The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 21
HORTENSIO
Petruccio, since we are stepped thus far in,
I will continue that I broached in jest.
I can, Petruccio, help thee to a wife
With wealth enough, and young and beauteous,
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,
I would not wed her for a mine of gold.
PETRUCCIO
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
Her father is Baptista Minola,
An affable and courteous gentleman.
Her name is Katherina Minola,
Renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue.
PETRUCCIO
I know her father, though I know not her,
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 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 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
Tarry, Petruccio, 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 Bianca,
And her withholds from me and other more,
Suitors to her and rivals in my love,
Supposing it a thing impossible,
For those defects I have before rehearsed,
That ever Katherina will be wooed.
Therefore this order hath Baptista ta’en:
That none shall have access unto Bianca
Till Katherine the curst have got a husband.
GRUMIO Katherine the curst—
A title for a maid of all titles the worst.
HORTENSIO
Now shall my friend Petruccio do me grace,
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,
And unsuspected court her by herself.
Enter Gremio with a paper, and Lucentio disguised as a schoolmaster
GRUMIO Here’s no knavery. See, to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay their heads together. Master, master, look about you. Who goes there, ha?
HORTENSIO
Peace, Grumio, it is the rival of my love.
Petruccio, stand by a while.
GRUMIO
A proper stripling, and an amorous!
Petruccio, Hortensio, and Grumio stand aside
GREMIO (to Lucentio)
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—
And see you read no other lectures to her.
You understand me. Over and beside
Signor Baptista’s liberality,
I’ll mend it with a largess. Take your paper, too,
And let me have them very well perfumed,
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—
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 (aside)
O this woodcock, what an ass it is!
PETRUCCIO Peace, sirrah.
HORTENSIO
Grumio, mum. (Coming forward) God save you, Signor Gremio.
GREMIO
And you are well met, Signor Hortensio.
Trow you whither I am going?
To Baptista Minola.
I promised to enquire carefully
About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca,
And by good fortune I have lighted well
On this young man, for learning and behaviour
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
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 (aside) 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 Katherine,
Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.
GREMIO So said, so done, is well.
Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?
PETRUCCIO
I know she is an irksome brawling scold.
If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.
GREMIO
No, sayst me so, friend? What countryman?
PETRUCCIO
Born in Verona, old Antonio’s son.
My father dead, his 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, a’ God’s name.
You shall have me assisting you in all.
But will you woo this wildcat?
PETRUCCIO Will I live!
GRUMIO
Will he woo her? Ay, or I’ll hang her.
PETRUCCIO
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, puffed 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 charge 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, as Lucentio, 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 Signor 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?
PETRUCCIO
Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.
TRANIO
I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let’s away.
LUCENTIO (aside)
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 Signor Gremio.
HORTENSIO
That she’s the chosen of Signor 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.
PETRUCCIO
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.
PETRUCCIO
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.
PETRUCCIO
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 beholden.
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 and BIONDELLO
O excellent motion! Fellows, let’s be gone.
HORTENSIO
The motion’s good indeed, and be it so.
Petruccio, I shall be your ben venuto.
Exeunt
2.1 Enter Katherina and Bianca, her hands bound
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 goods,
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.
KATHERINE
Of all thy suitors here I charge thee tell
Whom thou lov’st 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.
KATHERINE
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.
KATHERINE
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.
KATHERINE (strikes her)
If that be jest, then all the rest was so.
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.
(To Katherine) For shame, thou hilding of a devilish
spirit,
Why dost thou wrong her that did ne’er wrong thee?
When did she cross thee with a bitter word?
KATHERINE
Her silence flouts me, and I’ll be revenged.
She flies after Bianca
BAPTISTA
What, in my sight? Bianca, get thee in.
Exit Bianca
KATHERINE
What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband.
I must dance barefoot 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 as a schoolmaster in the
habit of a mean man, Petruccio with Hortensio as a
musician, Tranio as Lucentio, with Biondello his
boy bearing a lute and books
GREMIO Good morrow, neighbour Baptista.
BAPTISTA Good morrow, neighbour Gremio. God save you, gentlemen.
PETRUCCIO
And you, good sir. Pray, have you not a daughter
Called Katherina, fair and virtuous?
BAPTISTA
I have a daughter, sir, called Katherina.
GREMIO
You are too blunt. Go to it orderly.
PETRUCCIO
You wrong me, Signor Gremio. Give me leave.
(To Baptista) 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 behaviour,
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 presen
t 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, Katherine, this I know:
She is not for your turn, the more my grief.
PETRUCCIO
I see you do not mean to part with her,
Or else you like not of my company.
BAPTISTA
Mistake me not, I speak but as I find.
Whence are you, sir? What may I call your name?
PETRUCCIO
Petruccio is my name, Antonio’s son,
A man well known throughout all Italy.
BAPTISTA
I know him well. You are welcome for his sake.
GREMIO
Saving your tale, Petruccio, I pray
Let us that are poor petitioners speak too.
Baccare, you are marvellous forward.
PETRUCCIO
O pardon me, Signor Gremio, I would fain be doing.
GREMIO
I doubt it not, sir. But you will curse your wooing. (To Baptista) Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it. To express the like kindness, myself, that have been more kindly beholden to you than any, freely give unto you this young scholar (presenting Lucentio) that hath been long studying at Rheims, as cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages as the other in music and mathematics. His name is Cambio. Pray accept his service.
BAPTISTA A thousand thanks, Signor Gremio. Welcome, good Cambio. (To Tranio) But, gentle sir, methinks you walk like a stranger. May I be so bold to know the cause of your coming?
TRANIO
Pardon me, sir, the boldness is mine own
That, being a stranger in this city here,
Do make myself a suitor to your daughter,
Unto Bianca, fair and virtuous.
Nor is your firm resolve unknown to me
In the preferment of the eldest sister.
This liberty is all that I request:
That upon knowledge of my parentage
I may have welcome ‘mongst the rest that woo,
And free access and favour as the rest.
And toward the education of your daughters
I here bestow a simple instrument,
And this small packet of Greek and Latin books.
If you accept them, then their worth is great.
BAPTISTA
Lucentio is your name—of whence, I pray?
TRANIO
Of Pisa, sir, son to Vincentio.