Home
This site uses cookies
log out

The Taming of the Shrew: Act I, Scene 1

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

The Taming of the Shrew
Act I, Scene 1

Scene 1

Padua. A public square.

  1. Enter Lucentio and his man Tranio.

Lucentio

1 - 24
  1. Tranio, since for the great desire I had
  2. To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
  3. I am arriv’d for fruitful Lombardy,
  4. The pleasant garden of great Italy,
  5. And by my father’s love and leave am arm’d
  6. With his good will and thy good company,
  7. My trusty servant, well approv’d in all,
  8. Here let us breathe, and haply institute
  9. A course of learning and ingenious studies.
  10. Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
  11. Gave me my being and my father first,
  12. A merchant of great traffic through the world,
  13. Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii;
  14. Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,
  15. It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv’d,
  16. To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds.
  17. And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
  18. Virtue and that part of philosophy
  19. Will I apply that treats of happiness
  20. By virtue specially to be achiev’d.
  21. Tell me thy mind, for I have Pisa left
  22. And am to Padua come, as he that leaves
  23. A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,
  24. And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

Tranio

25 - 40
  1. Mi perdonato, gentle master mine;
  2. I am, in all affected as yourself,
  3. Glad that you thus continue your resolve
  4. To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
  5. Only, good master, while we do admire
  6. This virtue and this moral discipline,
  7. Let’s be no Stoics nor no stocks, I pray,
  8. Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks
  9. As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur’d.
  10. Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
  11. And practice rhetoric in your common talk,
  12. Music and poesy use to quicken you,
  13. The mathematics, and the metaphysics,
  14. Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:
  15. No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en.
  16. In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Lucentio

41 - 46
  1. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.
  2. If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,
  3. We could at once put us in readiness,
  4. And take a lodging fit to entertain
  5. Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.
  6. But stay a while, what company is this?

Tranio

47
  1. Master, some show to welcome us to town.
  1. Enter Baptista with his two daughters, Katherina and Bianca,
  2. Gremio, a pantaloon, Hortensio, suitor to Bianca. Lucentio,
  3. Tranio stand by.

Baptista

48 - 54
  1. Gentlemen, importune me no farther,
  2. For how I firmly am resolv’d you know:
  3. That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter
  4. Before I have a husband for the elder.
  5. If either of you both love Katherina,
  6. Because I know you well, and love you well,
  7. Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.

Gremio

55 - 56
  1. To cart her rather; she’s too rough for me.
  2. There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?

Katherina

57 - 58
  1. To Baptista.
  2. I pray you, sir, is it your will
  3. To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

Hortensio

59 - 60
  1. Mates, maid, how mean you that? No mates for you,
  2. Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

Katherina

61 - 65
  1. I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear.
  2. Iwis it is not half way to her heart;
  3. But if it were, doubt not her care should be
  4. To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,
  5. And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

Hortensio

66
  1. From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!
Elsie Leslie as Katherine

Elsie Leslie as Katherine

New York Times; April 9, 1916

Gremio

67
  1. And me too, good Lord!

Tranio

68 - 69
  1. Husht, master, here’s some good pastime toward;
  2. That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.

Lucentio

70 - 72
  1. But in the other’s silence do I see
  2. Maid’s mild behavior and sobriety.
  3. Peace, Tranio!

Tranio

73
  1. Well said, master, mum, and gaze your fill.

Baptista

74 - 77
  1. Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
  2. What I have said, Bianca, get you in,
  3. And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
  4. For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.

Katherina

78 - 79
  1. A pretty peat! It is best
  2. Put finger in the eye, and she knew why.

Bianca

80 - 83
  1. Sister, content you in my discontent.
  2. Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe;
  3. My books and instruments shall be my company,
  4. On them to look and practice by myself.

Lucentio

84
  1. Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

Hortensio

85 - 87
  1. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?
  2. Sorry am I that our good will effects
  3. Bianca’s grief.

