The Taming of the Shrew Read online

  'Tis ten to one it maimed you two outright.

  BAPTISTA Now, in good sadness65, son Petruchio,

  I think thou hast the veriest66 shrew of all.

  PETRUCHIO Well, I say no: and therefore for assurance67

  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 of75 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 half84, Bianca comes.

  LUCENTIO I'll have no halves. I'll bear it all myself.

  Enter Biondello

  How now? What news?

  BIONDELLO Sir, my mistress sends you word

  That she is busy and she cannot come.

  PETRUCHIO How?89 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 needs97 come.

  HORTENSIO I am afraid, sir,

  Do what you can,

  Enter Biondello yours will not be entreated.

  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 endured!

  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 mine110, and there an end.

  Enter Katherina

  BAPTISTA Now, by my holidame111, here comes Katherina!

  KATE What is your will, sir, that you send for me?

  PETRUCHIO Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife?

  KATE They sit conferring114 by the parlour fire.

  PETRUCHIO Go fetch them hither. If they deny to come,

  Swinge116 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,

  And awful121 rule and right supremacy,

  And, to be short, what not122 that's sweet and happy.

  BAPTISTA Now, fair befall thee123, 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 changed, as she had never been127.

  PETRUCHIO Nay, I will win my wager better yet

  And show more sign of her obedience,

  Her new-built virtue and obedience.

  Enter Kate, Bianca and Widow

  See where she comes and brings your froward wives

  As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.--

  Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not.

  Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot.

  Kate throws the cap on the ground

  WIDOW Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh,

  Till I be brought to such a silly pass136!

  BIANCA Fie! What a foolish137 duty call you this?

  LUCENTIO I would your duty were as foolish too:

  The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,

  Hath cost me five hundred crowns since suppertime.

  BIANCA The more fool you for laying141 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.

  KATE Fie, fie! Unknit148 that threat'ning unkind brow,

  To the Widow

  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 meads151,

  Confounds thy fame152 as whirlwinds shake fair buds,

  And in no sense is meet153 or amiable.

  A woman moved154 is like a fountain troubled,

  Muddy, ill-seeming155, 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 painful161 labour both by sea and land,

  To watch162 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

  To all?

  Even such a woman oweth to her husband.

  And when she is froward, peevish169, sullen, sour,

  And not obedient to his honest170 will,

  What is she but a foul contending rebel

  And graceless172 traitor to her loving lord?

  I am ashamed that women are so simple173

  To offer war where they should kneel for peace,

  Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway175,

  When they are bound176 to serve, love and obey.

  Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,

  Unapt178 to toil and trouble in the world,

  But that our soft179 conditions and our hearts

  Should well agree with our external parts?--

  Come, come, you froward and unable181 worms,

  To all the Women

  My mind hath been as big182 as one of yours,

  My heart as great, my reason haply183 more,

  To bandy184 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 be187 most which we indeed least are.

  Then vail your stomachs188, 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 ease191.

  PETRUCHIO Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.

  They kiss

  LUCENTIO Well, go thy ways193, old lad, for thou shalt ha't.

  VINCENTIO 'Tis a good hearing when children are toward194.

  LUCENTIO But a harsh hearing when women are froward.

  PETRUCHIO Come, Kate, we'll to bed.

  We three197 are married, but you two are sped.

  'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white198.

  To Lucentio

  And being a winner, God give you goodnight!

  Exeunt Petruchio [and Katherina]

  HORTENSIO Now, g
o thy ways. Thou hast tamed a curst shrew200.

  LUCENTIO 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.

  [Exeunt]

  TEXTUAL NOTES

  Q = First Quarto text of The Taming of a Shrew (1594)

  F = First Folio text of 1623

  F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632

  F3 = a correction introduced in the Third Folio text of 1664

  Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

  SD = stage direction

  SH = speech heading (i.e. speaker's name)

  List of parts = Ed

  Ind.1.0 SD Christopher = Ed. F = Christophero 1 SH SLY = Ed. F = Begger 9 thirdborough = Ed. F = Headborough 18 SH FIRST HUNTSMAN = Ed. F = Hunts. 85 SH FIRST PLAYER = Ed. F = Sincklo 97 SH FIRST PLAYER = Ed. F = Plai.

