Enter Baptista, Vincentio, Gremio, the ⌜Merchant,⌝
Lucentio, and Bianca; ⌜Hortensio⌝ and ⌜the⌝ Widow,
⌜Petruchio and Katherine;⌝ Tranio, Biondello, ⌜and⌝
Grumio, ⌜with⌝ Servingmen bringing in a banquet.LUCENTIO At last, though long, our jarring notes agree,
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And time it is when raging war is ⌜done⌝ To smile at ’scapes and perils overblown. My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,5 While I with selfsame 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 up10 After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down, For now we sit to chat as well as eat.⌜They sit.⌝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 15 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 20 He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.PETRUCHIO Roundly replied.KATHERINE Mistress, how mean you that?WIDOW Thus I conceive by him.PETRUCHIO Conceives by me? How likes Hortensio that?HORTENSIO 25 My widow says, thus she conceives her tale.
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PETRUCHIO Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.KATHERINE “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 shrew30 Measures my husband’s sorrow by his woe. And now you know my meaning.KATHERINE A very mean meaning.WIDOW Right, I mean you.KATHERINE And I am mean indeed, respecting you.PETRUCHIO 35To 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.⌜He⌝ drinks to Hortensio.BAPTISTA 40 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 awakened you?BIANCA 45 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.
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BIANCA Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, And then pursue me as you draw your bow.—50 You are welcome all.Bianca, ⌜Katherine, and the Widow⌝ exit.PETRUCHIO She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio, This bird you aimed at, though you hit her not.— Therefore a health to all that shot and missed.TRANIO O, sir, Lucentio slipped me like his greyhound,55 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, O, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now.LUCENTIO 60 I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.HORTENSIO Confess, confess! Hath he not hit you here?PETRUCHIO He has a little galled me, I confess. And as the jest did glance away from me, ’Tis ten to one it maimed you two outright.BAPTISTA 65 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 obedient70 To come at first when he doth send for her Shall win the wager which we will propose.
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HORTENSIO Content, what’s the wager?LUCENTIO Twenty crowns.PETRUCHIO Twenty crowns?75 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 80Who shall begin?LUCENTIO That will I. Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.BIONDELLO I go.He exits.BAPTISTA Son, I’ll be your half Bianca comes.LUCENTIO 85 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 90 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 95 Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife To come to me forthwith.Biondello exits.PETRUCHIO O ho, entreat her! Nay, then, she must needs come.
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HORTENSIO I am afraid, sir,100 Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.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!105 O vile, intolerable, not to be endured!— Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress, Say I command her come to me.⌜Grumio⌝ exits.HORTENSIO I know her answer.PETRUCHIO What?HORTENSIO 110 She will not.PETRUCHIO The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.Enter Katherine.BAPTISTA Now by my holidam, here comes Katherina!KATHERINE What is your will, sir, that you send for me?PETRUCHIO Where is your sister, and Hortensio’s wife?KATHERINE 115 They sit conferring by the parlor 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.⌜Katherine exits.⌝LUCENTIO Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.HORTENSIO 120 And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.
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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!125 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 been.PETRUCHIO Nay, I will win my wager better yet,130 And show more sign of her obedience, Her new-built virtue and obedience.Enter Katherine, Bianca, and Widow. See where she comes, and brings your froward wives As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.—135 Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not. Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot.⌜She obeys.⌝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 140 I would your duty were as foolish too. The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Hath cost me ⌜a⌝ hundred crowns since suppertime.BIANCA The more fool you for laying on my duty.PETRUCHIO Katherine, I charge thee tell these headstrong145 women What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
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WIDOW Come, come, ⌜you’re⌝ mocking. We will have no telling.PETRUCHIO Come on, I say, and first begin with her.WIDOW 150She shall not.PETRUCHIO I say she shall.—And first begin with her.KATHERINE Fie, fie! Unknit that threat’ning unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.155 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 moved is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty,160 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 body165 To painful labor 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—170 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,175 What is she but a foul contending rebel And graceless traitor to her loving lord? I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
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Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway180 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?185 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,190 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,195 My hand is ready, may it do him ease.PETRUCHIO Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.⌜They kiss.⌝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 200Come, Kate, we’ll to bed. We three are married, but you two are sped. ⌜To Lucentio.⌝ ’Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white, And being a winner, God give you good night.Petruchio ⌜and Katherine⌝ exit.HORTENSIO 205 Now, go thy ways, thou hast tamed a curst shrow.LUCENTIO ’Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.⌜They exit.⌝
