The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/12/01_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 12KB | 333 lines

Padua. A public Place.
 Flourish. Enter LUCENTIO and his man, TRANIO.

Lucentio    Tranio, since for the great desire I had
    To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
    I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy,
    The pleasant garden of great Italy,
    And, by my father's love and leave, am armed
    With his good will and thy good company,
    My trusty servant, well approved in all;
    Here let us breathe, and haply institute
    A course of learning and ingenious studies.
    Pisa, renownd for grave citizens,
    Gave me my being - and my father first,
    A merchant of great traffic through the world,
    Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.
    Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,
    It shall become to serve all hopes conceived,
    To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds;
    And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study
    Virtue, and that part of philosophy
    Will I apply that treats of happiness
    By virtue specially to be achieved.
    Tell me thy mind, for I have Pisa left
    And am to Padua come, as he that leaves
    A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,
    And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

Tranio    Mi perdonato, gentle master mine.
    I am in all affected as yourself,
    Glad that you thus continue your resolve
    To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
    Only, good master, while we do admire
    This virtue and this moral discipline,
    Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;
    Or so devote to Aristotle's checks
    As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured.
    Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
    And practise rhetoric in your common talk.
    Music and poesy use to quicken you;
    The mathematics and the metaphysics,
    Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:
    No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en.
    In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Lucentio    Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
    If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
    We could at once put us in readiness,
    And take a lodging fit to entertain
    Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
    But stay awhile - what company is this?

Tranio    Master, some show to welcome us to town.
                                        [LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand by.

       Enter BAPTISTA with his two daughters, KATHERINA and BIANCA;
          GREMIO, a pantaloon; and HORTENSIO, suitor to Bianca.

Baptista     Gentlemen, importune me no further,
    For how I firmly am resolved you know;
    That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter
    Before I have a husband for the elder.
    If either of you both love Katherina,
    Because I know you well and love you well,
    Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.

Gremio    To cart her rather: - she's too rough for me.
    There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?

Katherina    [To BAPTISTA.] I pray you, sir, is it your will
    To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

Hortensio    'Mates', maid! How mean you that? No mates for you
    Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

Katherina    I' faith, sir, you shall never need to fear:
    Iwis it is not halfway to her heart;
    But, if it were, doubt not her care should be
    To comb your noddle with a three-legged stool,
    And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

Hortensio    From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!

Gremio    And me too, good Lord!

Tranio    [Aside.] Husht, master; here's some good pastime toward.
    That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.

Lucentio    [Aside.] But in the other's silence do I see
    Maid's mild behaviour and sobriety.
    Peace, Tranio!

Tranio    [Aside.] Well said, master. Mum! - and gaze your fill.

Baptista    Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
    What I have said - Bianca, get you in.
    And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
    For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl.

Katherina    A pretty peat! It is best
    Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.

Bianca    Sister, content you in my discontent.
    Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:
    My books and instruments shall be my company,
    On them to look and practise by myself.

Lucentio    [Aside.] Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

Hortensio    Signor Baptista, will you be so strange?
    Sorry am I that our good will effects
    Bianca's grief.

Gremio                        Why, will you mew her up,
    Signor Baptista, for this fiend of hell,
    And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

Baptista    Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolved.
    Go in, Bianca.
                                                        [Exit BIANCA.
    And for I know she taketh most delight
    In music, instruments, and poetry,
    Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
    Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
    Or Signor Gremio, you, know any such,
    Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
    I will be very kind, and liberal
    To mine own children in good bringing-up.
    And so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay;
    For I have more to commune with Bianca.
                                                        [Exit.

Katherina    Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?
    What, shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike,
    I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!
                                                        [Exit.

Gremio    You may go to the devil's dam. Your gifts are so good,
    here's none will hold you. Their love is not so great,
    Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it
    fairly out; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell. Yet,
    for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means
    light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I
    will wish him to her father.

Hortensio    So will I, Signor Gremio. But a word, I pray. Though the
    nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now,
    upon advice, it toucheth us both - that we may yet again
    have access to our fair mistress and be happy rivals in
    Bianca's love - to labour and effect one thing specially.

Gremio    What's that, I pray?

Hortensio    Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

Gremio    A husband? A devil.

Hortensio    I say a husband.

Gremio    I say a devil. Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father
    be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to
    hell?

