Enter Tranio ⌜as Lucentio,⌝ and the ⌜Merchant,⌝ booted,
and dressed like Vincentio.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ ⌜Sir,⌝ this is the house. Please it you that I call?⌜MERCHANT⌝ Ay, what else? And but I be deceived, Signior Baptista may remember me, Near twenty years ago, in Genoa,5 Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.
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TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ ’Tis well. And hold your own in any case With such austerity as ’longeth to a father.⌜MERCHANT⌝ I warrant you.Enter Biondello. But, sir, here comes your boy.10 ’Twere good he were schooled.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ Fear you not him.—Sirrah Biondello, Now do your duty throughly, I advise you. Imagine ’twere the right Vincentio.BIONDELLO Tut, fear not me.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ 15 But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?BIONDELLO I told him that your father was at Venice, And that you looked for him this day in Padua.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ Thou ’rt a tall fellow. Hold thee that to drink.⌜He gives him money.⌝Enter Baptista and Lucentio ⌜as Cambio.⌝ Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir.⌜Merchant stands⌝ bareheaded.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ 20 Signior Baptista, you are happily met.— Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of. I pray you stand good father to me now. Give me Bianca for my patrimony.⌜MERCHANT, as Vincentio⌝ Soft, son.—25 Sir, by your leave, having come to Padua To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio Made me acquainted with a weighty cause Of love between your daughter and himself.
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And, for the good report I hear of you,30 And for the love he beareth to your daughter And she to him, to stay him not too long, I am content, in a good father’s care, To have him matched. And if you please to like No worse than I, upon some agreement35 Me shall you find ready and willing With one consent to have her so bestowed, For curious I cannot be with you, Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.BAPTISTA Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.40 Your plainness and your shortness please me well. Right true it is your son Lucentio here Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him, Or both dissemble deeply their affections. And therefore, if you say no more than this,45 That like a father you will deal with him And pass my daughter a sufficient dower, The match is made, and all is done. Your son shall have my daughter with consent.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best50 We be affied and such assurance ta’en As shall with either part’s agreement stand?BAPTISTA Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants. Besides, old Gremio is heark’ning still,55 And happily we might be interrupted.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ Then at my lodging, an it like you. There doth my father lie, and there this night We’ll pass the business privately and well. Send for your daughter by your servant here.⌜He indicates Lucentio, and winks at him.⌝
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60 My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently. The worst is this: that at so slender warning You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.BAPTISTA It likes me well.—Cambio, hie you home, And bid Bianca make her ready straight.65 And, if you will, tell what hath happenèd: Lucentio’s father is arrived in Padua, And how she’s like to be Lucentio’s wife.⌜Lucentio exits.⌝BIONDELLO I pray the gods she may, with all my heart.TRANIO, ⌜as Lucentio⌝ Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.—70 Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way? Welcome! One mess is like to be your cheer. Come, sir, we will better it in Pisa.BAPTISTA I follow you.⌜All but Biondello⌝ exit.Enter Lucentio.BIONDELLO Cambio.LUCENTIO 75What sayst thou, Biondello?BIONDELLO You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?LUCENTIO Biondello, what of that?BIONDELLO Faith, nothing; but ’has left me here behind80 to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.LUCENTIO I pray thee, moralize them.BIONDELLO Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a deceitful son.LUCENTIO 85And what of him?BIONDELLO His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.
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LUCENTIO And then?BIONDELLO The old priest at Saint Luke’s Church is at90 your command at all hours.LUCENTIO And what of all this?BIONDELLO I cannot tell, ⌜except⌝ they are busied about a counterfeit assurance. Take you assurance of her cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum. To th’95 church take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest witnesses. If this be not that you look for, I have no more to say, But bid Bianca farewell forever and a day.LUCENTIO 100Hear’st thou, Biondello?BIONDELLO I cannot tarry. I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit, and so may you, sir. And so adieu, sir. My master hath appointed me to go to Saint105 Luke’s to bid the priest be ready to come against you come with your appendix.He exits.LUCENTIO I may, and will, if she be so contented. She will be pleased. Then wherefore should I doubt?110 Hap what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her. It shall go hard if “Cambio” go without her.He exits.