  Ind.2.2 lordship = Q. F = Lord 21 fourteen pence = Ed. F = xiiii d. 97 SH PAGE = Ed. F = Lady. or La. (throughout) 133 play it. Is = Ed. F = play, it is 137 a = F2. F = a a

  1.1.0 SD Tranio = F2. F = Triano 13 Vincentio = Ed. F = Vincentio's 14 brought = Q. F = brough 25 Mi = Ed. F = Me 47 SD Katherina = F2. F = Katerina SD suitor = F2 (spelled shuiter). F = sister 159 captum = F2. F = captam 207 coloured = F2. F = Conlord 244 your = F2. F = you

  1.2.23 Con tutto il cuore, ben trovato = Ed. F = contutti le core bene trobatto 24 molto honorata = Ed. F = multo honorato 31 pip = Ed. F = peepe 70 she as = F2. F = she is as 115 me and other = Ed. F = me. Other 166 me to = Ed. F = one to 184 Antonio's = Ed. F = Butonios 264 feat = Ed. F = seeke

  2.1.8 thee tell = F2. F = tel 76 Neighbour = Ed. F = neighbors 78 unto you = Ed. F = vnto 199 joint = Ed. F = ioyn'd 250 askance = Ed. F = a sconce 333 in = Ed. F = me 379 Marseillis = Ed. F = Marcellus

  3.1.28 Sigeia = F2. F = sigeria 46-48 assigned to Lucentio in F 49 SH BIANCA = Ed. Not in F 50 SH LUCENTIO = Ed. F = Bian. 52 SH BIANCA = Ed. F = Hort. 65 gamut = Ed. F = gamoth or gamouth (throughout scene) 79 change = F2. F = charge 80 SH MESSENGER = Ed. F = Nicke.

  3.2.16 Make feasts, invite friends = Ed. F = Make friends, inuite 29 of thy = F2. F = of 30 Old news = Ed. F = newes 33 hear = Q. F = heard 51 swayed = Ed. F = Waid 123 before I = F2. F = before 146 grumbling = F2. F = grumlling 193 SH GREMIO = F2 (Gre.). F = Gra.

  3.3.21 SH CURTIS = Q. F = Gru.

  3.4.4 SH HORTENSIO = F2. F = Luc. 6 SH LUCENTIO = F2. F = Hor. 7 you? First = Ed. F = you first, 8 SH LUCENTIO = F2. F = Hor. 13 none = Ed. F = me 31 her = F3. F = them 74 Take = F2. F = Par. Take in = Ed. Not in F

  4.1.65 SH HABERDASHER = Ed. F = Fel. 84 is a = Q. F = is 91 like a = Q. F = like 179 account'st = Ed. F = accountedst

  4.2.0 SD Enter Tranio ... bareheaded = Ed. F = Enter Tranio, and the Pedant dressed (drest) like Vincentio 1 Sir = Ed. F = Sirs 5 Where = Ed. F = Tra. Where 18 SD Enter ... Lucentio F mistakenly repeats an entrance direction for the Pedant--Pedant booted and bareheaded--moved to SD 4.2.0 54 haply = Ed. F = happilie 88 except = F2. F = expect

  4.3.19 is = Q. F = in 39 where = F2. F = whether 79 she be = F2. F = she

  4.4.5 master's = Ed. F = mistris 43 master's = F2. F = Mistris 68 Tranio = F2. F = Tronio 125 No = Q. F = Mo

  5.1.2 done = Ed. F = come 39 thee = Q. F = the 64 two = Ed. F = too 67 for = F2. F = sir

  ADDITIONAL SLY SCENES AND KATE'S SUBMISSION SPEECH FROM THE TAMING OF A SHREW (1594)

  Following a scene for which there is no equivalent in Shakespeare, roughly corresponding in the structure to the end of 2.1 (the "fool" is Sander, who plays a role similar to that of Grumio):

  Then Sly speaks

  SLY Sim, when will the fool come again?

  LORD He'll come again, my lord, anon.

  SLY Giz some more drink here. Zounds, where's the tapster? Here, Sim, eat some of these things.

  LORD So I do, my lord.

  SLY Here, Sim, I drink to thee.

  LORD My lord, here comes the players again.

  SLY O brave, here's two fine gentlewomen.

  Enter Valeria with a Lute and Kate with him.

  In the equivalent position to between 4.2 and 4.3:

  Exeunt All.

  SLY Sim, must they be married now?

  LORD Ay, my lord.

  Enter Ferando and Kate and Sander.

  SLY Look, Sim, the fool is come again now.

  Interrupting the action at the equivalent point to the exit at 4.4.101:

  Phylotus and Valeria runs away. Then Sly speaks.

  SLY I say we'll have no sending to prison.

  LORD My lord, this is but the play, they're but in jest.

  SLY I tell thee, Sim, we'll have no sending to prison, that's flat: why, Sim, am not I Don Christo Vary? Therefore I say they shall not go to prison.

  LORD No more they shall not, my lord, they be run away.

  SLY Are they run away, Sim? That's well, then giz some more drink, and let them play again.

  LORD Here, my lord.

  Sly drinks and then falls asleep.

  In the equivalent position to between 4.4 and 5.1:

  Exeunt All.

  Sly sleeps.

  LORD Who's within there? Come hither, sirs, my lord's

  Asleep again: go take him easily up,

  And put him in his own apparel again,

  And lay him in the place where we did find him,

  Just underneath the ale-house side below.

  But see you wake him not in any case.

  BOY It shall be done, my lord. Come help to bear him hence.

  Exit.

  At the end of the play:

  Exit Polidor and Emelia.