Gremio

88 - 90
  1.                 Why will you mew her up,
  2. Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,
  3. And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

Baptista

91 - 102
  1. Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv’d.
  2. Go in, Bianca.
  3. Exit Bianca.
  4. And for I know she taketh most delight
  5. In music, instruments, and poetry,
  6. Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
  7. Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
  8. Or, Signior Gremio, you, know any such,
  9. Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
  10. I will be very kind, and liberal
  11. To mine own children in good bringing-up,
  12. And so farewell. Katherina, you may stay,
  13. For I have more to commune with Bianca.
  1. Exit.

Katherina

103 - 105
  1. Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What, shall I be
  2. appointed hours, as though, belike, I knew not what to take
  3. and what to leave? Ha!
  1. Exit.

Gremio

106 - 112
  1. You may go to the devil’s dam; your gifts are so good,
  2. here’s none will hold you. Their love is not so great,
  3. Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it
  4. fairly out. Our cake’s dough on both sides. Farewell; yet
  5. for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means
  6. light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I
  7. will wish him to her father.

Hortensio

113 - 117
  1. So will I, Signior Gremio. But a word, I pray. Though the
  2. nature of our quarrel yet never brook’d parle, know now upon
  3. advice, it toucheth us both, that we may yet again have
  4. access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca’s
  5. love, to labor and effect one thing specially.

Gremio

118
  1. What’s that, I pray?

Hortensio

119
  1. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

Gremio

120
  1. A husband! A devil.

Hortensio

121
  1. I say, a husband.

Gremio

122 - 124
  1. I say, a devil. Think’st thou, Hortensio, though her father
  2. be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to
  3. hell?

Hortensio

125 - 128
  1. Tush, Gremio; though it pass your patience and mine to
  2. endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in
  3. the world, and a man could light on them, would take her
  4. with all faults, and money enough.

Gremio

129 - 130
  1. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this
  2. condition: to be whipt at the high cross every morning.

Hortensio

131 - 137
  1. Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten apples.
  2. But come, since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall
  3. be so far forth friendly maintain’d till by helping
  4. Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest
  5. free for a husband, and then have to’t afresh. Sweet Bianca,
  6. happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring.
  7. How say you, Signior Gremio?
Virginia Dreher as Bianca

Virginia Dreher as Bianca

From Augustin Daly's production of Taming of the Shrew, Daly's Theatre, New York

Napoleon Sarony, 1887

Gremio

138 - 140
  1. I am agreed, and would I had given him the best horse in
  2. Padua to begin his wooing that would thoroughly woo her, wed
  3. her, and bed her, and rid the house of her! Come on.
  1. Exeunt ambo Gremio and Hortensio. Manent Tranio and
  2. Lucentio.

Tranio

141 - 142
  1. I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
  2. That love should of a sudden take such hold?

Lucentio

143 - 153
  1. O Tranio, till I found it to be true,
  2. I never thought it possible or likely.
  3. But see, while idly I stood looking on,
  4. I found the effect of love in idleness,
  5. And now in plainness do confess to thee,
  6. That art to me as secret and as dear
  7. As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was:
  8. Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
  9. If I achieve not this young modest girl.
  10. Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;
  11. Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

Tranio

154 - 157
  1. Master, it is no time to chide you now,
  2. Affection is not rated from the heart.
  3. If love have touch’d you, nought remains but so,
  4. “Redime te captum quam queas minimo.”

Lucentio

158 - 159
  1. Gramercies, lad. Go forward, this contents;
  2. The rest will comfort, for thy counsel’s sound.

Tranio

160 - 161
  1. Master, you look’d so longly on the maid,
  2. Perhaps you mark’d not what’s the pith of all.

Lucentio

162 - 165
  1. O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
  2. Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
  3. That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
  4. When with his knees he kiss’d the Cretan strond.

Tranio

166 - 168
  1. Saw you no more? Mark’d you not how her sister
  2. Began to scold, and raise up such a storm
  3. That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?

Lucentio

169 - 171
  1. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
  2. And with her breath she did perfume the air.
  3. Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.

