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

the world;

And yet she is inferior to none.

 

SLY.

Am I a lord? and have I such a lady?

Or do I dream? Or have I dream’d till now?

I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak;

I smell sweet savours, and I feel soft things:

Upon my life, I am a lord indeed;

And not a tinker, nor Christophero Sly.

Well, bring our lady hither to our sight;

And once again, a pot o’ the smallest ale.

 

SECOND SERVANT.

Will’t please your mightiness to wash your hands?

 

[Servants present a ewer, basin, and napkin.]

 

O, how we joy to see your wit restor’d!

O, that once more you knew but what you are!

These fifteen years you have been in a dream,

Or, when you wak’d, so wak’d as if you slept.

 

SLY.

These fifteen years! by my fay, a goodly nap.

But did I never speak of all that time?

 

FIRST SERVANT.

O! yes, my lord, but very idle words;

For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,

Yet would you say ye were beaten out of door,

And rail upon the hostess of the house,

And say you would present her at the leet,

Because she brought stone jugs and no seal’d quarts.

Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket.

 

SLY.

Ay, the woman’s maid of the house.

 

THIRD SERVANT.

Why, sir, you know no house nor no such maid,

Nor no such men as you have reckon’d up,

As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of Greece,

And Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell;

And twenty more such names and men as these,

Which never were, nor no man ever saw.

 

SLY.

Now, Lord be thanked for my good amends!

 

ALL.

Amen.

 

SLY.

I thank thee; thou shalt not lose by it.

 

[Enter the PAGE, as a lady, with ATTENDANTS.]

 

PAGE.

How fares my noble lord?

 

SLY.

Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer enough.

Where is my wife?

 

PAGE.

Here, noble lord: what is thy will with her?

 

SLY.

Are you my wife, and will not call me husband?

My men should call me lord: I am your goodman.

 

PAGE.

My husband and my lord, my lord and husband;

I am your wife in all obedience.

 

SLY.

I know it well. What must I call her?

 

LORD.

Madam.

 

SLY.

Al’ce madam, or Joan madam?

 

LORD.

Madam, and nothing else; so lords call ladies.

 

SLY.

Madam wife, they say that I have dream’d

And slept above some fifteen year or more.

 

PAGE.

Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me,

Being all this time abandon’d from your bed.

 

SLY.

‘Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone.

Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.

 

PAGE.

Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you

To pardon me yet for a night or two;

Or, if not so, until the sun be set:

For your physicians have expressly charg’d,

In peril to incur your former malady,

That I should yet absent me from your bed:

I hope this reason stands for my excuse.

 

SLY.

Ay, it stands so that I may hardly tarry so long; but I would

be loath to fall into my dreams again: I will therefore tarry, in

despite of the flesh and the blood.

 

[Enter a SERVANT.]

 

SERVANT.

Your honour’s players, hearing your amendment,

Are come to play a pleasant comedy;

For so your doctors hold it very meet,

Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood,

And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:

Therefore they thought it good you hear a play,

And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,

Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.

 

SLY.

Marry, I will; let them play it. Is not a commonty a

Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?

 

PAGE.

No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.

 

SLY.

What! household stuff?

 

PAGE.

It is a kind of history.

 

SLY.

Well, we’ll see’t. Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let

the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.

 

[Flourish.]

 

ACT I.

 

SCENE I. Padua. A public place.

 

[Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO.]

 

LUCENTIO.

Tranio, since for the great desire I had

To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,

I am arriv’d for fruitful Lombardy,

The pleasant garden of great Italy,

And by my father’s love and leave am arm’d

With his good will and thy good company,

My trusty servant well approv’d in all,

Here let us breathe, and haply institute

A course of learning and ingenious studies.

Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

Gave me my being and my father first,

A merchant of great traffic through the world,

Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.

Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv’d,

To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:

And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,

Virtue and that part of philosophy

Will I apply that treats of happiness

By virtue specially to be achiev’d.

Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left

And am to Padua come as he that leaves

A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,

And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

 

TRANIO.

