Enter Katherine and Grumio. GRUMIO
No, no, forsooth, I dare not for my life. KATHERINE
The more my wrong, the more his spite appears.
What, did he marry me to famish me?
Beggars that come unto my father’s door
Upon entreaty have a present alms. 5
If not, elsewhere they meet with charity.
But I, who never knew how to entreat,
Nor never needed that I should entreat,
Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep,
With oaths kept waking and with brawling fed. 10
And that which spites me more than all these wants,
He does it under name of perfect love,
As who should say, if I should sleep or eat
’Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
I prithee, go, and get me some repast, 15
I care not what, so it be wholesome food. GRUMIO What say you to a neat’s foot? KATHERINE
’Tis passing good. I prithee let me have it. GRUMIO
I fear it is too choleric a meat.
How say you to a fat tripe finely broiled? 20 KATHERINE
I like it well. Good Grumio, fetch it me. GRUMIO
I cannot tell. I fear ’tis choleric.
What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? KATHERINE
A dish that I do love to feed upon. GRUMIO
Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. 25 KATHERINE
Why then, the beef, and let the mustard rest. GRUMIO
Nay then, I will not. You shall have the mustard
Or else you get no beef of Grumio. KATHERINE
Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt. GRUMIO
Why then, the mustard without the beef. 30 KATHERINE
Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,
She beats him.
That feed’st me with the very name of meat.
Sorrow on thee, and all the pack of you
That triumph thus upon my misery.
Go, get thee gone, I say. 35 Enter Petruchio and Hortensio with meat. PETRUCHIO
How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort? HORTENSIO
Mistress, what cheer? KATHERINE Faith, as cold as can be. PETRUCHIO
Pluck up thy spirits. Look cheerfully upon me.
Here, love, thou seest how diligent I am, 40
To dress thy meat myself and bring it thee.
I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks.
What, not a word? Nay then, thou lov’st it not,
And all my pains is sorted to no proof.
Here, take away this dish. 45 KATHERINE I pray you, let it stand. PETRUCHIO
The poorest service is repaid with thanks,
And so shall mine before you touch the meat. KATHERINE I thank you, sir. HORTENSIO
Signior Petruchio, fie, you are to blame. 50
Come, Mistress Kate, I’ll bear you company. PETRUCHIO, aside to Hortensio
Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou lovest me.—
Much good do it unto thy gentle heart.
Kate, eat apace. Katherine and Hortensio prepare to eat. And now, my honey love, 55
Will we return unto thy father’s house
And revel it as bravely as the best,
With silken coats and caps and golden rings,
With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things,
With scarves and fans and double change of brav’ry, 60
With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knav’ry.
What, hast thou dined? The tailor stays thy leisure
To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure. Enter Tailor. Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments.
Lay forth the gown. 65 Enter Haberdasher. What news with you, sir? | Back at Petruchio's country house, Kate begs Grumio to make her something to eat because she's starving, sleep deprived, and has been verbally abused by Petruchio. Grumio taunts Kate with tasty treats like ox foot and tripe (animal entrails) but ends up offering only mustard. Kate beats him and calls him a jerk. Petruchio and Hortensio show up with a plate full of meat but, when Petruchio sees that Kate is upset, he uses it as an excuse not to feed her. He orders the meat taken away until Kate apologizes for being ungrateful. Hortensio sticks up for Kate, but then Petruchio whispers in his ear to be a pal and eat all the meat so Kate can't get any. While Hortensio hogs the food, Petruchio announces that they'll be getting dressed up in custom-made outfits and travel to Padua for Bianca's wedding. When the tailor and haberdasher (clothing salesman) arrive, Petruchio tells them to come so they can check out the goods. |
HABERDASHER
Here is the cap your Worship did bespeak. PETRUCHIO
Why, this was molded on a porringer!
A velvet dish! Fie, fie, ’tis lewd and filthy.
Why, ’tis a cockle or a walnut shell, 70
A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby’s cap.
Away with it! Come, let me have a bigger. KATHERINE
I’ll have no bigger. This doth fit the time,
And gentlewomen wear such caps as these. PETRUCHIO
When you are gentle, you shall have one too, 75
And not till then. HORTENSIO, aside That will not be in haste. KATHERINE
Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak,
And speak I will. I am no child, no babe.
Your betters have endured me say my mind, 80
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break,
And, rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words. 85 PETRUCHIO
Why, thou sayst true. It is a paltry cap,
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie.
I love thee well in that thou lik’st it not. KATHERINE
Love me, or love me not, I like the cap,
And it I will have, or I will have none. 90 Exit Haberdasher. PETRUCHIO
Thy gown? Why, ay. Come, tailor, let us see ’t.
O mercy God, what masking-stuff is here?
What’s this? A sleeve? ’Tis like a demi-cannon.
What, up and down carved like an apple tart?
Here’s snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, 95
Like to a censer in a barber’s shop.
