The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (best novel books to read txt) 📕

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HORTENSIO.

Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace,

And offer me disguis’d in sober robes,

To old Baptista as a schoolmaster

Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca;

That so I may, by this device at least

Have leave and leisure to make love to her,

And unsuspected court her by herself.

 

GRUMIO.

Here’s no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the

young folks lay their heads together!

 

[Enter GREMIO, and LUCENTIO disguised, with books under his arm.]

 

Master, master, look about you: who goes there, ha?

 

HORTENSIO.

Peace, Grumio! ‘tis the rival of my love. Petruchio,

stand by awhile.

 

GRUMIO.

A proper stripling, and an amorous!

 

GREMIO.

O! very well; I have perus’d the note.

Hark you, sir; I’ll have them very fairly bound:

All books of love, see that at any hand,

And see you read no other lectures to her.

You understand me. Over and beside

Signior Baptista’s liberality,

I’ll mend it with a largess. Take your papers too,

And let me have them very well perfum’d;

For she is sweeter than perfume itself

To whom they go to. What will you read to her?

 

LUCENTIO.

Whate’er I read to her, I’ll plead for you,

As for my patron, stand you so assur’d,

As firmly as yourself were still in place;

Yea, and perhaps with more successful words

Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.

 

GREMIO.

O! this learning, what a thing it is.

 

GRUMIO.

O! this woodcock, what an ass it is.

 

PETRUCHIO.

Peace, sirrah!

 

HORTENSIO.

Grumio, mum! God save you, Signior Gremio!

 

GREMIO.

And you are well met, Signior Hortensio.

Trow you whither I am going? To Baptista Minola.

I promis’d to enquire carefully

About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca;

And by good fortune I have lighted well

On this young man; for learning and behaviour

Fit for her turn, well read in poetry

And other books, good ones, I warrant ye.

 

HORTENSIO.

‘Tis well; and I have met a gentleman

Hath promis’d me to help me to another,

A fine musician to instruct our mistress:

So shall I no whit be behind in duty

To fair Bianca, so belov’d of me.

 

GREMIO.

Belov’d of me, and that my deeds shall prove.

 

GRUMIO.

[Aside.] And that his bags shall prove.

 

HORTENSIO.

Gremio, ‘tis now no time to vent our love:

Listen to me, and if you speak me fair,

I’ll tell you news indifferent good for either.

Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met,

Upon agreement from us to his liking,

Will undertake to woo curst Katherine;

Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.

 

GREMIO.

So said, so done, is well.

Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?

 

PETRUCHIO.

I know she is an irksome brawling scold;

If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.

 

GREMIO.

No, say’st me so, friend? What countryman?

 

PETRUCHIO.

Born in Verona, old Antonio’s son.

My father dead, my fortune lives for me;

And I do hope good days and long to see.

 

GREMIO.

O Sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange!

But if you have a stomach, to’t i’ God’s name;

You shall have me assisting you in all.

But will you woo this wild-cat?

 

PETRUCHIO.

Will I live?

 

GRUMIO.

Will he woo her? Ay, or I’ll hang her.

 

PETRUCHIO.

Why came I hither but to that intent?

Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?

Have I not in my time heard lions roar?

Have I not heard the sea, puff’d up with winds,

Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?

Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,

And heaven’s artillery thunder in the skies?

Have I not in a pitched battle heard

Loud ‘larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets’ clang?

And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,

That gives not half so great a blow to hear

As will a chestnut in a farmer’s fire?

Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.

 

GRUMIO.

[Aside] For he fears none.

 

GREMIO.

Hortensio, hark:

This gentleman is happily arriv’d,

My mind presumes, for his own good and ours.

 

HORTENSIO.

I promis’d we would be contributors,

And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe’er.

 

GREMIO.

And so we will, provided that he win her.

 

GRUMIO.

I would I were as sure of a good dinner.

 

[Enter TRANIO, bravely apparelled;and BIONDELLO.]

 

TRANIO.

Gentlemen, God save you! If I may be bold,

Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way

To the house of Signior Baptista Minola?

 

BIONDELLO.

He that has the two fair daughters; is’t he you mean?

 

TRANIO.

Even he, Biondello!

 

GREMIO.

Hark you, sir, you mean not her to—

 

TRANIO.

Perhaps him and her, sir; what have you to do?

 

PETRUCHIO.

Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.

 

TRANIO.

I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let’s away.

 

LUCENTIO.

[Aside] Well begun, Tranio.

 

HORTENSIO.

Sir, a word ere you go.

Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?

 

TRANIO.

And if I be, sir, is it any offence?

 

GREMIO.

No; if without more words you will get you hence.

 

TRANIO.

Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free

For me as for you?

 

GREMIO.

But so is not she.

 

TRANIO.

For what reason, I beseech you?

 

GREMIO.

For this reason, if you’ll know,

That she’s the choice love of Signior Gremio.

 

HORTENSIO.

That she’s the chosen of Signior Hortensio.

 

TRANIO.

Softly, my masters! If you be gentlemen,

Do me this right; hear me with patience.

Baptista is a noble gentleman,

To whom my father is not all unknown;

And were his daughter fairer than she is,

She may more suitors have, and me for one.

Fair Leda’s daughter had a thousand wooers;

Then well one more may fair Bianca have;

And so she shall: Lucentio shall make one,

Though Paris came in hope to speed alone.

