Enter Baptista, Vincentio, Gremio, the Pedant, Lucentio, Bianca, Petruchio, Katherina, Hortensio and Widow. Tranio, Biondello and Grumio and Others, attending.
LUCENTIO.
At last, though long, our jarring notes agree
And time it is when raging war is done
To smile at ’scapes and perils overblown.
My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome
While I with self-same kindness welcome thine.
Brother Petruchio, sister Katherina
And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow
Feast with the best, and welcome to my house
My banquet is to close our stomachs up
After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down
For now we sit to chat as well as eat.
They sit at table.
PETRUCHIO.
Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat
BAPTISTA.
Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.
PETRUCHIO.
Padua affords nothing but what is kind.
HORTENSIO.
For both our sakes I would that word were true.
PETRUCHIO.
Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.
WIDOW.
Then never trust me if I be afeard.
PETRUCHIO.
You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense
I mean Hortensio is afeard of you.
WIDOW.
He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.
PETRUCHIO.
Roundly replied.
KATHERINA.
Mistress, how mean you that
WIDOW.
Thus I conceive by him.
PETRUCHIO.
Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that
HORTENSIO.
My widow says thus she conceives her tale.
PETRUCHIO.
Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.
KATHERINA.
He that is giddy thinks the world turns round
I pray you tell me what you meant by that.
WIDOW.
Your husband, being troubled with a shrew
Measures my husband’s sorrow by his woe
And now you know my meaning.
KATHERINA.
A very mean meaning.
WIDOW.
Right, I mean you.
KATHERINA.
And I am mean, indeed, respecting you.
PETRUCHIO.
To her, Kate
HORTENSIO.
To her, widow
PETRUCHIO.
A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.
HORTENSIO.
That’s my office.
PETRUCHIO.
Spoke like an officer: ha’ to thee, lad.
Drinks to Hortensio.
BAPTISTA.
How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks
GREMIO.
Believe me, sir, they butt together well.
BIANCA.
Head and butt! An hasty-witted body
Would say your head and butt were head and horn.
VINCENTIO.
Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken’d you
BIANCA.
Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I’ll sleep again.
PETRUCHIO.
Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun
Have at you for a bitter jest or two.
BIANCA.
Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush
And then pursue me as you draw your bow.
You are welcome all.
Exeunt Bianca, Katherina and Widow.
PETRUCHIO.
She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio
This bird you aim’d at, though you hit her not
Therefore a health to all that shot and miss’d.
TRANIO.
O, sir! Lucentio slipp’d me like his greyhound
Which runs himself, and catches for his master.
PETRUCHIO.
A good swift simile, but something currish.
TRANIO.
Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself
Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay.
BAPTISTA.
O ho, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now.
LUCENTIO.
I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.
HORTENSIO.
Confess, confess; hath he not hit you here
PETRUCHIO.
A has a little gall’d me, I confess
And as the jest did glance away from me
Tis ten to one it maim’d you two outright.
BAPTISTA.
Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio
I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.
PETRUCHIO.
Well, I say no; and therefore, for assurance
Let’s each one send unto his wife
And he whose wife is most obedient
To come at first when he doth send for her
Shall win the wager which we will propose.
HORTENSIO.
Content. What’s the wager
LUCENTIO.
Twenty crowns.
PETRUCHIO.
Twenty crowns
I’ll venture so much of my hawk or hound
But twenty times so much upon my wife.
LUCENTIO.
A hundred then.
HORTENSIO.
Content.
PETRUCHIO.
A match! ’tis done.
HORTENSIO.
Who shall begin
LUCENTIO.
That will I.
Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.
BIONDELLO.
I go.
Exit.
BAPTISTA.
Son, I’ll be your half, Bianca comes.
LUCENTIO.
I’ll have no halves; I’ll bear it all myself.
Re-enter Biondello.
How now! what news
BIONDELLO.
Sir, my mistress sends you word
That she is busy and she cannot come.
PETRUCHIO.
How! She’s busy, and she cannot come
Is that an answer
GREMIO.
Ay, and a kind one too
Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.
PETRUCHIO.
I hope better.
HORTENSIO.
Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife
To come to me forthwith.
Exit Biondello.
PETRUCHIO.
O, ho! entreat her
Nay, then she must needs come.
HORTENSIO.
I am afraid, sir
Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.
Re-enter Biondello.
Now, where’s my wife
BIONDELLO.
She says you have some goodly jest in hand
She will not come; she bids you come to her.
PETRUCHIO.
Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile
Intolerable, not to be endur’d
Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress
Say I command her come to me.
Exit Grumio.
HORTENSIO.
I know her answer.
PETRUCHIO.
What
HORTENSIO.
She will not.
PETRUCHIO.
The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.
Re-enter Katherina.
BAPTISTA.
Now, by my holidame, here comes Katherina
KATHERINA.
What is your will sir, that you send for me
PETRUCHIO.
Where is your sister, and Hortensio’s wife
KATHERINA.
They sit conferring by the parlour fire.
PETRUCHIO.
Go fetch them hither; if they deny to come
Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands.
Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.
Exit Katherina.
LUCENTIO.
Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
HORTENSIO.
And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.
PETRUCHIO.
Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life
An awful rule, and right supremacy
And, to be short, what not that’s sweet and happy.
BAPTISTA.
Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio
The wager thou hast won; and I will add
Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns
Another dowry to another daughter
For she is chang’d, as she had never been.
PETRUCHIO.
Nay, I will win my wager better yet
And show more sign of her obedience
Her new-built virtue and obedience.
See where she comes, and brings your froward wives
As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.
Re-enter Katherina with Bianca and Widow.
Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not
Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot.
Katherina pulls off her cap and throws it down.
WIDOW.
Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh
Till I be brought to such a silly pass
BIANCA.
Fie! what a foolish duty call you this
LUCENTIO.
I would your duty were as foolish too
The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca
Hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time
BIANCA.
The more fool you for laying on my duty.
PETRUCHIO.
Katherine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women
What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
WIDOW.
Come, come, you’re mocking; we will have no telling.
PETRUCHIO.
Come on, I say; and first begin with her.
WIDOW.
She shall not.
PETRUCHIO.
I say she shall: and first begin with her.
KATHERINA.
Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman mov’d is like a fountain troubled
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour
And not obedient to his honest will
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord
I am asham’d that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts
Come, come, you froward and unable worms
My mind hath been as big as one of yours
My heart as great, my reason haply more
To bandy word for word and frown for frown
But now I see our lances are but straws
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot
And place your hands below your husband’s foot
In token of which duty, if he please
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
PETRUCHIO.
Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
LUCENTIO.
Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha’t.
VINCENTIO.
Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
LUCENTIO.
But a harsh hearing when women are froward.
PETRUCHIO.
Come, Kate, we’ll to bed.
We three are married, but you two are sped.
Twas I won the wager
To Lucentio.] though you hit the white
And being a winner, God give you good night
Exeunt Petrucio and Katherina.
HORTENSIO.
Now go thy ways; thou hast tam’d a curst shrew.
LUCENTIO.
Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam’d so.
Exeunt.