Why, what a devil’s name, tailor, call’st thou this? HORTENSIO, aside
I see she’s like to have neither cap nor gown. TAILOR
You bid me make it orderly and well,
According to the fashion and the time. 100 PETRUCHIO
Marry, and did. But if you be remembered,
I did not bid you mar it to the time.
Go, hop me over every kennel home,
For you shall hop without my custom, sir.
I’ll none of it. Hence, make your best of it. 105 KATHERINE
I never saw a better-fashioned gown,
More quaint, more pleasing, nor more
commendable.
Belike you mean to make a puppet of me. PETRUCHIO
Why, true, he means to make a puppet of thee. 110 TAILOR
She says your Worship means to make a puppet of
her. PETRUCHIO
O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread,
thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail! 115
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket, thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant,
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv’st. 120
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marred her gown. TAILOR
Your Worship is deceived. The gown is made
Just as my master had direction.
Grumio gave order how it should be done. GRUMIO I gave him no order. I gave him the stuff. 125 TAILOR
But how did you desire it should be made? GRUMIO Marry, sir, with needle and thread. TAILOR
But did you not request to have it cut? GRUMIO Thou hast faced many things. TAILOR I have. 130 GRUMIO Face not me. Thou hast braved many men;
brave not me. I will neither be faced nor braved. I
say unto thee, I bid thy master cut out the gown,
but I did not bid him cut it to pieces. Ergo, thou
liest. 135 TAILOR Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify. He shows a paper. PETRUCHIO Read it. GRUMIO The note lies in ’s throat, if he say I said so. TAILOR reads “Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown—” GRUMIO Master, if ever I said “loose-bodied gown,” 140
sew me in the skirts of it and beat me to death with
a bottom of brown thread. I said “a gown.” PETRUCHIO Proceed. TAILOR reads “With a small-compassed cape—” GRUMIO I confess the cape. 145 TAILOR reads “With a trunk sleeve—” GRUMIO I confess two sleeves. TAILOR reads “The sleeves curiously cut.” PETRUCHIO Ay, there’s the villainy. GRUMIO Error i’ th’ bill, sir, error i’ th’ bill! I commanded 150
the sleeves should be cut out and sewed
up again, and that I’ll prove upon thee, though thy
little finger be armed in a thimble. TAILOR This is true that I say. An I had thee in place
where, thou shouldst know it. 155 GRUMIO I am for thee straight. Take thou the bill, give
me thy mete-yard, and spare not me. HORTENSIO God-a-mercy, Grumio, then he shall have
no odds. PETRUCHIO
Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. 160 GRUMIO You are i’ th’ right, sir, ’tis for my mistress. PETRUCHIO
Go, take it up unto thy master’s use. GRUMIO Villain, not for thy life! Take up my mistress’
gown for thy master’s use! PETRUCHIO Why, sir, what’s your conceit in that? 165 GRUMIO O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think
for. Take up my mistress’ gown to his master’s use!
O, fie, fie, fie! PETRUCHIO, aside to Hortensio
Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid.
To Tailor. Go, take it hence. Begone, and say no 170
more. HORTENSIO, aside to Tailor
Tailor, I’ll pay thee for thy gown tomorrow.
Take no unkindness of his hasty words.
Away, I say. Commend me to thy master. Tailor exits. | Petruchio inpects the goods the tailor and haberdasher have brought and says they're shoddy—poorly made and unfashionable. He yells at both of the men for their poor work and for not following the instructions they were given. Kate likes the clothes but Petruchio insists they're better off wearing old rags to the wedding. He whispers to Hortensio to run after the tailor and pay him for his work, then makes a big show of sending the tailor away, unpaid. Hortensio tells the tailor he'll pay him tomorrow and tells him not to mind Petruchio. He didn't mean any of what he said. |
PETRUCHIO
Well, come, my Kate, we will unto your father’s, 175
Even in these honest mean habiliments.
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich,
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honor peereth in the meanest habit. 180
What, is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
O no, good Kate. Neither art thou the worse 185
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me,
And therefore frolic! We will hence forthwith
To feast and sport us at thy father’s house.
To Grumio. Go, call my men, and let us straight to 190
him,
And bring our horses unto Long-lane end.
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let’s see, I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by dinner time. 195 KATHERINE
I dare assure you, sir, ’tis almost two,
And ’twill be supper time ere you come there. PETRUCHIO
It shall be seven ere I go to horse.
Look what I speak, or do, or think to do,
You are still crossing it.—Sirs, let ’t alone. 200
I will not go today, and, ere I do,
It shall be what o’clock I say it is. HORTENSIO, aside
Why, so, this gallant will command the sun! They exit. | Petruchio delivers a long speech about how clothes aren't important and says things that amount to: "It's what's on the inside that really counts—we should just go to the wedding and have a good time." Petruchio then announces that it is 7 am, so if they leave now they will arrive in Padua by noon. Kate points out that it's almost 2 pm and they won't get there until close to 6 pm. Petruchio insists that it is whatever time he says and, unless Kate agrees, they're not going anywhere. Hortensio admires Petruchio and thinks that he's the ultimate shrew-taming champion. |