 

GREMIO.

What!this gentleman will out-talk us all.

 

LUCENTIO.

Sir, give him head; I know he’ll prove a jade.

 

PETRUCHIO.

Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

 

HORTENSIO.

Sir, let me be so bold as ask you,

Did you yet ever see Baptista’s daughter?

 

TRANIO.

No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two,

The one as famous for a scolding tongue

As is the other for beauteous modesty.

 

PETRUCHIO.

Sir, sir, the first’s for me; let her go by.

 

GREMIO.

Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules,

And let it be more than Alcides’ twelve.

 

PETRUCHIO.

Sir, understand you this of me, in sooth:

The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for,

Her father keeps from all access of suitors,

And will not promise her to any man

Until the elder sister first be wed;

The younger then is free, and not before.

 

TRANIO.

If it be so, sir, that you are the man

Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest;

And if you break the ice, and do this feat,

Achieve the elder, set the younger free

For our access, whose hap shall be to have her

Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.

 

HORTENSIO.

Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive;

And since you do profess to be a suitor,

You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman,

To whom we all rest generally beholding.

 

TRANIO.

Sir, I shall not be slack; in sign whereof,

Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,

And quaff carouses to our mistress’ health;

And do as adversaries do in law,

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

 

GRUMIO, BIONDELLO.

O excellent motion! Fellows, let’s be gone.

 

HORTENSIO.

The motion’s good indeed, and be it so:—

Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.

 

[Exeunt.]

 

ACT II.

 

SCENE I. Padua. A room in BAPTISTA’S house.

 

[Enter KATHERINA and BIANCA.]

 

BIANCA.

Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,

To make a bondmaid and a slave of me;

That I disdain; but for these other gawds,

Unbind my hands, I’ll pull them off myself,

Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;

Or what you will command me will I do,

So well I know my duty to my elders.

 

KATHERINA.

Of all thy suitors here I charge thee tell

Whom thou lov’st best: see thou dissemble not.

 

BIANCA.

Believe me, sister, of all the men alive

I never yet beheld that special face

Which I could fancy more than any other.

 

KATHERINA.

Minion, thou liest. Is’t not Hortensio?

 

BIANCA.

If you affect him, sister, here I swear

I’ll plead for you myself but you shall have him.

 

KATHERINA.

O! then, belike, you fancy riches more:

You will have Gremio to keep you fair.

 

BIANCA.

Is it for him you do envy me so?

Nay, then you jest; and now I well perceive

You have but jested with me all this while:

I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.

 

KATHERINA.

If that be jest, then an the rest was so.

 

[Strikes her.]

 

[Enter BAPTISTA.]

 

BAPTISTA.

Why, how now, dame! Whence grows this insolence?

Bianca, stand aside. Poor girl! she weeps.

Go ply thy needle; meddle not with her.

For shame, thou hilding of a devilish spirit,

Why dost thou wrong her that did ne’er wrong thee?

When did she cross thee with a bitter word?

 

KATHERINA.

Her silence flouts me, and I’ll be reveng’d.

 

[Flies after BIANCA.]

 

BAPTISTA.

What! in my sight? Bianca, get thee in.

 

[Exit BIANCA.]

 

KATHERINA.

What! will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see

She is your treasure, she must have a husband;

I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day,

And, for your love to her, lead apes in hell.

Talk not to me: I will go sit and weep

Till I can find occasion of revenge.

 

[Exit.]

 

BAPTISTA. Was ever gentleman thus griev’d as I?

But who comes here?

 

[Enter GREMIO, with LUCENTIO in the habit of a mean man;

PETRUCHIO, with HORTENSIO as a musician; and TRANIO, with

BIONDELLO bearing a lute and books.]

 

GREMIO.

Good morrow, neighbour Baptista.

 

BAPTISTA.

Good morrow, neighbour Gremio. God save you, gentlemen!

 

PETRUCHIO.

And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter

Call’d Katherina, fair and virtuous?

 

BAPTISTA.

I have a daughter, sir, call’d Katherina.

 

GREMIO.

You are too blunt: go to it orderly.

 

PETRUCHIO.

You wrong me, Signior Gremio: give me leave.

I am a gentleman of Verona, sir,

That, hearing of her beauty and her wit,

Her affability and bashful modesty,

Her wondrous qualities and mild behaviour,

Am bold to show myself a forward guest

Within your house, to make mine eye the witness

Of that report which I so oft have heard.

And, for an entrance to my entertainment,

I do present you with a man of mine,

 

[Presenting HORTENSIO.]

 

Cunning in music and the mathematics,

To instruct her fully in those sciences,

Whereof I know she is not ignorant.

Accept of him, or else you do me wrong:

His name is Licio, born in Mantua.

 

BAPTISTA.

You’re welcome, sir, and he for your good sake;

But for my daughter Katherine, this I know,

She is not for your turn, the more my grief.

 

PETRUCHIO.

I see you do not mean to part with her;

Or else you like not of my company.

 

BAPTISTA.

Mistake me not; I speak but as I find.

Whence are you, sir? What may I call your name?

 

PETRUCHIO.

Petruchio is my name, Antonio’s son;

A man well known throughout all Italy.

 

BAPTISTA.

I know him