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Feast with the best, and welcome to my house;
My banquet' is to close our stomachs up,
After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down;
For now we sit to chat, as well as eat.

[They sit at table.
Pet. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!
Bap. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.
Pet. Padua affords nothing but what is kind.
Hor. For both our sakes, I would that word were

true.

Pet. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow. Wid. Then never trust me if I be afeard.

Pet. You are sensible, and yet you miss my sense. I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you.

Wid. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns

round.

Pet. Roundly replied.

Kath.

Mistress, how mean you that? Wid. Thus I conceive by him.

Pet. Conceives by me!-How likes Hortensio

that?

Hor. My widow says, thus she conceives her tale. Pet. Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.

Kath. He that is giddy, thinks the world turns round.

I pray you, tell me what you meant by that.

Wid. Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe;2

And now you know my meaning.

Kath. A very mean meaning.

Wid.

Right, I mean you.

Kath. And I am mean indeed, respecting you.

Pet. To her, Kate!

Hor. To her, widow!

Pet. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.

1 The banquet here, as in other places of Shakspeare, was a refection similar to our modern dessert, consisting of cakes, sweetmeats, fruits, &c. 2 As this was meant for a rhyming couplet, it should be observed that shrew was pronounced shrow. See also the finale, where it rhymes to so.

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Pet. Spoke like an officer.-Ha' to thee, lad. [Drinks to HORTENSIO. Bap. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? Gre. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. Bian. Head, and butt? A hasty-witted body Would say, your head and butt were head and horn. Vin. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awakened you? Bian. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again.

Pet. Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun,

Have at you for a bitter1 jest or two.

Bian. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, And then pursue me as you draw your bow.You are welcome all.

[Exeunt BIANCA, KATHARINA, and Widow. Pet. She hath prevented me. Here, seignior

Tranio,

This bird you aimed at, though you hit her not;
Therefore, a health to all that shot and missed.

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Tra. O, sir, Lucentio slipped me like his greyhound, Which runs himself, and catches for his master.

Pet. A good swift 2 simile, but something currish. Tra. 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself; 'Tis thought, your deer does hold you at a bay. Bap. O ho, Petruchio, Tranio hits you now. Luc. I thank thee for that gird,3 good Tranio. Hor. Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here? Pet. 'A has a little galled me, I confess ; And, as the jest did glance away from me, 'Tis ten to one it maimed you two outright. Bap. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,

I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.

Pet. Well, I say-no; and therefore, for assurance Let's each one send unto his wife;

1 The old copy reads better. The emendation is Capell's.

2 Beside the original sense of speedy in motion, swift signified witty, quick-witted.

3 A gird is a cut, a sarcasm, a stroke of satire.

And he whose wife is most obedient
To come at first when he doth send for her,
Shall win the wager which we will propose.
Hor. Content. What is the wager?
Luc.

Pet. Twenty crowns!

Twenty crowns.

I'll venture so much on my hawk, or hound,
But twenty times so much upon my wife.
Luc. A hundred, then.

Hor.

Content.

Pet.

A match; 'tis done.

Hor. Who shall begin?

That will I. Go,

[Exit.

Luc.

Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.
Bion. I go.

Bap. Son, I will be your half, Bianca comes.
Luc. I'll have no halves: I'll bear it all myself.

Re-enter BIONDELLO.

How now! what news?

Bion.

Sir, my mistress sends you That she is busy, and she cannot come.

Pet. How! she is busy, and she cannot come !

word

Is that an answer?

Gre.

Ay, and a kind one too.

Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.

Pet. I hope, better.

Hor. Sirrah, Biondello, go, and entreat my wife To come to me forthwith.

Pet.

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I am afraid, sir,

Nay, then she must needs come.

Hor.

Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.

Re-enter BIOndello.

Now where's my wife?

Bion. She says, you have some goodly jest in hand; She will not come; she bids you come to her.

Pet. Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile, Intolerable, not to be endured!

Sirrah, Grumio, go to your mistress;

Say, I command her come to me.
Hor. I know her answer.

Pet.

Hor.

[Exit GRUMIO.

What?

She will not.

Pet. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.

Enter KATHARINA.

Bap. Now, by my holidame, here comes Katharina! Kath. What is your will, sir, that you send for me? Pet. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife? Kath. They sit conferring by the parlor fire.

Pet. Go fetch them hither; if they deny to come, Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands. Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.

[Exit KATHARINA. Luc. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. Hor. And so it is; I wonder what it bodes.

Pet. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, An awful rule, and right supremacy;

And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy.
Bap. Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio!
The wager thou hast won; and I will add
Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns;
Another dowry to another daughter,

For she is changed, as she had never been.
Pet. Nay, I will win my wager better yet;
And show more sign of her obedience,
Her new-built virtue and obedience.

Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA and Widow.

See, where she comes; and brings your froward wives
As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.—

Katharina, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bauble; throw it under foot.

[KATHARINA pulls off her cap, and throws
it down.

Wid. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh, Till I be brought to such a silly pass!

Bian. Fie! what a foolish duty call you this? Luc. I would your duty were as foolish too. The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time. Bian. The more fool you for laying on my duty. Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong

Women

What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
Wid. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have
no telling.

Pet. Come on, I say; and first begin with her.
Wid. She shall not.

Pet. I say, she shall;-and first begin with her.
Kath. Fie, fie! unknit that threatening, unkind

brow;

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
It blots thy beauty, as frosts do bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds;
And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman moved, is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labor, both by sea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands,
But love, fair looks, and true obedience ;—
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband.
And, when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,

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