My best beloved and approved friend,
      Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
5     Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.
GRUMIO
      Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there man has
      rebused your worship?
PETRUCHIO
      Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.
GRUMIO
      Knock you here, sir! why, sir, what am I, sir, that
10    I should knock you here, sir?
PETRUCHIO
      Villain, I say, knock me at this gate
      And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
GRUMIO
      My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock
      you first,
15    And then I know after who comes by the worst.
PETRUCHIO
      Will it not be?
      Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;
      I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.
He wrings him by the ears
GRUMIO
      Help, masters, help! my master is mad.
PETRUCHIO
20    Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!
Enter HORTENSIO
HORTENSIO
      How now! what's the matter? My old friend Grumio!
      and my good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona?
PETRUCHIO
      Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?
      'Con tutto il cuore, ben trovato,' may I say.
HORTENSIO
25    'Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto honorato signor
      mio Petruchio.' Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound
      this quarrel.
GRUMIO
      Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin.
      if this be not a lawful case for me to leave his
30    service, look you, sir, he bid me knock him and rap
      him soundly, sir: well, was it fit for a servant to
      use his master so, being perhaps, for aught I see,
      two and thirty, a pip out? Whom would to God I had
      well knock'd at first, Then had not Grumio come by the worst.
PETRUCHIO
35    A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
      I bade the rascal knock upon your gate
      And could not get him for my heart to do it.
GRUMIO
      Knock at the gate! O heavens! Spake you not these
      words plain, 'Sirrah, knock me here, rap me here,
40    knock me well, and knock me soundly'? And come you
      now with, 'knocking at the gate'?
PETRUCHIO
      Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
HORTENSIO
      Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge:
      Why, this's a heavy chance 'twixt him and you,
45    Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.
      And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale
      Blows you to Padua here from old Verona?
PETRUCHIO
      Such wind as scatters young men through the world,
      To seek their fortunes farther than at home
50    Where small experience grows. But in a few,
      Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
      Antonio, my father, is deceased;
      And I have thrust myself into this maze,
      Haply to wive and thrive as best I may:
55    Crowns in my purse I have and goods at home,
      And so am come abroad to see the world.
HORTENSIO
      Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee
      And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?
      Thou'ldst thank me but a little for my counsel:
60    And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich
      And very rich: but thou'rt too much my friend,
      And I'll not wish thee to her.
PETRUCHIO
      Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we
      Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
65    One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
      As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,
      Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
      As old as Sibyl and as curst and shrewd
      As Socrates' Xanthippe, or a worse,
70    She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
      Affection's edge in me, were she as rough
      As are the swelling Adriatic seas:
      I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
      If wealthily, then happily in Padua.
GRUMIO
75    Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his
      mind is: Why give him gold enough and marry him to
      a puppet or an aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne'er
      a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases
      as two and fifty horses: why, nothing comes amiss,
80    so money comes withal.
HORTENSIO
      Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in,
      I will continue that I broach'd in jest.
      I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
      With wealth enough and young and beauteous,
85    Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman:
      Her only fault, and that is faults enough,
      Is that she is intolerable curst
      And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure
      That, were my state far worser than it is,
90    I would not wed her for a mine of gold.
PETRUCHIO
      Hortensio, peace! thou know'st not gold's effect:
      Tell me her father's name and 'tis enough;
      For I will board her, though she chide as loud
      As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.
HORTENSIO
95    Her father is Baptista Minola,
      An affable and courteous gentleman:
      Her name is Katharina Minola,
      Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue.
PETRUCHIO
      I know her father, though I know not her;
100   And he knew my deceased father well.
      I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her;
      And therefore let me be thus bold with you
      To give you over at this first encounter,
      Unless you will accompany me thither.
GRUMIO
105   I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts.
      O' my word, an she knew him as well as I do, she
      would think scolding would do little good upon him:
      she may perhaps call him half a score knaves or so:
      why, that's nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in
110   his rope-tricks. I'll tell you what sir, an she
      stand him but a little, he will throw a figure in
      her face and so disfigure her with it that she
      shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat.
      You know him not, sir.
HORTENSIO
115   Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee,
      For in Baptista's keep my treasure is:
      He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
      His youngest daughter, beautiful Binaca,
      And her withholds from me and other more,
120   Suitors to her and rivals in my love,
      Supposing it a thing impossible,
      For those defects I have before rehearsed,
      That ever Katharina will be woo'd;
      Therefore this order hath Baptista ta'en,
125   That none shall have access unto Bianca
      Till Katharina the curst have got a husband.
GRUMIO
      Katharina the curst!
      A title for a maid of all titles the worst.
HORTENSIO
      Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace,
130   And offer me disguised in sober robes
      To old Baptista as a schoolmaster
      Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca;
      That so I may, by this device, at least
      Have leave and leisure to make love to her
135   And unsuspected court her by herself.
GRUMIO
      Here's no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks,
      how the young folks lay their heads together!

Enter GREMIO, and LUCENTIO disguised

      Master, master, look about you: who goes there, ha?
HORTENSIO
      Peace, Grumio! it is the rival of my love.
140   Petruchio, stand by a while.
GRUMIO
      A proper stripling and an amorous!
GREMIO
      O, very well; I have perused the note.
      Hark you, sir: I'll have them very fairly bound:
      All books of love, see that at any hand;
145   And see you read no other lectures to her:
      You understand me: over and beside
      Signior Baptista's liberality,
      I'll mend it with a largess. Take your paper too,
      And let me have them very well perfumed
150   For she is sweeter than perfume itself
      To whom they go to. What will you read to her?
LUCENTIO
      Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you
      As for my patron, stand you so assured,
      As firmly as yourself were still in place:
155   Yea, and perhaps with more successful words
      Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.
GREMIO
      O this learning, what a thing it is!
GRUMIO
      O this woodcock, what an ass it is!
PETRUCHIO
      Peace, sirrah!
HORTENSIO
160   Grumio, mum! God save you, Signior Gremio.
GREMIO
      And you are well met, Signior Hortensio.
      Trow you whither I am going? To Baptista Minola.
      I promised to inquire carefully
      About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca:
165   And by good fortune I have lighted well
      On this young man, for learning and behavior
      Fit for her turn, well read in poetry
      And other books, good ones, I warrant ye.
HORTENSIO
      'Tis well; and I have met a gentleman
170   Hath promised me to help me to another,
      A fine musician to instruct our mistress;
      So shall I no whit be behind in duty
      To fair Bianca, so beloved of me.
GREMIO
      Beloved of me; and that my deeds shall prove.
GRUMIO
175   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,
180   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
185   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;
190   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
195   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?
200   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
205   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
210   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
215   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
220   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
225   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
230   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
235   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,
240   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.
245   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
250   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,
255   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
260   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:
265   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
270   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,
275   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,
280   Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
GRUMIO
BIONDELLO
      O excellent motion! Fellows, let's be gone.
HORTENSIO
      The motion's good indeed and be it so,
      Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.
Exeunt
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