The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 467
And that you look’d for him this day in Padua.
TRANIO Th’art a tall fellow. Hold thee that to drink.
Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir.
Enter BAPTISTA and LUCENTIO.
Signor Baptista, you are happily met. –
Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of.
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I pray you stand good father to me now,
Give me Bianca for my patrimony.
PEDANT Soft, son.
Sir, by your leave, having come to Padua
To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
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Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
Of love between your daughter and himself.
And, for the good report I hear of you,
And for the love he beareth to your daughter,
And she to him, to stay him not too long,
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I am content, in a good father’s care,
To have him match’d; and, if you please to like
No worse than I, upon some agreement
Me shall you find ready and willing
With one consent to have her so bestow’d.
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For curious I cannot be with you,
Signor Baptista, of whom I hear so well.
BAPTISTA Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.
Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
Right true it is your son Lucentio here
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Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him,
Or both dissemble deeply their affections.
And therefore if you say no more than this,
That like a father you will deal with him,
And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
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The match is made, and all is done,
Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
TRANIO I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best
We be affied and such assurance ta’en
As shall with either part’s agreement stand?
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BAPTISTA Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know
Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants.
Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still,
And happily we might be interrupted.
TRANIO Then at my lodging, and it like you.
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There doth my father lie; and there this night
We’ll pass the business privately and well.
Send for your daughter by your servant here.
My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
The worst is this, that at so slender warning
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You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.
BAPTISTA It likes me well. Cambio, hie you home,
And bid Bianca make her ready straight.
And, if you will, tell what hath happened:
LUCENTIO ’s father is arriv’d in Padua,
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And how she’s like to be Lucentio’s wife.
Exit Lucentio.
BIONDELLO I pray the gods she may with all my heart.
TRANIO Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
Exit Biondello.
Enter PETER, a servingman.
Signor Baptista, shall I lead the way?
Welcome. One mess is like to be your cheer.
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Come sir, we will better it in Pisa.
BAPTISTA I follow you. Exeunt.
Enter LUCENTIO and BIONDELLO.
BIONDELLO Cambio.
LUCENTIO What sayest thou, Biondello?
BIONDELLO You saw my master wink and laugh upon
you?
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LUCENTIO Biondello, what of that?
BIONDELLO Faith, nothing. But ‘has left me here
behind to expound the meaning or moral of his signs
and tokens.
LUCENTIO I pray thee moralize them.
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BIONDELLO Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the
deceiving father of a deceitful son.
LUCENTIO And what of him?
BIONDELLO His daughter is to be brought by you to the
supper.
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LUCENTIO And then?
BIONDELLO The old priest at Saint Luke’s church is at
your command at all hours.
LUCENTIO And what of all this?
BIONDELLO I cannot tell, except they are busied about a
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counterfeit assurance. Take you assurance of her, cum
privilegio ad imprimendum solum. To th’ church! Take
the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest witnesses.
If this be not that you look for, I have no more to say,
But bid Bianca farewell for ever and a day.
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LUCENTIO Hear’st thou, Biondello –
BIONDELLO I cannot tarry. I knew a wench married in
an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to
stuff a rabbit. And so may you, sir; and so adieu, sir.
My master hath appointed me to go to Saint Luke’s,
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to bid the priest be ready to come against you come
with your appendix. Exit.
LUCENTIO I may and will, if she be so contented.
She will be pleas’d, then wherefore should I doubt?
Hap what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her:
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It shall go hard if Cambio go without her. Exit.
4.5 Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, HORTENSIO and servants.
PETRUCHIO
Come on, a God’s name, once more toward our
father’s.
Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!
KATHERINA
The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now.
PETRUCHIO I say it is the moon that shines so bright.
KATHERINA I know it is the sun that shines so bright.
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PETRUCHIO
Now by my mother’s son, and that’s myself,
It shall be moon, or star, or what I list,
Or e’er I journey to your father’s house. –
[to servants] Go on, and fetch our horses back again. –
Evermore cross’d and cross’d, nothing but cross’d.
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HORTENSIO Say as he says, or we shall never go.
KATHERINA Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.
And if you please to call it a rush-candle,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.
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PETRUCHIO I say it is the moon.
KATHERINA I know it is the moon.
PETRUCHIO Nay, then you lie. It is the blessed sun.
