PAGE It is a kind of history.
SLY
Well, we’ll see’t. Come, madam wife, sit by my side
And let the world slip, we shall ne’er be younger.
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1.1 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 arriv’d for fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy,
And by my father’s love and leave am arm’d
5
With his good will and thy good company,
My trusty servant well approv’d in all,
Here let us breathe and haply institute
A course of learning and ingenious studies.
Pisa renowned for grave citizens
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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 conceiv’d
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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 achiev’d.
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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.
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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,
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Let’s be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray,
Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur’d.
Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk,
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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.
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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.
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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, HORTENSIO, suitor to Bianca.
BAPTISTA Gentlemen, importune me no farther,
For how I firmly am resolv’d you know;
That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter
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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.
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There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?
KATHERINA 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.
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KATHERINA I’faith, sir, you shall never need to fear.
Iwis it is not half way to her heart.
But if it were, doubt not her care should be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,
And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
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HORTENSIO From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!
GREMIO And me too, good Lord!
TRANIO
Husht, master, here’s some good pastime toward.
That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.
LUCENTIO But in the other’s silence do I see
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Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.
Peace, Tranio.
TRANIO Well said, master. Mum! and gaze your fill.
BAPTISTA Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
What I have said – Bianca, get you in.
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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, and she knew why.
BIANCA Sister, content you in my discontent.
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Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe.
My books and instruments shall be my company,
On them to look and practise by myself.
LUCENTIO
Hark, Tranio, thou may’st hear Minerva speak.
HORTENSIO Signor Baptista, will you be so strange?
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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 resolv’d.
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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,
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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HORTENSIO I say a husband.
GREMIO I say a devil. Thinkest 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
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patience and mine to endure h
er loud alarums, why,
man, there be good fellows in the world, and 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
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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
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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?
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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
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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,
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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.
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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 touch’d you, naught remains but so,
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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 look’d so longly on the maid,
Perhaps you mark’d not what’s the pith of all.
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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 kiss’d the Cretan strand.
TRANIO
Saw you no more? Mark’d you not how her sister
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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.
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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,
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Master, your love must live a maid at home,
And therefore has he closely mew’d her up,
Because she will not be annoy’d with suitors.
LUCENTIO Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father’s he!
But art thou not advis’d he took some care
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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,
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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,
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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 distinguish’d by our faces
For man or master. Then it follows thus:
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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 hatch’d, and shall be so. Tranio, at once
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 458
