Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome: I should knock you first, And then I know after who comes by the worst. Pet. Will it not be? Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll wring it: [he wrings Grumio by the ears Gru. Help, masters, help! my master is mad. Pet. Now, knock when I bid you: sirrah! villain! Enter HORTENSIO. Hor. How now? what's the matter?-My old friend Grumio! and my good friend Petruchio !— How do you all at Verona ? Pet. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? Con tutto il core bene trovato, may I say. Hor. Alla nostra casa bene venuto, Molto honorato signor mio Petruchio. Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel. Gru. Nay, 'tis no matter, what he 'leges in Latin.--If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service,-Look you, sir,—he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir. Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, (for aught I see) two and thirty,—a pip out? Whom, would to God, I had well knock'd at first, Then had not Grumio come by the worst. Alleges. Pet. A senseless villain !-Good Hortensio, Gru. Knock at the gate?—O heavens !— Spake you not these words plain,—' Sirrah, knock me here, Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly? And come you now with-knocking at the gate ? Pet. Such wind as scatters young men through the world, To seek their fortunes farther than at home, And I have thrust myself into this maze, Haply to wive, and thrive, as best I may: Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, And so am come abroad to see the world. Hor. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee, And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favor'd wife? 1 Few words. Thou 'dst thank me but a little for my counsel: Pet. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we, I come to wive it wealthily in Padua ; Gru. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is. Why, give him gold enough, and marry him to a puppet, or an aglet-baby, or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two and fifty horses; why, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withal. Hor. Petruchio, since we have stepp'd thus far in, I will continue that I broach'd in jest. I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife With wealth enough, and young, and beauteous; 1 In allusion to the story of a Florentine in a popular book of that period, called A Thousand Notable Things. 2 A small image on the tag of a lace. Her only fault (and that is faults enough) And shrewd, and froward; so beyond all measure, I would not wed her for a mine of gold. Pet. Hortensio, peace; thou know'st not gold's Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough: Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue. Pet. I know her father, though I know not her; And he knew my deceased father well.— I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her; Gru. I pray you, sir, let him go while the humor lasts. O' my word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding would do little good upon him. She may, perhaps, call him half a score knaves, or so why, that's nothing; an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope-tricks. I'll tell you what, siran she stand him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat. You know him not, sir. Hor. Tarry, Petruchio; I must go with thee; (For those defects I have before rehearsed) A title for a maid, of all titles the worst. Hor. Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace; And offer me, disguised in sober robes, To old Baptista as a schoolmaster Well seen 2 in music, to instruct Bianca : That so I may by this device, at least, Have leave and leisure to make love to her, Enter GREMIO; with him LUCENTIO disguised, with books under his arm. Gru. Here's no knavery! See; to beguile the |