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The Taming of the Shrew: Act I, Scene 2

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The Taming of the Shrew
Act I, Scene 2

Padua. Before Hortensio’s house.

Costume study for Petruchio

Costume study for Petruchio

Robert L. Bööcke, circa 1890

  1. Enter Petruchio and his man Grumio.

Petruchio

1 - 5
  1. Verona, for a while I take my leave
  2. To see my friends in Padua, but of all
  3. My best beloved and approved friend,
  4. Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
  5. Here, sirrah Grumio, knock, I say.

Grumio

6 - 7
  1. Knock, sir? Whom should I knock? Is there any man has
  2. rebus’d your worship?

Petruchio

8
  1. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

Grumio

9 - 10
  1. Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should
  2. knock you here, sir?

Petruchio

11 - 12
  1. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,
  2. And rap me well, or I’ll knock your knave’s pate.

Grumio

13 - 14
  1. My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
  2. And then I know after who comes by the worst.

Petruchio

15 - 17
  1. Will it not be?
  2. Faith, sirrah, and you’ll not knock, I’ll ring it.
  3. I’ll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.
  1. He wrings him by the ears.

Grumio

18
  1. Help, masters, help, my master is mad.

Petruchio

19
  1. Now knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!
  1. Enter Hortensio.

Hortensio

20 - 21
  1. How now, what’s the matter? My old friend Grumio! And my
  2. good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona?

Petruchio

22 - 23
  1. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? Con tutto il
  2. cuore, ben trovato, may I say.

Hortensio

24 - 25
  1. Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto honorato signor mio Petruchio.
  2. Rise, Grumio, rise, we will compound this quarrel.

Grumio

26 - 32
  1. Nay, ’tis no matter, sir, what he ’leges in Latin. If this
  2. be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you,
  3. sir. He bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir. Well, was
  4. it fit for a servant to use his master so, being perhaps
  5. (for aught I see) two and thirty, a peep out?
  6. Whom would to God I had well knock’d at first,
  7. Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

Petruchio

33 - 35
  1. A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
  2. I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
  3. And could not get him for my heart to do it.

Grumio

36 - 39
  1. Knock at the gate? O heavens! Spake you not these words
  2. plain, “Sirrah, knock me here; rap me here; knock me well,
  3. and knock me soundly”? And come you now with “knocking at
  4. the gate”?

Petruchio

40
  1. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.

Hortensio

41 - 45
  1. Petruchio, patience, I am Grumio’s pledge.
  2. Why, this’ a heavy chance ’twixt him and you,
  3. Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.
  4. And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale
  5. Blows you to Padua here from old Verona?

Petruchio

46 - 54
  1. Such wind as scatters young men through the world
  2. To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
  3. Where small experience grows. But in a few,
  4. Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
  5. Antonio, my father, is deceas’d,
  6. And I have thrust myself into this maze,
  7. Happily to wive and thrive as best I may.
  8. Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
  9. And so am come abroad to see the world.

Hortensio

55 - 60
  1. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee,
  2. And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favor’d wife?
  3. Thou’dst thank me but a little for my counsel;
  4. And yet I’ll promise thee she shall be rich,
  5. And very rich. But th’ art too much my friend,
  6. And I’ll not wish thee to her.
Constant Coquelin as Petruchio

Constant Coquelin as Petruchio

New York Times, circa 1916

Petruchio

61 - 72
  1. Signior Hortensio, ’twixt such friends as we
  2. Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
  3. One rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife
  4. (As wealth is burden of my wooing dance),
  5. Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love,
  6. As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
  7. As Socrates’ Xantippe, or a worse,
  8. She moves me not, or not removes at least
  9. Affection’s edge in me. Whe’er she is as rough
  10. As are the swelling Adriatic seas,
  11. I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
  12. If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

Grumio

73 - 77
  1. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is.
  2. Why, give him gold enough, and marry him to a puppet or an
  3. aglet-baby, or an old trot with ne’er a tooth in her head,
  4. though she have as many diseases as two and fifty horses.
  5. Why, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal.

Hortensio

78 - 87
  1. Petruchio, since we are stepp’d thus far in,
  2. I will continue that I broach’d in jest.
  3. I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
  4. With wealth enough, and young and beauteous,
  5. Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman.
  6. Her only fault, and that is faults enough,
  7. Is that she is intolerable curst
  8. And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure,
  9. That were my state far worser than it is,
  10. I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

Petruchio

88 - 91
  1. Hortensio, peace! Thou know’st not gold’s effect.
  2. Tell me her father’s name, and ’tis enough;
  3. For I will board her, though she chide as loud
  4. As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.

Hortensio

92 - 95
  1. Her father is Baptista Minola,
  2. An affable and courteous gentleman.
  3. Her name is Katherina Minola,
  4. Renown’d in Padua for her scolding tongue.

