THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

Act 1 Scene 1

Flourish. Enter Lucentio and his man, Tranio
l1l	Lucentio	 Tranio, since for the great desire I had
l2l		To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
l3l		I am arrived fore fruitful Lombardy,
l4l		The pleasant garden of great Italy,
l5l		And by my father’s love and leave am armed
l6l		With his good will and thy good company,
l7l		My trusty servant, well approved in all,
l8l		Here let us breathe, and haply institute
l9l		A course of learning and ingenious studies.
l10l		Pisa, renownèd for grave citizens,
l11l		Gave me my being, and my father first—
l12l		A merchant of great traffic through the world,
l13l		Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.
l14l		Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,
l15l		It shall become to serve all hopes conceived
l16l		To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds.
l17l		And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
l18l		Virtue and that part of philosophy
l19l		Will I apply that treats of happiness
l20l		By virtue specially to be achieved.
l21l		Tell me thy mind, for I have Pisa left
l22l		And am to Padua come as he that leaves
l23l		A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,
l24l		And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
l25l	Tranio	Mi perdonate, gentle master mine.
l26l		I am in all affected as yourself,
l27l		Glad that you thus continue your resolve
l28l		To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
l29l		Only, good master, while we do admire
l30l		This virtue and this moral discipline,
l31l		Let’s be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray,
l32l		Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks
l33l		As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured.
l34l		Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
l35l		And practise rhetoric in your common talk.
l36l		Music and poesy use to quicken you#
l37l		The mathematics and the metaphysics,
l38l		Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you.
l39l		No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en.
l40l		In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
l41l	Lucentio	Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
l42l		If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
l43l		We could at once put us in readiness
l44l		And take a lodging fit to entertain
l45l		Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
l46l		But stay a while, what company is this?
l47l	Tranio	Master, some show to welcome us to town.
		(Enter Baptista with his two daughters, Katherine and Bianca; Gremio, a pantaloon; Hortensio, suitor to Bianca. Lucentio and Tranio stand by)
l48l	Baptista	 Gentlemen, importune me no farther,
l49l		For how I firmly am resolved you know:
l50l		That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter
l51l		Before I have a husband for the elder.
l52l		If either of you both love Katherina,
l53l		Because I know you well and love you well
l54l		Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
l55l	Gremio	To cart her rather. She’s too rough for me.
l56l		There, there, Hortensio. Will you any wife?
l57l	Katherine	(to Baptista)
		 I pray you, sir, is it your will
l58l		To make a stale of me amongst these mates?
l59l	Hortensio	“Mates”, maid? How mean you that? No mates for you
l60l		Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.
l61l	Katherine	I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear.
l62l		Iwis it is not half-way to her heart,
l63l		But if it were, doubt not her care should be
l64l		To comb your noddle with a three-legged stool,
l65l		And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
l66l	Hortensio	From all such devils, good Lord deliver us.
l67l	Gremio	And me too, good Lord.
l68l	Tranio	(aside to Lucentio)
		 Husht, master, here’s some good pastime toward.
l69l		That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.
l70l	Lucentio	(aside to Tranio)
		 But in the other’s silence do I see
l71l		Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.
l72l		Peace, Tranio.
l73l	Tranio	(aside to Lucentio)
		 Well said, master. Mum, and gaze your fill.
l74l	Baptista	Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
l75l		What I have said—Bianca, get you in.
l76l		And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
l77l		For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.
l78l	Katherine	A pretty peat! It is best
l79l		Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.
l80l	Bianca	Sister, content you in my discontent.
l81l		(To Baptista)
		 Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe.
l82l		My books and instruments shall be my company,
l83l		On them to look and practise by myself.
l84l	Lucentio	(aside to Tranio)
		 Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak.
l85l	Hortensio	Signor Baptista, will you be so strange?
l86l		Sorry am I that our good will effects
l87l		Bianca’s grief.