KATHERINA Then, God be blest, it is the blessed sun.
But sun it is not, when you say it is not,
And the moon changes even as your mind.
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What you will have it nam’d, even that it is,
And so it shall be so for Katherine.
HORTENSIO Petruchio, go thy ways, the field is won.
PETRUCHIO
Well forward, forward. Thus the bowl should run,
And not unluckily against the bias.
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But soft, company is coming here.
Enter VINCENTIO.
[to Vincentio] Good morrow, gentle mistress, where away?
Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly too,
Hast thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman?
Such war of white and red within her cheeks!
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What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty
As those two eyes become that heavenly face?
Fair lovely maid, once more good day to thee.
Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty’s sake.
HORTENSIO
’A will make
the man mad, to make the woman of
him.
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KATHERINA
Young budding virgin, fair, and fresh, and sweet,
Whither away, or where is thy abode?
Happy the parents of so fair a child,
Happier the man whom favourable stars
Allots thee for his lovely bedfellow.
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PETRUCHIO
Why, how now, Kate, I hope thou art not mad.
This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, wither’d,
And not a maiden, as thou say’st he is.
KATHERINA Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes,
That have been so bedazzled with the sun
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That everything I look on seemeth green.
Now I perceive thou art a reverend father.
Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking.
PETRUCHIO
Do, good old grandsire, and withal make known
Which way thou travellest: if along with us,
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We shall be joyful of thy company.
VINCENTIO Fair sir, and you my merry mistress,
That with your strange encounter much amaz’d me,
My name is call’d Vincentio, my dwelling Pisa,
And bound I am to Padua, there to visit
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A son of mine, which long I have not seen.
PETRUCHIO What is his name?
VINCENTIO Lucentio, gentle sir.
PETRUCHIO Happily met; the happier for thy son.
And now by law, as well as reverend age,
I may entitle thee my loving father.
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The sister to my wife, this gentlewoman,
Thy son by this hath married. Wonder not,
Nor be not griev’d, she is of good esteem,
Her dowry wealthy, and of worthy birth;
Beside, so qualified as may beseem
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The spouse of any noble gentleman.
Let me embrace with old Vincentio,
And wander we to see thy honest son,
Who will of thy arrival be full joyous.
VINCENTIO But is this true, or is it else your pleasure,
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Like pleasant travellers, to break a jest
Upon the company you overtake?
HORTENSIO I do assure thee, father, so it is.
PETRUCHIO Come, go along and see the truth hereof,
For our first merriment hath made thee jealous.
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Exeunt all but Hortensio.
HORTENSIO Well, Petruchio, this has put me in heart.
Have to my widow! And if she be froward,
Then hast thou taught Hortensio to be untoward.
Exit.
5.1 Enter BIONDELLO, LUCENTIO and BIANCA. GREMIO is out before.
BIONDELLO Softly and swiftly, sir, for the priest is
ready.
LUCENTIO I fly, Biondello. But they may chance to need
thee at home, therefore leave us. Exit with Bianca.
BIONDELLO Nay, faith, I’ll see the church a’ your back,
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and then come back to my master’s as soon as I can.
Exit.
GREMIO I marvel Cambio comes not all this while.
Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, VINCENTIO, GRUMIO, with
attendants.
PETRUCHIO
Sir, here’s the door, this is Lucentio’s house.
My father’s bears more toward the market-place.
Thither must I, and here I leave you, sir.
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VINCENTIO
You shall not choose but drink before you go.
I think I shall command your welcome here,
And by all likelihood some cheer is toward. [Knocks.]
GREMIO
They’re busy within. You were best knock louder.
Pedant looks out of the window.
PEDANT What’s he that knocks as he would beat down
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the gate?
VINCENTIO Is Signor Lucentio within, sir?
PEDANT He’s within, sir, but not to be spoken withal.
VINCENTIO What if a man bring him a hundred pound
or two to make merry withal?
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PEDANT Keep your hundred pounds to yourself. He
shall need none so long as I live.
PETRUCHIO Nay, I told you your son was well beloved in
Padua. Do you hear, sir? To leave frivolous
circumstances, I pray you tell Signor Lucentio that his
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father is come from Pisa, and is here at the door to
speak with him.
PEDANT Thou liest. His father is come from Mantua,
and here looking out at the window.