Petruchio

96 - 101
  1. I know her father, though I know not her,
  2. And he knew my deceased father well.
  3. I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her,
  4. And therefore let me be thus bold with you
  5. To give you over at this first encounter,
  6. Unless you will accompany me thither.

Grumio

102 - 110
  1. I pray you, sir, let him go while the humor lasts. A’ my
  2. word, and she knew him as well as I do, she would think
  3. scolding would do little good upon him. She may perhaps call
  4. him half a score knaves or so. Why, that’s nothing; and he
  5. begin once, he’ll rail in his rope-tricks. I’ll tell you
  6. what, sir, and she stand him but a little, he will throw a
  7. figure in her face, and so disfigure her with it, that she
  8. shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat. You know
  9. him not, sir.

Hortensio

111 - 122
  1. Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee,
  2. For in Baptista’s keep my treasure is.
  3. He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
  4. His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca,
  5. And her withholds from me and other more,
  6. Suitors to her and rivals in my love;
  7. Supposing it a thing impossible,
  8. For those defects I have before rehears’d,
  9. That ever Katherina will be woo’d.
  10. Therefore this order hath Baptista ta’en,
  11. That none shall have access unto Bianca
  12. Till Katherine the curst have got a husband.
Dramatis Personae from Harper & Brothers edition of The Taming of the Shrew

Dramatis Personae from Harper & Brothers edition of The Taming of the Shrew

W. J. Rolfe, 1898

Grumio

123 - 124
  1. Katherine the curst!
  2. A title for a maid of all titles the worst.

Hortensio

125 - 131
  1. Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace,
  2. And offer me disguis’d in sober robes
  3. To old Baptista as a schoolmaster
  4. Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca,
  5. That so I may by this device at least
  6. Have leave and leisure to make love to her,
  7. And unsuspected court her by herself.
  1. Enter Gremio, and Lucentio disguised as a schoolmaster.

Grumio

132 - 134
  1. Here’s no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the
  2. young folks lay their heads together! Master, master, look
  3. about you! Who goes there? Ha!

Hortensio

135 - 136
  1. Peace, Grumio, it is the rival of my love. Petruchio, stand
  2. by a while.

Grumio

137
  1. A proper stripling, and an amorous!
  1. They stand aside.

Gremio

138 - 147
  1. O, very well, I have perus’d the note.
  2. Hark you, sir, I’ll have them very fairly bound—
  3. All books of love, see that at any hand—
  4. And see you read no other lectures to her.
  5. You understand me. Over and beside
  6. Signior Baptista’s liberality,
  7. I’ll mend it with a largess. Take your paper too,
  8. And let me have them very well perfum’d;
  9. For she is sweeter than perfume itself
  10. To whom they go to. What will you read to her?

Lucentio

148 - 152
  1. What e’er I read to her, I’ll plead for you
  2. As for my patron, stand you so assur’d,
  3. As firmly as yourself were still in place,
  4. Yea, and perhaps with more successful words
  5. Than you—unless you were a scholar, sir.

Gremio

153
  1. O this learning, what a thing it is!

Grumio

154
  1. O this woodcock, what an ass it is!

Petruchio

155
  1. Peace, sirrah!

Hortensio

156 - 157
  1. Grumio, mum!
  2. Coming forward.
  3.              God save you, Signior Gremio.

Gremio

158 - 165
  1. And you are well met, Signior Hortensio.
  2. Trow you whither I am going? To Baptista Minola.
  3. I promis’d to inquire carefully
  4. About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca,
  5. And by good fortune I have lighted well
  6. On this young man; for learning and behavior
  7. Fit for her turn, well read in poetry
  8. And other books, good ones, I warrant ye.

Hortensio

166 - 170
  1. ’Tis well; and I have met a gentleman
  2. Hath promis’d me to help me to another,
  3. A fine musician to instruct our mistress;
  4. So shall I no whit be behind in duty
  5. To fair Bianca, so beloved of me.

Gremio

171
  1. Beloved of me, and that my deeds shall prove.

Grumio

172
  1. And that his bags shall prove.

Hortensio

173 - 179
  1. Gremio, ’tis now no time to vent our love;
  2. Listen to me, and if you speak me fair,
  3. I’ll tell you news indifferent good for either,
  4. Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met,
  5. Upon agreement from us to his liking,
  6. Will undertake to woo curst Katherine,
  7. Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.
Otis Skinner as Lucentio

Otis Skinner as Lucentio

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

Napoleon Sarony, 1887

Gremio

180 - 181
  1. So said, so done, is well.
  2. Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?

Petruchio

182 - 183
  1. I know she is an irksome brawling scold.
  2. If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.

Gremio

184
  1. No, say’st me so, friend? What countryman?

Petruchio

185 - 187
  1. Born in Verona, old Antonio’s son.
  2. My father dead, my fortune lives for me,
  3. And I do hope good days and long to see.

