Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 3
PETRUCHIO’S house
Grumio : No, no, forsooth; I dare not for my life.
Katherina : The more my wrong, the more his spite appears.
[p]What, did he marry
me to famish me?
[p]Beggars that come unto my father's door
[p]Upon
entreaty have a present alms;
[p]If not, elsewhere they meet with
charity;
[p]But I, who never knew how to entreat,
[p]Nor never needed
that I should entreat,
[p]Am starv'd for meat, giddy for lack of
sleep;
[p]With oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed;
[p]And that
which spites me more than all these wants-
[p]He does it under name of
perfect love;
[p]As who should say, if I should sleep or
eat,
[p]'Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
[p]I prithee go
and get me some repast;
[p]I care not what, so it be wholesome food.
Grumio : What say you to a neat's foot?
Katherina : 'Tis passing good; I prithee let me have it.
Grumio : I fear it is too choleric a meat.
[p]How say you to a fat tripe finely
broil'd?
Katherina : I like it well; good Grumio, fetch it me.
Grumio : I cannot tell; I fear 'tis choleric.
[p]What say you to a piece of
beef and mustard?
Katherina : A dish that I do love to feed upon.
Grumio : Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little.
Katherina : Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest.
Grumio : Nay, then I will not; you shall have the mustard,
[p]Or else you get
no beef of Grumio.
Katherina : Then both, or one, or anything thou wilt.
Grumio : Why then the mustard without the beef.
Katherina : Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,
[p][Beats him]
[p]That
feed'st me with the very name of meat.
[p]Sorrow on thee and all the
pack of you
[p]That triumph thus upon my misery!
[p]Go, get thee gone,
I say.
Petruchio : How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort?
Hortensio : Mistress, what cheer?
Katherina : Faith, as cold as can be.
Petruchio : Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me.
[p]Here, love, thou
seest how diligent I am,
[p]To dress thy meat myself, and bring it
thee.
[p]I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks.
[p]What,
not a word? Nay, then thou lov'st it not,
[p]And all my pains is
sorted to no proof.
[p]Here, take away this dish.
Katherina : I pray you, let it stand.
Petruchio : The poorest service is repaid with thanks;
[p]And so shall mine,
before you touch the meat.
Katherina : I thank you, sir.
Hortensio : Signior Petruchio, fie! you are to blame.
[p]Come, Mistress Kate, I'll
bear you company.
Petruchio : [Aside] Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou lovest me.-
[p]Much good do
it unto thy gentle heart!
[p]Kate, eat apace. And now, my honey
love,
[p]Will we return unto thy father's house
[p]And revel it as
bravely as the best,
[p]With silken coats and caps, and golden
rings,
[p]With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things,
[p]With
scarfs and fans and double change of brav'ry.
[p]With amber bracelets,
beads, and all this knav'ry.
[p]What, hast thou din'd? The tailor
stays thy leisure,
[p]To deck thy body with his ruffling
treasure.
[p][Enter TAILOR]
[p]Come, tailor, let us see these
ornaments;
[p]Lay forth the gown.
[p][Enter HABERDASHER]
[p]What news
with you, sir?
Haberdasher : Here is the cap your worship did bespeak.
Petruchio : Why, this was moulded on a porringer;
[p]A velvet dish. Fie, fie! 'tis
lewd and filthy;
[p]Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell,
[p]A knack,
a toy, a trick, a baby's cap.
[p]Away with it. Come, let me have a
bigger.
Katherina : I'll have no bigger; this doth fit the time,
[p]And gentlewomen wear
such caps as these.
Petruchio : When you are gentle, you shall have one too,
[p]And not till then.
Hortensio : [Aside] That will not be in haste.
Katherina : Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak;
[p]And speak I will. I am
no child, no babe.
[p]Your betters have endur'd me say my mind,
[p]And
if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
[p]My tongue will tell the
anger of my heart,
[p]Or else my heart, concealing it, will
break;
[p]And rather than it shall, I will be free
[p]Even to the
uttermost, as I please, in words.
Petruchio : Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap,
[p]A custard-coffin, a
bauble, a silken pie;
[p]I love thee well in that thou lik'st it not.