	Gremio	Why will you mew her up,
l88l		Signor Baptista, for this fiend of hell,
l89l		And make her bear the penance of her tongue?
l90l	Baptista	Gentlemen, content ye. I am resolved.
l91l		Go in, Bianca.
		(Exit Bianca)
l92l		And for I know she taketh most delight
l93l		In music, instruments, and poetry,
l94l		Schoolmasters will I keep within my house
l95l		Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
l96l		Or, Signor Gremio, you know any such,
l97l		Prefer them hither# for to cunning men
l98l		I will be very kind, and liberal
l99l		To mine own children in good bringing up.
l100l		And so farewell. Katherina, you may stay,
l101l		For I have more to commune with Bianca.
		(Exit)
l102l	Katherine	 Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?
l103l		What, shall I be appointed hours, as though belike I
l104l		knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!
		(Exit)
l105l	Gremio	 You may go to the devil’s dam. Your gifts are so
l106l		good here’s none will hold you. Their love is not so
l107l		great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together
l108l		and fast it fairly out. Our cake’s dough on both sides.
l109l		Farewell. Yet for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I
l110l		can by any means light on a fit man to teach her that
l111l		wherein she delights, I will wish him to her father.
l112l	Hortensio	So will I, Signor Gremio. But a word, I pray.
l113l		Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked
l114l		parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us both—
l115l		that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress
l116l		and be happy rivals in Bianca’s love—to labour and
l117l		effect one thing specially.
l118l	Gremio	What’s that, I pray?
l119l	Hortensio	Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
l120l	Gremio	A husband?—a devil!
l121l	Hortensio	I say a husband.
l122l	Gremio	I say a devil. Think’st thou, Hortensio, though
l123l		her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to
l124l		be married to hell?
l125l	Hortensio	Tush, Gremio. Though it pass your patience
l126l		and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there
l127l		be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on
l128l		them, would take her with all faults, and money
l129l		enough.
l130l	Gremio	I cannot tell, but I had as lief take her dowry
l131l		with this condition: to be whipped at the high cross
l132l		every morning.
l133l	Hortensio	Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten
l134l		apples. But come, since this bar in law makes us friends,
l135l		it shall be so far forth friendly maintained till by helping
l136l		Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband we set his
l137l		youngest free for a husband, and then have to ’t afresh.
l138l		Sweet Bianca! Happy man be his dole. He that runs
l139l		fastest gets the ring. How say you, Signor Gremio?
l140l	Gremio	I am agreed, and would I had given him the best
l141l		horse in Padua to begin his wooing that would
l142l		thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the
l143l		house of her. Come on.
		(Exeunt Hortensio and Gremio. Tranio and Lucentio remain)
l144l	Tranio	 I pray, sir, tell me: is it possible
l145l		That love should of a sudden take such hold?
l146l	Lucentio	O Tranio, till I found it to be true
l147l		I never thought it possible or likely.
l148l		But see, while idly I stood looking on
l149l		I found the effect of love in idleness,
l150l		And now in plainness do confess to thee,
l151l		That art to me as secret and as dear
l152l		As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was,
l153l		Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
l154l		If I achieve not this young modest girl.
l155l		Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst.
l156l		Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.
l157l	Tranio	Master, it is no time to chide you now.
l158l		Affection is not rated from the heart.
l159l		If love have touched you, naught remains but so—
l160l		Redime te captum quam queas minimo.
l161l	Lucentio	Gramercies, lad. Go forward, this contents.
l162l		The rest will comfort, for thy counsel’s sound.
l163l	Tranio	Master, you looked so longly on the maid
l164l		Perhaps you marked not what’s the pith of all.
l165l	Lucentio	O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
l166l		Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
l167l		That made great Jove to humble him to her hand
l168l		When with his knees he kissed the Cretan strand.
l169l	Tranio	Saw you no more? Marked you not how her sister
l170l		Began to scold and raise up such a storm
l171l		That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
l172l	Lucentio	Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
l173l		And with her breath she did perfume the air.