Gremio

188 - 191
  1. O sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange;
  2. But if you have a stomach, to’t a’ God’s name;
  3. You shall have me assisting you in all.
  4. But will you woo this wild-cat?

Petruchio

192
  1.                                 Will I live?

Grumio

193
  1. Will he woo her? Ay—or I’ll hang her.

Petruchio

194 - 206
  1. Why came I hither but to that intent?
  2. Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
  3. Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
  4. Have I not heard the sea, puff’d up with winds,
  5. Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
  6. Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
  7. And heaven’s artillery thunder in the skies?
  8. Have I not in a pitched battle heard
  9. Loud ’larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets’ clang?
  10. And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,
  11. That gives not half so great a blow to hear
  12. As will a chestnut in a farmer’s fire?
  13. Tush, tush, fear boys with bugs.

Grumio

207
  1.                                  For he fears none.

Gremio

208 - 210
  1. Hortensio, hark.
  2. This gentleman is happily arriv’d,
  3. My mind presumes, for his own good and ours.

Hortensio

211 - 212
  1. I promis’d we would be contributors,
  2. And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe’er.

Gremio

213
  1. And so we will, provided that he win her.

Grumio

214
  1. I would I were as sure of a good dinner.
  1. Enter Tranio brave, as Lucentio, and Biondello.

Tranio

215 - 217
  1. Gentlemen, God save you. If I may be bold,
  2. Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way
  3. To the house of Signior Baptista Minola?

Biondello

218
  1. He that has the two fair daughters? Is’t he you mean?

Tranio

219
  1. Even he, Biondello.

Gremio

220
  1. Hark you, sir, you mean not her to—

Tranio

221
  1. Perhaps him and her, sir; what have you to do?

Petruchio

222
  1. Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.

Tranio

223
  1. I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let’s away.

Lucentio

224
  1. Aside.
  2. Well begun, Tranio.

Hortensio

225 - 226
  1.                     Sir, a word ere you go.
  2. Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?

Tranio

227
  1. And if I be, sir, is it any offense?

Gremio

228
  1. No; if without more words you will get you hence.

Tranio

229 - 230
  1. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free
  2. For me as for you?

Gremio

231
  1.                    But so is not she.
Lucentio

Lucentio

Robert L. Bööcke, circa 1890

Tranio

232
  1. For what reason, I beseech you?

Gremio

233 - 234
  1.                                 For this reason, if you’ll know,
  2. That she’s the choice love of Signior Gremio.

Hortensio

235
  1. That she’s the chosen of Signior Hortensio.

Tranio

236 - 245
  1. Softly, my masters! If you be gentlemen,
  2. Do me this right: hear me with patience.
  3. Baptista is a noble gentleman,
  4. To whom my father is not all unknown,
  5. And were his daughter fairer than she is,
  6. She may more suitors have, and me for one.
  7. Fair Leda’s daughter had a thousand wooers,
  8. Then well one more may fair Bianca have;
  9. And so she shall. Lucentio shall make one,
  10. Though Paris came in hope to speed alone.

Gremio

246
  1. What, this gentleman will out-talk us all.

Lucentio

247
  1. Sir, give him head, I know he’ll prove a jade.

Petruchio

248
  1. Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

Hortensio

249 - 250
  1. Sir, let me be so bold as ask you,
  2. Did you yet ever see Baptista’s daughter?

Tranio

251 - 253
  1. No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two:
  2. The one as famous for a scolding tongue,
  3. As is the other for beauteous modesty.

Petruchio

254
  1. Sir, sir, the first’s for me, let her go by.

Gremio

255 - 256
  1. Yea, leave that labor to great Hercules,
  2. And let it be more than Alcides’ twelve.

Petruchio

257 - 262
  1. Sir, understand you this of me, in sooth:
  2. The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for,
  3. Her father keeps from all access of suitors,
  4. And will not promise her to any man,
  5. Until the elder sister first be wed.
  6. The younger then is free, and not before.

Tranio

263 - 268
  1. If it be so, sir, that you are the man
  2. Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest;
  3. And if you break the ice, and do this feat,
  4. Achieve the elder, set the younger free
  5. For our access—whose hap shall be to have her
  6. Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.

Hortensio

269 - 272
  1. Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive,
  2. And since you do profess to be a suitor,
  3. You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman,
  4. To whom we all rest generally beholding.

Tranio

273 - 277
  1. Sir, I shall not be slack; in sign whereof,
  2. Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,
  3. And quaff carouses to our mistress’ health,
  4. And do as adversaries do in law,
  5. Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

Both Grumio and Biondello

278
  1. O excellent motion! Fellows, let’s be gone.

Hortensio

279 - 280
  1. The motion’s good indeed, and be it so,
  2. Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.
  1. Exeunt.
Hortensio

Hortensio

Robert L. Bööcke, circa 1890

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