Tranio

172 - 179
  1. Nay, then ’tis time to stir him from his trance.
  2. I pray, awake, sir; if you love the maid,
  3. Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:
  4. Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd
  5. That till the father rid his hands of her,
  6. Master, your love must live a maid at home,
  7. And therefore has he closely mew’d her up,
  8. Because she will not be annoy’d with suitors.

Lucentio

180 - 182
  1. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father’s he?
  2. But art thou not advis’d, he took some care
  3. To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?

Tranio

183
  1. Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now ’tis plotted.

Lucentio

184
  1. I have it, Tranio.

Tranio

185 - 186
  1.                    Master, for my hand,
  2. Both our inventions meet and jump in one.

Lucentio

187
  1. Tell me thine first.

Tranio

188 - 190
  1.                      You will be schoolmaster,
  2. And undertake the teaching of the maid:
  3. That’s your device.

Lucentio

191
  1.                     It is; may it be done?

Tranio

192 - 195
  1. Not possible; for who shall bear your part,
  2. And be in Padua here Vincentio’s son,
  3. Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,
  4. Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

Lucentio

196 - 207
  1. Basta, content thee; for I have it full.
  2. We have not yet been seen in any house,
  3. Nor can we be distinguish’d by our faces
  4. For man or master. Then it follows thus:
  5. Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead;
  6. Keep house and port and servants, as I should.
  7. I will some other be, some Florentine,
  8. Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
  9. ’Tis hatch’d, and shall be so. Tranio, at once
  10. Uncase thee; take my color’d hat and cloak.
  11. When Biondello comes, he waits on thee,
  12. But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
Costume study for Grumio

Costume study for Grumio

Robert L. Bööcke, circa 1890

Tranio

208 - 215
  1. So had you need.
  2. In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
  3. And I am tied to be obedient—
  4. For so your father charg’d me at our parting;
  5. “Be serviceable to my son,” quoth he,
  6. Although I think ’twas in another sense—
  7. I am content to be Lucentio,
  8. Because so well I love Lucentio.

Lucentio

216 - 219
  1. Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves,
  2. And let me be a slave, t’ achieve that maid
  3. Whose sudden sight hath thrall’d my wounded eye.
  4. Enter Biondello.
  5. Here comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been?

Biondello

220 - 222
  1. Where have I been? Nay, how now, where are you? Master, has
  2. my fellow Tranio stol’n your clothes? Or you stol’n his? Or
  3. both? Pray what’s the news?

Lucentio

223 - 232
  1. Sirrah, come hither, ’tis no time to jest,
  2. And therefore frame your manners to the time.
  3. Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
  4. Puts my apparel and my count’nance on,
  5. And I for my escape have put on his;
  6. For in a quarrel since I came ashore
  7. I kill’d a man, and fear I was descried.
  8. Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
  9. While I make way from hence to save my life.
  10. You understand me?

Biondello

233 - 234
  1.                    Ay, sir!—
  2. Aside.
  3.           Ne’er a whit.

Lucentio

235 - 236
  1. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth,
  2. Tranio is chang’d into Lucentio.

Biondello

237
  1. The better for him, would I were so too!

Tranio

238 - 243
  1. So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,
  2. That Lucentio indeed had Baptista’s youngest daughter.
  3. But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master’s, I advise
  4. You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies.
  5. When I am alone, why then I am Tranio;
  6. But in all places else your master Lucentio.

Lucentio

244 - 247
  1. Tranio, let’s go.
  2. One thing more rests, that thyself execute—
  3. To make one among these wooers. If thou ask me why,
  4. Sufficeth my reasons are both good and weighty.
  1. Exeunt.
  1. The Presenters above speaks.

First Servingman

248
  1. My lord, you nod, you do not mind the play.

Christopher Sly

249 - 250
  1. Yes, by Saint Anne, do I. A good matter, surely; comes there
  2. any more of it?

Page

251
  1. My lord, ’tis but begun.

Christopher Sly

252 - 253
  1. ’Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; would
  2. ’twere done!
  1. They sit and mark.
Katherina

Katherina

Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd.; 1896

© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons • Header illustration by Byam Shaw