l174l		Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.
l175l	Tranio	(aside)
		 Nay, then ’tis time to stir him from his trance.
l176l		(To Lucentio)
		 I pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid,
l177l		Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:
l178l		Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd
l179l		That till the father rid his hands of her,
l180l		Master, your love must live a maid at home,
l181l		And therefore has he closely mewed her up
l182l		Because she will not be annoyed with suitors.
l183l	Lucentio	Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father’s he!
l184l		But art thou not advised he took some care
l185l		To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
l186l	Tranio	Ay, marry am I, sir, and now ’tis plotted.
l187l	Lucentio	I have it, Tranio.
	Tranio	Master, for my hand,
l188l		Both our inventions meet and jump in one.
l189l	Lucentio	Tell me thine first.
	Tranio	You will be schoolmaster
l190l		And undertake the teaching of the maid.
l191l		That’s your device.
	Lucentio	It is. May it be done?
l192l	Tranio	Not possible# for who shall bear your part,
l193l		And be in Padua here Vincentio’s son,
l194l		Keep house, and ply his book, welcome his friends,
l195l		Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?
l196l	Lucentio	Basta, content thee, for I have it full.
l197l		We have not yet been seen in any house,
l198l		Nor can we be distinguished by our faces
l199l		For man or master. Then it follows thus:
l200l		Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead#
l201l		Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should.
l202l		I will some other be, some Florentine,
l203l		Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
l204l		’Tis hatched, and shall be so. Tranio, at once
l205l		Uncase thee. Take my coloured hat and cloak.
l206l		When Biondello comes he waits on thee,
l207l		But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
l208l	Tranio	So had you need.
		(They exchange clothes)
l209l		In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
l210l		And I am tied to be obedient—
l211l		For so your father charged me at our parting,
l212l		“Be serviceable to my son,” quoth he,
l213l		Although I think ’twas in another sense—
l214l		I am content to be Lucentio
l215l		Because so well I love Lucentio.
l216l	Lucentio	Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves,
l217l		And let me be a slave t’ achieve that maid
l218l		Whose sudden sight hath thralled my wounded eye.
		(Enter Biondello)
l219l		Here comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been?
l220l	Biondello	 Where have I been? Nay, how now, where
l221l		are you? Master, has my fellow Tranio stolen your
l222l		clothes, or you stolen his, or both? Pray, what’s the
l223l		news?
l224l	Lucentio	 Sirrah, come hither. ’Tis no time to jest,
l225l		And therefore frame your manners to the time.
l226l		Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life
l227l		Puts my apparel and my count’nance on,
l228l		And I for my escape have put on his,
l229l		For in a quarrel since I came ashore
l230l		I killed a man, and fear I was descried.
l231l		Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
l232l		While I make way from hence to save my life.
l233l		You understand me?
	Biondello	I sir? Ne’er a whit.
l234l	Lucentio	And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth.
l235l		Tranio is changed into Lucentio.
l236l	Biondello	The better for him. Would I were so too.
l237l	Tranio	So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after—
l238l		That Lucentio indeed had Baptista’s youngest daughter.
l239l		But sirrah, not for my sake but your master’s I advise
l240l		You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies.
l241l		When I am alone, why then I am Tranio,
l242l		But in all places else your master, Lucentio.
l243l	Lucentio	Tranio, let’s go.
l244l		One thing more rests that thyself execute—
l245l		To make one among these wooers. If thou ask me why,
l246l		Sufficeth my reasons are both good and weighty.
		(Exeunt)
l247l		(The presenters above speak)
		First Servingman	 My lord, you nod. You do not mind the play.
l248l	Sly	 Yes, by Saint Anne do I. A good matter, surely.
l249l		Comes there any more of it?
l250l	Bartholomew	My lord, ’tis but begun.
l251l	Sly	’Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady.
l252l		Would ’twere done.
		(They sit and mark)