Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Act 5 - Scene 2

LUCENTIO’S house

Lucentio : At last, though long, our jarring notes agree; [p]And time it is when
raging war is done [p]To smile at scapes and perils overblown. [p]My
fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, [p]While I with self-same kindness
welcome thine. [p]Brother Petruchio, sister Katherina, [p]And thou,
Hortensio, with thy loving widow, [p]Feast with the best, and welcome
to my house. [p]My banquet is to close our stomachs up [p]After our
great good cheer. Pray you, sit down; [p]For now we sit to chat as
well as eat. [They sit]

Petruchio : Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!

Baptista Minola : Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.

Petruchio : Padua affords nothing but what is kind.

Hortensio : For both our sakes I would that word were true.

Petruchio : Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.

Widow : Then never trust me if I be afeard.

Petruchio : YOU are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense: [p]I mean Hortensio
is afeard of you.

Widow : He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

Petruchio : Roundly replied.

Katherina : Mistress, how mean you that?

Widow : Thus I conceive by him.

Petruchio : Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that?

Hortensio : My widow says thus she conceives her tale.

Petruchio : Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.

Katherina : 'He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.' [p]I pray you tell me
what you meant by that.

Widow : Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, [p]Measures my husband's
sorrow by his woe; [p]And now you know my meaning.

Katherina : A very mean meaning.

Widow : Right, I mean you.

Katherina : And I am mean, indeed, respecting you.

Petruchio : To her, Kate!

Hortensio : To her, widow!

Petruchio : A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.

Hortensio : That's my office.

Petruchio : Spoke like an officer- ha' to thee, lad.

Baptista Minola : How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?

Gremio : Believe me, sir, they butt together well.

Bianca : Head and butt! An hasty-witted body [p]Would say your head and butt
were head and horn.

Vincentio : Ay, mistress bride, hath that awakened you?

Bianca : Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again.

Petruchio : Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun, [p]Have at you for a
bitter jest or two.

Bianca : Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, [p]And then pursue me as you
draw your bow. [p]You are welcome all.

Petruchio : She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio, [p]This bird you aim'd
at, though you hit her not; [p]Therefore a health to all that shot and
miss'd.

Tranio : O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, [p]Which runs himself,
and catches for his master.

Petruchio : A good swift simile, but something currish.

Tranio : 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself; [p]'Tis thought your
deer does hold you at a bay.

Baptista Minola : O, O, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now.

Lucentio : I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.

Hortensio : Confess, confess; hath he not hit you here?

Petruchio : 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess; [p]And, as the jest did glance
away from me, [p]'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright.

Baptista Minola : Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, [p]I think thou hast the veriest
shrew of all.

Petruchio : Well, I say no; and therefore, for assurance, [p]Let's each one send
unto his wife, [p]And he whose wife is most obedient, [p]To come at
first when he doth send for her, [p]Shall win the wager which we will
propose.

Hortensio : Content. What's the wager?

Lucentio : Twenty crowns.

Petruchio : Twenty crowns? [p]I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound, [p]But
twenty times so much upon my wife.

Lucentio : A hundred then.

Hortensio : Content.

Petruchio : A match! 'tis done.

Hortensio : Who shall begin?

Lucentio : That will I. [p]Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.

Biondello : I go. Exit

Baptista Minola : Son, I'll be your half Bianca comes.

Lucentio : I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself. [p][Re-enter
BIONDELLO] [p]How now! what news?

Biondello : Sir, my mistress sends you word [p]That she is busy and she cannot
come.

Petruchio : How! She's busy, and she cannot come! [p]Is that an answer?

Gremio : Ay, and a kind one too. [p]Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a
worse.

Petruchio : I hope better.

Hortensio : Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife [p]To come to me forthwith.
Exit BIONDELLO

Petruchio : O, ho! entreat her! [p]Nay, then she must needs come.

Hortensio : I am afraid, sir, [p]Do what you can, yours will not be
entreated. [p][Re-enter BIONDELLO] [p]Now, where's my wife?