  Then enter two bearing of Sly in his own apparel again, and

  leaves him where they found him, and then goes out.

  Then enter the Tapster.

  TAPSTER Now that the darksome night is overpast,

  And dawning day appears in crystal sky,

  Now must I haste abroad: but soft, who's this?

  What, Sly! O wondrous, hath he lain here all night?

  I'll wake him. I think he's starved by this,

  But that his belly was so stuffed with ale.

  What ho, Sly, awake, for shame!

  SLY Sim, giz some more wine: what, 's all the players gone? Am not I a lord?

  TAPSTER A lord with a murrain! Come, art thou drunken still?

  SLY Who's this? Tapster, O lord, sirrah, I have had

  The bravest dream tonight that ever thou

  Heardest in all thy life.

  TAPSTER Ay, marry, but you had best get you home,

  For your wife will course you for dreaming here tonight.

  SLY Will she? I know now how to tame a shrew,

  I dreamt upon it all this night till now,

  And thou hast waked me out of the best dream

  That ever I had in my life. But I'll to my

  Wife presently and tame her too

  An if she anger me.

  TAPSTER Nay, tarry, Sly, for I'll go home with thee,

  And hear the rest that thou hast dreamt to night.

  Exeunt All.

  FINIS.

  Kate's submission speech near the end of the play:

  FERANDO Now, lovely Kate before their husbands here,

  I prithee tell unto these headstrong women

  What duty wives do owe unto their husbands.

  KATE Then you that live thus by your pampered wills,

  Now list to me and mark what I shall say:

  Th'eternal power that with his only breath,

  Shall cause this end and this beginning frame,

  Not in time nor before time, but with time, confused,

  For all the course of years, of ages, months,

  Of seasons temperate, of days and hours,

  Are tuned and stopped by measure of his hand,

  The first world was a form without a form,

  A heap confused, a mixture all deformed,

  A gulf of gulfs, a body bodiless,

  Where all the elements were orderless,

  Before the great commander of the world,

&n
bsp; The King of Kings, the glorious God of heaven

  Who in six days did frame his heavenly work,

  And made all things to stand in perfect course,

  Then to his image he did make a man,

  Old Adam, and from his side asleep,

  A rib was taken, of which the Lord did make

  The woe of man, so termed by Adam then,

  Woman, for that by her came sin to us,

  And for her sin was Adam doomed to die,

  As Sara to her husband, so should we

  Obey them, love them, keep and nourish them,

  If they by any means do want our helps,

  Laying our hands under their feet to tread,

  If that by that we might procure their ease,

  And for a precedent I'll first begin

  And lay my hand under my husband's feet.

  She lays her hand under her husband's feet.

  SCENE-BY-SCENE ANALYSIS

  INDUCTION SCENE 1

  The induction scenes function as a "frame" for the wider play, although this is not sustained beyond the end of Act 1. Themes of the wider play, such as social status and identity, are established, and there are repeated images of clothing and other external indicators of these factors. Wealth, "value," artifice, illusion, and deception are also introduced and there is a clear sense of theatrical self-awareness.

  Lines 1-69: A drunken Christopher Sly and the Hostess of an ale-house argue and, when she goes to fetch the constable, he falls asleep. He is discovered by a lord out hunting, raising another set of images from the wider play relating to hunting and hawking. As a joke, he arranges to have Sly conveyed to his own house, where he will be "Wrapped in sweet clothes," and, when he wakes, treated as if he is a "mighty lord" who has been "lunatic" and consequently believed himself to be Christopher Sly. The references to "pictures," "dreams," and "fancy" reinforce the theme of illusion, and the hunters' promise to "play our part" raises awareness of acting and theater. Sly is carried off.

  Lines 70-135: A trumpet announces the arrival of a troupe of players, whose presence makes the theatrical self-awareness explicit. The lord discusses past performances and tells them that they are going to perform before a lord who has "never heard a play" and, no matter how odd his behavior, they must not laugh or they will offend him. The lord instructs that his page, Bartholomew, be dressed "like a lady" and play the part of Sly's noble wife. He directs how the page is to speak and act, "With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy," raising issues of "appropriate" female behavior that are explored throughout the play, and emphasizing the link between appearance and perceived identity.

  INDUCTION SCENE 2

  Lines 1-96: Sly wakes and is greeted by servants bearing wine and fine clothes. When he claims that he is not a lord but Christopher Sly, "by ... profession a tinker," they insist that has been insane for fifteen years. They describe his wife, "a lady far more beautiful / Than any woman," and Sly becomes convinced that he is "a lord indeed" who has "dreamed till now."

  Lines 97-139: Bartholomew enters, dressed as Sly's "wife." Sly dismisses the servants and tells "her" to come to bed, but Bartholomew makes the excuse that the physicians have said that "she" must not, in case it sends Sly mad again. News is brought of the players and Sly calls his wife to sit with him to watch. The presence of this additional "audience" reinforces our awareness of the theater and associated themes.