Mi perdonato, gentle master mine;

I am in all affected as yourself;

Glad that you thus continue your resolve

To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.

Only, good master, while we do admire

This virtue and this moral discipline,

Let’s be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;

Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks

As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur’d.

Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,

And practise rhetoric in your common talk;

Music and poesy use to quicken you;

The mathematics and the metaphysics,

Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en;

In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

 

LUCENTIO.

Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,

We could at once put us in readiness,

And take a lodging fit to entertain

Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.

But stay awhile; what company is this?

 

TRANIO.

Master, some show to welcome us to town.

 

[Enter BAPTISTA, KATHERINA, BIANCA, GREMIO,and HORTENSIO.

LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.]

 

BAPTISTA.

Gentlemen, importune me no further,

For how I firmly am resolv’d you know;

That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter

Before I have a husband for the elder.

If either of you both love Katherina,

Because I know you well and love you well,

Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.

 

GREMIO.

To cart her rather: she’s too rough for me.

There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?

 

KATHERINA.

[To BAPTISTA] I pray you, sir, is it your will

To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

 

HORTENSIO.

Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you,

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

 

KATHERINA.

I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;

I wis it is not halfway to her heart;

But if it were, doubt not her care should be

To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,

And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

 

HORTENSIO.

From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!

 

GREMIO.

And me, too, good Lord!

 

TRANIO.

Husht, master! Here’s some good pastime toward:

That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.

 

LUCENTIO.

But in the other’s silence do I see

Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.

Peace, Tranio!

 

TRANIO.

Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.

 

BAPTISTA.

Gentlemen, that I may soon make good

What I have said,—Bianca, get you in:

And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,

For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.

 

KATHERINA.

A pretty peat! it is best

Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.

 

BIANCA.

Sister, content you in my discontent.

Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:

My books and instruments shall be my company,

On them to look, and practise by myself.

 

LUCENTIO.

Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

 

HORTENSIO.

Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?

Sorry am I that our good will effects

Bianca’s grief.

 

GREMIO.

Why will you mew her up,

Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,

And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

 

BAPTISTA.

Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv’d.

Go in, Bianca.

 

[Exit BIANCA.]

 

And for I know she taketh most delight

In music, instruments, and poetry,

Schoolmasters will I keep within my house

Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,

Or, Signior Gremio, you, know any such,

Prefer them hither; for to cunning men

I will be very kind, and liberal

To mine own children in good bringing up;

And so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay;

For I have more to commune with Bianca.

 

[Exit.]

 

KATHERINA.

Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?

What! shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike,

I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!

 

[Exit.]

 

GREMIO.

You may go to the devil’s dam: your gifts are so good

here’s none will hold you. Their love is not so great,

Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly

out; our cake’s dough on both sides. Farewell: yet, for the love I

bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man to

teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her

father.

 

HORTENSIO.

So will I, Signior Gremio: but a word, I pray. Though

the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon

advice, it toucheth us both,—that we may yet again have access to

our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca’s love,—to labour

and effect one thing specially.

 

GREMIO.

What’s that, I pray?

 

HORTENSIO.

Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

 

GREMIO.

A husband! a devil.

 

HORTENSIO.

I say, a husband.

 

GREMIO.

I say, a devil. Thinkest thou, Hortensio, though her

fatherbe very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to

hell?

 

HORTENSIO.

Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to

endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the

world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all

faults, and money enough.

 

GREMIO.

I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this

condition: to be whipp’d at the high cross every morning.

 

HORTENSIO.

Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten

apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it

shall be so far forth friendly maintained, till by helping

Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free

for a husband, and then have to’t afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man

be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you,

Signior Gremio?

 

GREMIO.

I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in

Padua to begin his wooing, that would thoroughly woo her, wed

her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on.

 

[Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO.]

 

TRANIO.

I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?

 

LUCENTIO.

O Tranio! till I found it to be true,

I never thought it possible or likely;

But see, while idly I stood looking on,

I found the effect of love in idleness;

And now in plainness do confess to thee,

That art to me as secret and as dear

As Anna