Hortensio    Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to
    endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in
    the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with
    all faults - and money enough.

Gremio    I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this
    condition: to be whipped at the high-cross every morning.

Hortensio    Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten apples.
    But come, since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall
    be so far forth friendly maintained, till, by helping
    Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest
    free for a husband, and then have to't afresh. Sweet Bianca!
    Happy man be his dole. He that runs fastest gets the ring.
    How say you, Signor Gremio?

Gremio    I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in
    Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her,
    wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on.
                                         [Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO.

Tranio    I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
    That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Lucentio    O Tranio, till I found it to be true,
    I never thought it possible or likely.
    But see, while idly I stood looking on,
    I found the effect of love in idleness;
    And now in plainness do confess to thee,
    That art to me as secret and as dear
    As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was,
    Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
    If I achieve not this young modest girl.
    Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst:
    Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

Tranio    Master, it is no time to chide you now;
    Affection is not rated from the heart.
    If love have touched you, nought remains but so,
    Redime te captum quam queas minimo.

Lucentio    Gramercies, lad. Go forward, this contents:
    The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.

Tranio    Master, you looked so longly on the maid,
    Perhaps you marked not what's the pith of all.

Lucentio    O yes; I saw sweet beauty in her face,
    Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
    That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
    When with his knees he kissed the Cretan strand.

Tranio    Saw you no more? Marked you not how her sister
    Began to scold and raise up such a storm
    That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?

Lucentio    Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
    And with her breath she did perfume the air.
    Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.

Tranio    Nay, then 'tis time to stir him from his trance.
    I pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid,
    Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:
    Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd,
    That till the father rid his hands of her,
    Master, your love must live a maid at home;
    And therefore has he closely mewed her up,
    Because she will not be annoyed with suitors.

Lucentio    Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
    But art thou not advised he took some care
    To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?

Tranio    Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 'tis plotted.

Lucentio    I have it, Tranio.

Tranio                        Master, for my hand,
    Both our inventions meet and jump in one.

Lucentio    Tell me thine first.

Tranio                            You will be schoolmaster,
    And undertake the teaching of the maid-
    That's your device.

Lucentio                        It is. May it be done?

Tranio    Not possible; for who shall bear your part,
    And be in Padua here Vincentio's son,
    Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,
    Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Lucentio    Basta; content thee, for I have it full.
    We have not yet been seen in any house,
    Nor can we be distinguished by our faces
    For man or master. Then it follows thus:
    Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
    Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should;
    I will some other be, some Florentine,
    Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
    'Tis hatched, and shall be so. Tranio, at once
    Uncase thee, take my coloured hat and cloak.
    When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
    But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
                                                        [They exchange clothes.
Tranio    So had you need.
    In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
    And I am tied to be obedient-
    For so your father charged me at our parting,
    'Be serviceable to my son' quoth he,
    Although I think 'twas in another sense-
    I am content to be Lucentio,
    Because so well I love Lucentio.

Lucentio    Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves;
    And let me be a slave, t'achieve that maid
    Whose sudden sight hath thralled my wounded eye.

                             Enter BIONDELLO.

    Here comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been?

Biondello    Where have I been! Nay, how now, where are you?
    Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes,
    Or you stol'n his - or both? Pray, what's the news?

Lucentio    Sirrah, come hither. 'Tis no time to jest,
    And therefore frame your manners to the time.
    Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
    Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
    And I for my escape have put on his;
    For in a quarrel since I came ashore
    I killed a man, and fear I was descried.
    Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
    While I make way from hence to save my life.
    You understand me?

Biondello                            I, sir? Ne'er a whit.

Lucentio    And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth;
    Tranio is changed into Lucentio.

Biondello    The better for him. Would I were so too.

Tranio    So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,
    That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.
    But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master's, I advise
    You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies.
    When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio,
    But in all places else your master Lucentio.

Lucentio    Tranio, let's go.
    One thing more rests, that thyself execute-
    To make one among these wooers. If thou ask me why,
    Sufficeth my reasons are both good and weighty.
                                                        [Exeunt.
                       The Presenters above speaks.

1st Servant    My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.

Sly    Yes, by Saint Anne, do I. A good matter, surely. Comes there
    any more of it?

Page    My lord, 'tis but begun.

Sly    'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. Would
    'twere done!
                                                        [They sit and mark.