Enter BIONDello.

Sirrah, where have you been? Bion. Where have I been! Nay, how now! where are you? Master, has my fellow Tranio stolen your clothes? Or you stolen his? or both? pray, what's the news?

Luc. 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 kill'd 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?

Bion.

I, sir! ne'er a whit.
Luc. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth :
Tranio is changed into Lucentio.

Bion. The better for him: would I were so
too!

Tra. 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.

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240

Luc. Tranio, let's go one thing more rests, 250 that thyself execute, to make one among these 230. what's the news? what's the matter?

VOL. II

250. rests, remains.

33

D

wooers if thou ask me why, sufficeth, my reasons

are both good and weighty.

The presenters above speak.

[Exeunt.

First Serv. 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.

SCENE II. Padua. Before HORTENSIO's house.

Enter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO.

Pet. Verona, for a while I take my leave,
To see my friends in Padua, but of all
My best beloved and approved friend,
Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Gru. Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there any man has rebused your worship?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.
Gru. Knock you here, sir! why, sir, what am

I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate
And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome.
should knock you first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.

Pet. Will it not be?

7. rebused, i.e. abused.

8. me, for me.

I

ΙΟ

Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;
I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.

[He wrings him by the ears. Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain !

Enter HORTENSIO.

Hor. How now! what's the matter? My old 20 friend Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona ?

Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?

'Con tutto il cuore, ben trovato,' may I say.

Hor. 'Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto honorato signor mio Petruchio.'

Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel.

Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you, sir, he bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir: well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so, being perhaps, for aught I see, two and thirty, a pip out? Whom would to God I had well knock'd at first, Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Pet. A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
I bade the rascal knock upon your gate
And could not get him for my heart to do it.

30

Gru. Knock at the gate! O heavens ! Spake you not these words plain, 'Sirrah, knock me 40 here, rap me here, knock me well, and knock me

24. Con tutto, etc., with all my heart, well met.

25. Alla nostra, etc., welcome to our house.

out, drunk. 'The expression was derived from the game of Bone-ace, or One-and-thirty' (Halliwell); a 'pip' being a

33. two and thirty, a pip spot on cards.

soundly'? And come you now with, 'knocking at the gate'?

Pet. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you. Hor. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge: Why, this' a heavy chance 'twixt him and you, Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio. And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale Blows you to Padua here from old Verona ?

Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world

To seek their fortunes farther than at home

Where small experience grows. But in a few,
Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
Antonio, my father, is deceased;

And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive and thrive as best I may:
Crowns in my purse I have and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.

Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee
And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?
Thou 'ldst thank me but a little for my counsel :
And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich
And very rich but thou 'rt too much my friend,
And I'll not wish thee to her.

Pet. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we
Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,

46. this', this is (a common contraction).

52. in a few, in brief.

56. Haply, at haphazard. 69. Florentius' love. Knight Florent was the hero of a famous mediæval riddle-story told in Gower's Confessio Amantis, book i.

Having

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60

committed a homicide, he was promised life on condition of answering the question what women most desire.' An 'olde lothly woman' offered him the answer provided he engaged himself to marry her. The marriage complete, she became young and beautiful.

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xanthippe, or a worse,
She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
Affection's edge in me, were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic seas:

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua ;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

70

Gru. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is: why, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though 80 she have as many diseases as two and fifty horses: why, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal. Hor. Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in, I will continue that I broach'd in jest.

I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife

With wealth enough and young and beauteous,
Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman:
Her only fault, and that is faults enough,
Is that she is intolerable curst

And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure
That, were my state far worser than it is,

I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

Pet. Hortensio, peace! thou know'st not gold's effect:

Tell me her father's name and 'tis enough;
For I will board her, though she chide as loud
As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.
Hor. Her father is Baptista Minola,

An affable and courteous gentleman :

Her name is Katharina Minola,

Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue.

Pet. I know her father, though I know not her;

And he knew my deceased father well.

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100

79. aglet-baby, a small image carved on the tag of a point or

lace ('aiguillette,' 'aglet').