The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/12/05_02

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 10KB | 314 lines

A Room in Lucentio's House.
 Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the PEDANT, LUCENTIO and BIANCA,
 HORTENSIO and the WIDOW, PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA;
 TRANIO, BIONDELLO, and GRUMIO with SERVANTS bringing in a banquet.

Lucentio    At last, though long, our jarring notes agree,
    And time it is, when raging war is done,
    To smile at 'scapes and perils overblown.
    My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,
    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 up,
    After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down,
    For now we sit to chat as well as eat.
                                                        [They sit at table.
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    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    He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

Petruchio    Roundly replied.

Katherina                        Mistress, how mean you that?

Widow    Thus I conceive by him.

Petruchio    Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that?

Hortensio    My widow says, thus she conceives her tale.

Petruchio    Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.

Katherina    '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 shrew,
    Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe.
    And now you know my meaning.

Katherina    A very mean meaning.

Widow                            Right, I mean you.

Katherina    And I am mean, indeed, respecting you.

Petruchio    To 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. [Drinking.] Ha' to thee, lad!

Baptista    How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?

Gremio    Believe me, sir, they butt together well.

Bianca    Head and butt! A hasty-witted body
    Would say your head and butt were head and horn.

Vincentio    Ay, mistress bride, hath that awakened you?

Bianca    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.

Bianca    Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush;
    And then pursue me as you draw your bow.
    You are welcome all.
                              [Exeunt BIANCA, KATHERINA and WIDOW.

Petruchio    She hath prevented me. Here, Signor 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,
    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    I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.

Hortensio    Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here?

Petruchio    A' 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    Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,
    I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.

Petruchio    Well, I say no; and therefore, Sir Assurance,
    Let's each one send unto his wife,
    And he whose wife is most obedient,
    To come at first when he doth send for her,
    Shall win the wager which we will propose.

Hortensio    Content. What's the wager?

Lucentio                                    Twenty crowns.

Petruchio    Twenty crowns!
    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    Who shall begin?

Lucentio                        That will I.
    Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.

Biondello    I go.
                                                        [Exit.
Baptista    Son, I'll be your half Bianca comes.

Lucentio    I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.

                           Re-enter BIONDELLO.

    How now, what news?

Biondello                        Sir, my mistress sends you word
    That she is busy and she cannot come.

Petruchio    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    Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife
    To come to me forthwith.
                                                        [Exit BIONDELLO.
Petruchio    O ho, entreat her!
    Nay, then she must needs come.

Hortensio                                        I am afraid, sir,
    Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.

                           Re-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"! O vile,
    Intolerable, not to be endured!
    Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress:
    Say I command her come to me.
                                                        [Exit GRUMIO.
Hortensio    I know her answer.

Petruchio                        What?

Hortensio                                She will not.

Petruchio    The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.

                             Enter KATHERINA.

Baptista    Now, by my holidame, here comes Katherina!

Katherina    What is your will, sir, that you send for me?

Petruchio    Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife?

Katherina    They sit conferring by the parlour 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.
                                                        [Exit KATHERINA.
Lucentio    Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.

Hortensio    And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.

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!
    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,
    And show more sign of her obedience,
    Her new-built virtue and obedience.

                   Enter KATHERINA, BIANCA, and WIDOW.

    See where she comes, and brings your froward wives
    As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.
    Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not.
    Off with that bauble, throw it under foot.
                                                        [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    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 headstrong women
    What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.

Widow    Come, come, you're mocking. We will have no telling.

Petruchio    Come on, I say, and first begin with her.

Widow    She shall not.

Petruchio    I say she shall; and first begin with her.

Katherina    Fie, fie, unknit that threatening unkind brow,
    And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
    To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
    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,
    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 body
    To painful labour 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-
    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,
    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,
    Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
    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?
    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,
    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,
    My hand is ready, may it do him ease.

Petruchio    Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.

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    Come, Kate, we'll to bed.
    We three are married, but you two are sped.
    'Twas I won the wager,
            [To LUCENTIO.]    though you hit the white;
    And, being a winner, God give you good night!
                                    [Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA.

Hortensio    Now, go thy ways; thou hast tamed a curst shrew.

Lucentio    'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamd so.
                                                        [Exeunt.