The Taming of the Shrew - Act 5, scene 2
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The Taming of the Shrew - Act 5, scene 2Act 5, scene 2
Synopsis:
Three couples attend the wedding banquet—Lucentio and Bianca, Petruchio and Katherine, and Hortensio and the Widow. Petruchio is repeatedly teased about being married to a shrew. In retaliation Petruchio wagers with Lucentio and Hortensio that if they all summon their wives to them, his Katherine will be the most obedient in responding. When Bianca and the Widow refuse to come at all and Katherine promptly appears, Petruchio wins, and then he sends Katherine to bring the other wives to their husbands. When they return, Petruchio tells Katherine to instruct the other wives in their wifely duty. Katherine delivers a long speech in praise of women’s submission to their husbands. Petruchio kisses Katherine, and they go off to bed.
Enter Baptista, Vincentio, Gremio, the ⌜Merchant,⌝
Lucentio, and Bianca; ⌜Hortensio⌝ and ⌜the⌝ Widow,
⌜Petruchio and Katherine;⌝ Tranio, Biondello, ⌜and⌝
Grumio, ⌜with⌝ Servingmen bringing in a banquet.
LUCENTIO
2526 At last, though long, our jarring notes agree,
2528 To smile at ’scapes and perils overblown.
2529 My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,
2530 5 While I with selfsame kindness welcome thine.
2531 Brother Petruchio, sister Katherina,
2532 And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,
2533 Feast with the best, and welcome to my house.
2534 My banquet is to close our stomachs up
2535 10 After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down,
2536 For now we sit to chat as well as eat.⌜They sit.⌝
PETRUCHIO
2537 Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!
BAPTISTA
2538 Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.
PETRUCHIO
2539 Padua affords nothing but what is kind.
HORTENSIO
2540 15 For both our sakes I would that word were true.
PETRUCHIO
2541 Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow!
WIDOW
2542 Then never trust me if I be afeard.
PETRUCHIO
2543 You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense:
2544 I mean Hortensio is afeard of you.
WIDOW
2545 20 He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.
PETRUCHIO
2546 Roundly replied.
KATHERINE 2547 Mistress, how mean you that?
WIDOW 2548 Thus I conceive by him.
PETRUCHIO
2549 Conceives by me? How likes Hortensio that?
HORTENSIO
2550 25 My widow says, thus she conceives her tale.
2551 Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.
KATHERINE
2552 “He that is giddy thinks the world turns round”—
2553 I pray you tell me what you meant by that.
WIDOW
2554 Your husband being troubled with a shrew
2555 30 Measures my husband’s sorrow by his woe.
2556 And now you know my meaning.
KATHERINE
2557 A very mean meaning.
WIDOW 2558 Right, I mean you.
KATHERINE
2559 And I am mean indeed, respecting you.
PETRUCHIO 2560 35To her, Kate!
HORTENSIO 2561 To her, widow!
PETRUCHIO
2562 A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.
HORTENSIO 2563 That’s my office.
PETRUCHIO
2564 Spoke like an officer! Ha’ to thee, lad.
⌜He⌝ drinks to Hortensio.
BAPTISTA
2565 40 How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?
GREMIO
2566 Believe me, sir, they butt together well.
BIANCA
2567 Head and butt! An hasty-witted body
2568 Would say your head and butt were head and horn.
VINCENTIO
2569 Ay, mistress bride, hath that awakened you?
BIANCA
2570 45 Ay, but not frighted me. Therefore I’ll sleep again.
PETRUCHIO
2571 Nay, that you shall not. Since you have begun,
2572 Have at you for a ⌜bitter⌝ jest or two.
2573 Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush,
2574 And then pursue me as you draw your bow.—
2575 50 You are welcome all.Bianca, ⌜Katherine, and the Widow⌝ exit.
PETRUCHIO
2576 She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio,
2577 This bird you aimed at, though you hit her not.—
2578 Therefore a health to all that shot and missed.
TRANIO
2579 O, sir, Lucentio slipped me like his greyhound,
2580 55 Which runs himself and catches for his master.
PETRUCHIO
2581 A good swift simile, but something currish.
TRANIO
2582 ’Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself.
2583 ’Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay.
BAPTISTA
2584 O, O, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now.
LUCENTIO
2585 60 I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.
HORTENSIO
2586 Confess, confess! Hath he not hit you here?
PETRUCHIO
2587 He has a little galled me, I confess.
2588 And as the jest did glance away from me,
2589 ’Tis ten to one it maimed you two outright.
BAPTISTA
2590 65 Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,
2591 I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.
PETRUCHIO
2592 Well, I say no. And therefore, ⌜for⌝ assurance,
2593 Let’s each one send unto his wife,
2594 And he whose wife is most obedient
2595 70 To come at first when he doth send for her
2596 Shall win the wager which we will propose.
2597 Content, what’s the wager?
LUCENTIO 2598 Twenty crowns.
PETRUCHIO 2599 Twenty crowns?
2600 75 I’ll venture so much of my hawk or hound,
2601 But twenty times so much upon my wife.
LUCENTIO
2602 A hundred, then.
HORTENSIO 2603 Content.
PETRUCHIO 2604 A match! ’Tis done.
