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The Taming Of The Shrew
William Shakespeare
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eBook - ePub
The Taming Of The Shrew
William Shakespeare
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About This Book
Bianca, the daughter of local nobleman, is a beautiful and eligible woman of marriageable age, but her father has declared that no suitor can have her hand until her older, more disagreeable sister, Katherina, is married. In order to have their chance with Bianca, two suitors arrange for their friend Petruchio to "tame" Katherina and marry her.
Known as "The Bard of Avon, " William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
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Topic
LittératureSubtopic
ThéâtreACT FOUR
SCENE I. Petruchio’s country house.
Enter GRUMIO.
[5]
GRUMIO Fie, fie on all tired jades, on all mad masters, and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? Was ever man so ray’d? Was ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now were not I a little pot and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me. But I with blowing the fire shall warm myself; for, considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold.
[10]
Holla, ho! Curtis!
Enter CURTIS.
CURTIS Who is that calls so coldly?
GRUMIO A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou mayst slide from my shoulder to my heel with no greater a run but my head and my neck. A fire, good Curtis.
CURTIS Is my master and his wife coming,
[15]
Grumio?
GRUMIO O, ay, Curtis, ay; and therefore fire, fire; cast on no water.
CURTIS Is she so hot a shrew as she’s reported?
[22]
GRUMIO She was, good Curtis, before this frost; but thou know’st winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tam’d my old master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis.
CURTIS Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast.
GRUMIO Am I but three inches? Why, thy horn is a foot, and so long am I at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand – she being now at hand – thou shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office?
[30]
CURTIS I prithee, good Grumio, tell me how goes the world?
GRUMIO A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and therefore fire. Do thy duty, and have thy duty, for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death.
CURTIS There’s fire ready; and therefore, good
[35]
Grumio, the news?
GRUMIO Why, ‘Jack boy! ho, boy!’ and as much news as wilt thou.
[38]
CURTIS Come, you are so full of cony-catching!
GRUMIO Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where’s the cook? Is supper ready, the house trimm’d, rushes strew’d, cobwebs swept, the serving-men in their new fustian, their white stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, and everything in order?
[45]
CURTIS All ready; and therefore, I pray thee, news.
GRUMIO First know my horse is tired; my master and mistress fall’n out.
CURTIS How?
[50]
GRUMIO Out of their saddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale.
CURTIS Let’s ha’t, good Grumio.
GRUMIO Lend thine ear.
CURTIS Here.
GRUMIO There.
[Striking him.
[55]
CURTIS This ’tis to feel a tale, not to hear a tale.
GRUMIO And therefore ’tis call’d a sensible tale; and this cuff was but to knock at your ear and beseech list’ning. Now I begin: Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress –
[60]
CURTIS Both of one horse?
GRUMIO What’s that to thee?
CURTIS Why, a horse.
[75]
GRUMIO Tell thou the tale. But hadst thou not cross’d me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell and she under her horse; thou shouldst have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoll’d, how he left her with the horse upon her, how he beat me because her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore, how she pray’d that never pray’d before, how I cried, how the horses ran away, how her bridle was burst, how I lost my crupper – with many things of worthy memory, which now shall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienc’d to thy grave.
CURTIS By this reck’ning he is more shrew than she.
[82]
GRUMIO Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? Call forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop, and the rest; let their heads be sleekly comb’d, their blue coats brush’d and their garters of an indifferent knit; let them curtsy with their left legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my master’s horse-tail till they kiss their hands. Are they all ready?
CURTIS They are.
GRUMIO Call them forth.
[86]
CURTIS Do you hear, ho? You must meet my master, to countenance my mistress.
GRUMIO Why, she hath a face of her own.
CURTIS Who knows not that?
[90]
GRUMIO Thou, it seems, that calk for company to countenance her.
CURTIS I call them forth to credit her.
GRUMIO Why, she comes to borrow nothing of them.
Enter four or five Servants.
NATHANIEL Welcome home, Grumio!
PHILIP How now, Grumio!
[95]
JOSEPH What, Grumio!
NICHOLAS Fellow Grumio!
NATHANIEL How now, old lad!
[100]
GRUMIO Welcome, you! – how now, you! – what, you! – fellow, you! – and thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat?
NATHANIEL All things is ready. How near is our master?
GRUMIO E’en at hand, alighted by this; and therefore be not – Cock’s passion, silence! I hear my master.
Enter PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA.
[104]
PETRUCHIO Where be these knaves? What, no man at door
To hold my stirrup nor to take my horse!
Where is Nathaniel, Gregory, Philip?
ALL SERVANTS Here, here, sir; here, sir.
[108]
PETRUCHIO Here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! here, sir!
You logger-headed and unpolish’d grooms!
What, no attendance? no regard? no duty?
Where is the foolish knave I sent before?
GRU...