Katherina : Love me or love me not, I like the cap;
[p]And it I will have, or I
will have none. Exit HABERDASHER
Petruchio : Thy gown? Why, ay. Come, tailor, let us see't.
[p]O mercy, God! what
masquing stuff is here?
[p]What's this? A sleeve? 'Tis like a
demi-cannon.
[p]What, up and down, carv'd like an appletart?
[p]Here's
snip and nip and cut and slish and slash,
[p]Like to a censer in a
barber's shop.
[p]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,
[p]According to the fashion and
the time.
Petruchio : Marry, and did; but if you be rememb'red,
[p]I did not bid you mar it
to the time.
[p]Go, hop me over every kennel home,
[p]For you shall
hop without my custom, sir.
[p]I'll none of it; hence! make your best
of it.
Katherina : I never saw a better fashion'd gown,
[p]More quaint, more pleasing,
nor more commendable;
[p]Belike you mean to make a puppet of me.
Petruchio : Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee.
Tailor : She says your worship means to make a puppet of her.
Petruchio : O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou
[p]
thimble,
[p]Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter,
nail,
[p]Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou-
[p]Brav'd in
mine own house with a skein of thread!
[p]Away, thou rag, thou
quantity, thou remnant;
[p]Or I shall so bemete thee with thy
yard
[p]As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st!
[p]I tell
thee, I, that thou hast marr'd her gown.
Tailor : Your worship is deceiv'd; the gown is made
[p]Just as my master had
direction.
[p]Grumio gave order how it should be done.
Grumio : I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff.
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 fac'd many things.
Tailor : I have.
Grumio : Face not me. Thou hast brav'd many men; brave not me. I
[p]will
neither be fac'd nor brav'd. I say unto thee, I bid thy
[p]master cut
out the gown; but I did not bid him cut it to pieces.
[p]Ergo, thou
liest.
Tailor : Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify.
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, sew me in the
[p]skirts of
it and beat me to death with a bottom of brown bread; I
[p]said a
gown.
Petruchio : Proceed.
Tailor : [Reads] 'With a small compass'd cape'-
Grumio : I confess the cape.
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 the
[p]sleeves
should be cut out, and sew'd up again; and that I'll
[p]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
[p]shouldst know it.
Grumio : I am for thee straight; take thou the bill, give me thy
[p]meteyard,
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.
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
[p]thy
master's use!
Petruchio : Why, sir, what's your conceit in that?
Grumio : O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for.
[p]Take up my
mistress' gown to his master's use!
[p]O fie, fie, fie!
Petruchio : [Aside] Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid.-
[p]Go take it
hence; be gone, and say no more.
Hortensio : Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown to-morrow;
[p]Take no unkindness of
his hasty words.
[p]Away, I say; commend me to thy master. Exit
TAILOR
Petruchio : Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's
[p]Even in these
honest mean habiliments;
[p]Our purses shall be proud, our garments
poor;
[p]For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
[p]And as the sun
breaks through the darkest clouds,
[p]So honour peereth in the meanest
habit.
[p]What, is the jay more precious than the lark
[p]Because his
feathers are more beautiful?
[p]Or is the adder better than the
eel
[p]Because his painted skin contents the eye?
[p]O no, good Kate;
neither art thou the worse
[p]For this poor furniture and mean
array.
[p]If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me;
[p]And therefore
frolic; we will hence forthwith
[p]To feast and sport us at thy
father's house.
[p]Go call my men, and let us straight to him;
[p]And
bring our horses unto Long-lane end;
[p]There will we mount, and
thither walk on foot.
[p]Let's see; I think 'tis now some seven
o'clock,
[p]And well we may come there by dinner-time.
Katherina : I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two,
[p]And 'twill be supper-time
ere you come there.
Petruchio : It shall be seven ere I go to horse.
[p]Look what I speak, or do, or
think to do,
[p]You are still crossing it. Sirs, let 't alone;
[p]I
will not go to-day; and ere I do,
[p]It shall be what o'clock I say it
is.
Hortensio : Why, so this gallant will command the sun.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 4