HORTENSIO 2605 80Who shall begin?
LUCENTIO 2606 That will I.
2607 Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.
BIONDELLO 2608 I go.He exits.
BAPTISTA
2609 Son, I’ll be your half Bianca comes.
LUCENTIO
2610 85 I’ll have no halves. I’ll bear it all myself.
Enter Biondello.
2611 How now, what news?
BIONDELLO 2612 Sir, my mistress sends you
2613 word
2614 That she is busy, and she cannot come.
PETRUCHIO
2615 90 How? “She’s busy, and she cannot come”?
2616 Is that an answer?
GREMIO 2617 Ay, and a kind one, too.
2618 Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.
PETRUCHIO 2619 I hope better.
HORTENSIO
2620 95 Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife
2621 To come to me forthwith.Biondello exits.
PETRUCHIO 2622 O ho, entreat her!
2623 Nay, then, she must needs come.
2625 100 Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.
Enter Biondello.
2626 Now, where’s my wife?
BIONDELLO
2627 She says you have some goodly jest in hand.
2628 She will not come. She bids you come to her.
PETRUCHIO 2629 Worse and worse. She will not come!
2630 105 O vile, intolerable, not to be endured!—
2631 Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress,
2632 Say I command her come to me.⌜Grumio⌝ exits.
HORTENSIO
2633 I know her answer.
PETRUCHIO 2634 What?
HORTENSIO 2635 110 She will not.
PETRUCHIO
2636 The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.
Enter Katherine.
BAPTISTA
2637 Now by my holidam, here comes Katherina!
KATHERINE
2638 What is your will, sir, that you send for me?
PETRUCHIO
2639 Where is your sister, and Hortensio’s wife?
KATHERINE
2640 115 They sit conferring by the parlor fire.
PETRUCHIO
2641 Go fetch them hither. If they deny to come,
2642 Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands.
2643 Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.
⌜Katherine exits.⌝
LUCENTIO
2644 Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
HORTENSIO
2645 120 And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.
2646 Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life,
2647 An awful rule, and right supremacy,
2648 And, to be short, what not that’s sweet and happy.
BAPTISTA
2649 Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio!
2650 125 The wager thou hast won, and I will add
2651 Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns,
2652 Another dowry to another daughter,
2653 For she is changed as she had never been.
PETRUCHIO
2654 Nay, I will win my wager better yet,
2655 130 And show more sign of her obedience,
2656 Her new-built virtue and obedience.
Enter Katherine, Bianca, and Widow.
2657 See where she comes, and brings your froward
2658 wives
2659 As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.—
2660 135 Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not.
2661 Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot.
⌜She obeys.⌝
WIDOW
2662 Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh
2663 Till I be brought to such a silly pass.
BIANCA
2664 Fie, what a foolish duty call you this?
LUCENTIO
2665 140 I would your duty were as foolish too.
2666 The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
2667 Hath cost me ⌜a⌝ hundred crowns since suppertime.
BIANCA
2668 The more fool you for laying on my duty.
PETRUCHIO
2669 Katherine, I charge thee tell these headstrong
2670 145 women
2671 What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
2672 Come, come, ⌜you’re⌝ mocking. We will have no
2673 telling.
PETRUCHIO
2674 Come on, I say, and first begin with her.
WIDOW 2675 150She shall not.
PETRUCHIO
2676 I say she shall.—And first begin with her.
KATHERINE
2677 Fie, fie! Unknit that threat’ning unkind brow,
2678 And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
2679 To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
2680 155 It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
2681 Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
2682 And in no sense is meet or amiable.
2683 A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
2684 Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty,
2685 160 And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
2686 Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
2687 Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
2688 Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee,
2689 And for thy maintenance commits his body
2690 165 To painful labor both by sea and land,
2691 To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
2692 Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,
2693 And craves no other tribute at thy hands
2694 But love, fair looks, and true obedience—
2695 170 Too little payment for so great a debt.
2696 Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
2697 Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
2698 And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
2699 And not obedient to his honest will,
2700 175 What is she but a foul contending rebel
2701 And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
2702 I am ashamed that women are so simple
2703 To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
2705 180 When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
2706 Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
2707 Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
2708 But that our soft conditions and our hearts
2709 Should well agree with our external parts?
2710 185 Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
2711 My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
2712 My heart as great, my reason haply more,
2713 To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
2714 But now I see our lances are but straws,
2715 190 Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
2716 That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
2717 Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
2718 And place your hands below your husband’s foot;
2719 In token of which duty, if he please,
2720 195 My hand is ready, may it do him ease.
PETRUCHIO
2721 Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
⌜They kiss.⌝
LUCENTIO
2722 Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha ’t.
VINCENTIO
2723 ’Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
LUCENTIO
2724 But a harsh hearing when women are froward.
PETRUCHIO 2725 200Come, Kate, we’ll to bed.
2726 We three are married, but you two are sped.
2727 ⌜To Lucentio.⌝ ’Twas I won the wager, though you
2728 hit the white,
2729 And being a winner, God give you good night.
Petruchio ⌜and Katherine⌝ exit.
HORTENSIO
2730 205 Now, go thy ways, thou hast tamed a curst shrow.
LUCENTIO
2731 ’Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.
⌜They exit.⌝