The Taming of the Shrew Page #3

With all my lands and leases whatsoever.

Signor Antonio's son!

- Litio...

- Take you the lute, you the set of books.

You shall go see your pupils.

Within!

Sirrah, lead these gentlemen to my daughters.

Tell her they are her tutors.

Bid her use them well.

- With...

- All my lands and leases whatsoever.

Let specialties be therefore drawn between us,

That covenants may be kept on either hand.

Ay, when one special thing is well obtain'd,

I mean, her love;

for that is all in all.

Why, that is nothing. For I tell you, Father,

I am as peremptory as she proud-minded;

And where two raging fires meet together,

They do consume

the thing that feeds their fury.

Though little fire grows great with little wind,

Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all.

So I to her, and so she yields to me,

For I am rough and woo not like a babe.

Vile instrument! Fat-fingered gut plucker!

Twangling Jack!

But be thou arm'd for...

some unhappy words.

Signor Baptista! Master! Master!

How now, my friend,

why dost thou look so pale?

For fear, I promise you, if I look pale.

And will my daughter prove a good musician?

She'll sooner prove a soldier.

Iron may hold with her, but never lutes.

Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench.

O, how I long to have some chat with her.

Come with me, and be not so discomfited.

Proceed in practice with my younger daughter.

Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain

She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.

Say that she frown,

I'll say she looks as clear

As morning roses newly wash'd with dew.

Say she be mute and will not speak a word,

Then I'll commend her volubility,

And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.

If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks,

As though she bid me stay by her a week.

If she refuse to wed...

refuse to wed,

I'll crave the day

When I shall ask the banns, and...

when be married.

Good morrow, Kate.

That's your name, I hear.

Well have you heard,

but something hard of hearing;

They call me Katharine that do talk of me.

You lie, i' faith, for you are calI'd plain Kate,

And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst;

But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,

Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,

For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate,

Take this of me, Kate of my consolation,

Hearing thy mildness prais'd in every town,

Yhy virtues spoken of, and thy beauty sounded,

Yet not so deeply as thou dost deserve,

Myself am mov'd to woo thee for my wife.

Mov'd?

In good time!

Let him that mov'd you hither

Remove you hence.

I knew you at the first

You were a movable.

Why, what's a movable?

- A stool. Like this!

- Then, sit on me.

Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

Women are made to bear, and so are you.

Not such a load as yours, if me you mean.

Nay, come, good Kate, I will not burden thee!

For, knowing thee to be but young and light -

Too light for such a swain as you to catch.

Father! This man...

Vincentio, my father,

hath no less than three great argosies,

Besides two merchant ships

And twelve light galleys.

Twelve?

- Hic ibat Simois hic est Sigeia tellus

- Nay, leave his lecture.

Fiddler, forbear. You grow too forward, sir.

Have you so soon forgot the entertainment

Her sister Katharine welcom'd you withal?

Wrangling pedant! This is

The patroness of heavenly harmony.

Preposterous ass! You may go walk,

and give me leave awhile.

- Go tune your instrument.

- My instrument's in tune.

Spit in the hole, man, and tune again.

Think upon that, sir, and keep your place.

You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune?

That will be never.

Hic ibat Simois

Good morrow, Kate. Good Kate.

I am a gentleman...

That I'll try.

Come, come, you wasp;

i' faith, you are too angry.

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

My remedy, then, is to pluck it out.

Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.

Who knows not where a wasp

doth wear his sting? ln his tail.

- In his tongue.

- Whose tongue?

Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.

What, with my tongue in your tail?

Oh!

- I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again.

- If... lf you strike me, you are no gentleman.

Now, Kate, I am a husband for your choice...

- You rogue!

- For by this light, whereby I see thy beauty,

Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well...

- Monstrous villain, go!

- Rhou must be married to no man but me.

Thou must be married to no man but me.

For I am he am born to tame you, Kate,

To bring you from a wildcat to a Kate

Conformable as other household Kates.

Conformable as other household Kates.

No!

Thou canst not frown,

thou canst not look askance,

Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will,

Nor hast thou pleasure to be cross in talk.

But thou with mildness

entertain'st thy wooers,

With gentle conference, soft and affable.

And will you, nill you, I... will... marry... you.

I'd rather die!

- Katharina!

- My twenty thousand crowns.

Katharina!

Signor Baptista! Signor Baptista! Katharina!

Katharina! Daughter!

Call you me daughter?

Now I promise

You have show'd a tender fatherly regard

To wish me wed to one half lunatic,

A madcap ruffian and a swearing Jack,

Who thinks with oaths to face the matter out.

Signor Petruchio,

how speed you with your wooing?

How but well, sir? How but well?

It were impossible I should speed amiss.

In sooth, you scape not so.

I chafe you, if I tarry. Let me go.

'Twas told me you were rough,

and coy, and sullen,

And now I find report a very liar;

For thou art pleasant, gamesome,

passing courteous,

And slow in speech,

but sweet as spring-time flowers.

Where did you study all this goodly speech?

It is extempore, from my mother-wit.

A witty mother, with a witless son.

Am I not wise?

Enough to keep you warm.

Marry, so I mean to warm me in thy bed.

And will you, nill you, I will marry you.

Why does the world report that Kate doth limp?

O slanderous world!

Kate like the hazel-tree is straight and slender,

and brown in hue as hazel-nuts

and sweeter than the kernels.

- Signor Baptista...

- Gentlemen, content you,

I will compound this strife.

'Tis deeds must win the prize,

And he among you

Who can assure my daughter greatest wealth

Shall have Bianca's love.

Shh.

Here comes your father. Never make denial;

I must and will have Katharine for my wife.

Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly?

But now, Baptista, to your younger daughter.

I...

I must confess your offer is the best.

Albeit his father sign the covenant.

Albeit he hath a father so to sign.

And if your father make her the assurance,

She is your own.

Signor Petruchio.

Father.

'Tis thus:
yourself and all the world

That talk'd of her have talk'd amiss of her.

She is not proud, but modest as the dove.

She is not hot, but temperate as the morn.

And to conclude,

we have 'greed so well together

That upon Sunday is the wedding-day.

I'll see thee hang'd on Sunday first.

'Twas bargain'd 'twixt us, when we were alone,

That she shall still seem curst in company.

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