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- $Unique_ID{SSP00806}
- $Title{The Taming of the Shrew: Act III, Scene I}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*00800.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
-
-
- ACT III
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE I: Padua. BAPTISTA'S house.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA.}
-
- LUCENTIO: Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir:
- Have you so soon forgot the entertainment
- Her sister Katharina welcomed you withal?
-
- HORTENSIO: But, wrangling pedant, this is
- The patroness of heavenly harmony:
- Then give me leave to have prerogative;
- And when in music we have spent an hour,
- Your lecture shall have leisure for as much.
-
- LUCENTIO: Preposterous ass, that never read so far
- To know the cause why music was ordain'd! 10
- Was it not to refresh the mind of man
- After his studies or his usual pain?
- Then give me leave to read philosophy,
- And while I pause, serve in your harmony.
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- HORTENSIO: Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine.
-
- BIANCA: Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong,
- To strive for that which resteth in my choice:
- I am no breeching scholar in the schools;
- I'll not be tied to hours nor 'pointed times,
- But learn my lessons as I please myself. 20
- And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down:
- Take you your instrument, play you the whiles;
- His lecture will be done ere you have tuned.
-
- HORTENSIO: You'll leave his lecture when I am in
- tune?
-
- LUCENTIO: That will be never: tune your instrument.
-
- BIANCA: Where left we last?
-
- LUCENTIO: Here, madam:
- 'Hic ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus;
- Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.' 30
-
- BIANCA: Construe them.
-
- LUCENTIO: 'Hic ibat,' as I told you before, 'Simois,' I am
- Lucentio, 'hic est,' son unto Vincentio of Pisa,
- 'Sigeia tellus,' disguised thus to get your love;
- 'Hic steterat,' and that Lucentio that comes
- a-wooing, 'Priami,' is my man Tranio, 'regia,'
- bearing my port, 'celsa senis,' that we might
- beguile the old pantaloon.
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- HORTENSIO: Madam, my instrument's in tune.
-
- BIANCA: Let's hear. O fie! the treble jars. 40
-
- LUCENTIO: Spit in the hole, man, and tune again.
-
- BIANCA: Now let me see if I can construe it: 'Hic ibat
- Simois,' I know you not, 'hic est Sigeia tellus,' I
- trust you not; 'Hic steterat Priami,' take heed
- he hear us not, 'regia,' presume not, 'celsa senis,'
- despair not.
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- HORTENSIO: Madam, 'tis now in tune.
-
- LUCENTIO: All but the base.
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- HORTENSIO: The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars.
-
- [Aside.]
-
- How fiery and forward our pedant is!
- Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love: 50
- Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet.
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- BIANCA: In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.
-
- LUCENTIO: Mistrust it not: for, sure, AEacides
- Was Ajax, call'd so from his grandfather.
-
- BIANCA: I must believe my master; else, I promise you,
- I should be arguing still upon that doubt:
- But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you:
- Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray,
- That I have been thus pleasant with you both.
-
- HORTENSIO: You may go walk, and give me leave a while: 60
- My lessons make no music in three parts.
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- LUCENTIO: Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait,
-
- [Aside.]
-
- And watch withal; for, but I be deceived,
- Our fine musician groweth amorous.
-
- HORTENSIO: Madam, before you touch the instrument,
- To learn the order of my fingering,
- I must begin with rudiments of art;
- To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,
- More pleasant, pithy and effectual,
- Than hath been taught by any of my trade: 70
- And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.
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- BIANCA: Why, I am past my gamut long ago.
-
- HORTENSIO: Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.
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- BIANCA: [Reads] "'Gamut' I am, the ground of all accord,
- 'A re,' to Plead Hortensio's passion;
- 'B mi,' Bianca, take him for thy lord,
- 'C fa ut,' that loves with all affection:
- 'D sol re,' one clef, two notes have I:
- 'E la mi,' show pity, or I die."
- Call you this gamut? tut, I like it not: 80
- Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice,
- To change true rules for old inventions.
-
- {Enter a Servant.}
-
- Servant: Mistress, your father prays you leave your books
- And help to dress your sister's chamber up:
- You know to-morrow is the wedding-day.
-
- BIANCA: Farewell, sweet masters both; I must be gone.
-
- [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant.]
-
- LUCENTIO: Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay.
-
- [Exit.]
-
- HORTENSIO: But I have cause to pry into this pedant:
- Methinks he looks as though he were in love:
- Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble 90
- To cast thy wandering eyes on every stale,
- Seize thee that list: if once I find thee ranging,
- Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.
-
- [Exit.]
-