Biondello : She says you have some goodly jest in hand: [p]She will not come; she
bids you come to her.

Petruchio : Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile, [p]Intolerable, not to be
endur'd! [p]Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress; [p]Say I command her
come to me. Exit GRUMIO

Hortensio : I know her answer.

Petruchio : What?

Hortensio : She will not.

Petruchio : The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.

Baptista Minola : Now, by my holidame, here comes Katherina!

Katherina : What is your sir, that you send for me?

Petruchio : Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife?

Katherina : They sit conferring by the parlour fire.

Petruchio : Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to come. [p]Swinge me them soundly
forth unto their husbands. [p]Away, I say, and bring them hither
straight.

Lucentio : Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.

Hortensio : And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.

Petruchio : Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, [p]An awful rule, and
right supremacy; [p]And, to be short, what not that's sweet and
happy.

Baptista Minola : Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio! [p]The wager thou hast won; and
I will add [p]Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns; [p]Another
dowry to another daughter, [p]For she is chang'd, as she had never
been.

Petruchio : Nay, I will win my wager better yet, [p]And show more sign of her
obedience, [p]Her new-built virtue and obedience. [p][Re-enter
KATHERINA with BIANCA and WIDOW] [p]See where she comes, and brings
your froward wives [p]As prisoners to her womanly
persuasion. [p]Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not: [p]Off
with that bauble, throw it underfoot.

Widow : Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh [p]Till I be brought to such a
silly pass!

Bianca : Fie! what a foolish duty call you this?

Lucentio : I would your duty were as foolish too; [p]The wisdom of your duty,
fair Bianca, [p]Hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time!

Bianca : The more fool you for laying on my duty.

Petruchio : Katherine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women [p]What duty
they do owe their lords and husbands.

Widow : Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling.

Petruchio : Come on, I say; and first begin with her.

Widow : She shall not.

Petruchio : I say she shall. And first begin with her.

Katherina : Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, [p]And dart not
scornful glances from those eyes [p]To wound thy lord, thy king, thy
governor. [p]It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the
meads, [p]Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds, [p]And in
no sense is meet or amiable. [p]A woman mov'd is like a fountain
troubled- [p]Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; [p]And while
it is so, none so dry or thirsty [p]Will deign to sip or touch one
drop of it. [p]Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, [p]Thy
head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, [p]And for thy
maintenance commits his body [p]To painful labour both by sea and
land, [p]To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, [p]Whilst thou
liest warm at home, secure and safe; [p]And craves no other tribute at
thy hands [p]But love, fair looks, and true obedience- [p]Too little
payment for so great a debt. [p]Such duty as the subject owes the
prince, [p]Even such a woman oweth to her husband; [p]And when she is
froward, peevish, sullen, sour, [p]And not obedient to his honest
will, [p]What is she but a foul contending rebel [p]And graceless
traitor to her loving lord? [p]I am asham'd that women are so
simple [p]To offer war where they should kneel for peace; [p]Or seek
for rule, supremacy, and sway, [p]When they are bound to serve, love,
and obey. [p]Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, [p]Unapt to
toil and trouble in the world, [p]But that our soft conditions and our
hearts [p]Should well agree with our external parts? [p]Come, come,
you forward and unable worms! [p]My mind hath been as big as one of
yours, [p]My heart as great, my reason haply more, [p]To bandy word
for word and frown for frown; [p]But now I see our lances are but
straws, [p]Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare, [p]That
seeming to be most which we indeed least are. [p]Then vail your
stomachs, for it is no boot, [p]And place your hands below your
husband's foot; [p]In token of which duty, if he please, [p]My hand is
ready, may it do him ease.

Petruchio : Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.

Lucentio : Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha't.

Vincentio : 'Tis a good hearing when children are toward.

Lucentio : But a harsh hearing when women are froward.

Petruchio : Come, Kate, we'll to bed. [p]We three are married, but you two are
sped. [p][To LUCENTIO] 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the
white; [p]And being a winner, God give you good night!

Hortensio : Now go thy ways; thou hast tam'd a curst shrow.

Lucentio : 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so.

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