| ACT VSCENE II | Padua. LUCENTIO'S house. | |
| | Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the Pedant,LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHARINA, HORTENSIO,and Widow, TRANIO, BIONDELLO, and GRUMIO theServing-men with Tranio bringing in a banquet | |
| LUCENTIO | At last, though long, our jarring notes agree: | |
| | And time it is, when raging war is done, | |
| | To smile at scapes and perils overblown. | |
| | My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, | 5 |
| | While I with self-same kindness welcome thine. | |
| | Brother Petruchio, sister Katharina, | |
| | And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow, | |
| | Feast with the best, and welcome to my house: | |
| | My banquet is to close our stomachs up, | 10 |
| | After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down; | |
| | For now we sit to chat as well as eat. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! | |
| BAPTISTA | Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Padua affords nothing but what is kind. | 15 |
| HORTENSIO | For both our sakes, I would that word were true. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow. | |
| Widow | Then never trust me, if I be afeard. | |
| PETRUCHIO | You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense: | |
| | I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you. | 20 |
| Widow | He that is giddy thinks the world turns round. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Roundly replied. | |
| KATHARINA | Mistress, how mean you that? | |
| Widow | Thus I conceive by him. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that? | 25 |
| HORTENSIO | My widow says, thus she conceives her tale. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow. | |
| KATHARINA | 'He that is giddy thinks the world turns round:' | |
| | I pray you, tell me what you meant by that. | |
| Widow | Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, | 30 |
| | Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe: | |
| | And now you know my meaning, | |
| KATHARINA | A very mean meaning. | |
| Widow | Right, I mean you. | |
| KATHARINA | And I am mean indeed, respecting you. | 35 |
| PETRUCHIO | To her, Kate! | |
| HORTENSIO | To her, widow! | |
| PETRUCHIO | A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. | |
| HORTENSIO | That's my office. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Spoke like an officer; ha' to thee, lad! | 40 |
| | Drinks to HORTENSIO | |
| BAPTISTA | How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? | |
| GREMIO | Believe me, sir, they butt together well. | |
| BIANCA | Head, and butt! an hasty-witted body | |
| | Would say your head and butt were head and horn. | |
| VINCENTIO | Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you? | 45 |
| BIANCA | Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Nay, that you shall not: since you have begun, | |
| | Have at you for a bitter jest or two! | |
| BIANCA | Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush; | |
| | And then pursue me as you draw your bow. | 50 |
| | You are welcome all. | |
| | Exeunt BIANCA, KATHARINA, and Widow | |
| PETRUCHIO | She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio. | |
| | This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not; | |
| | Therefore a health to all that shot and miss'd. | |
| TRANIO | O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, | 55 |
| | Which runs himself and catches for his master. | |
| PETRUCHIO | A good swift simile, but something currish. | |
| TRANIO | 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself: | |
| | 'Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay. | |
| BAPTISTA | O ho, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now. | 60 |
| LUCENTIO | I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. | |
| HORTENSIO | Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here? | |
| PETRUCHIO | A' has a little gall'd me, I confess; | |
| | And, as the jest did glance away from me, | |
| | 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright. | 65 |
| BAPTISTA | Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, | |
| | I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Well, I say no: and therefore for assurance | |
| | Let's each one send unto his wife; | |
| | And he whose wife is most obedient | 70 |
| | To come at first when he doth send for her, | |
| | Shall win the wager which we will propose. | |
| HORTENSIO | Content. What is the wager? | |
| LUCENTIO | Twenty crowns. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Twenty crowns! | 75 |
| | I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound, | |
| | But twenty times so much upon my wife. | |
| LUCENTIO | A hundred then. | |
| HORTENSIO | Content. | |
| PETRUCHIO | A match! 'tis done. | 80 |
| HORTENSIO | Who shall begin? | |
| LUCENTIO | That will I. | |
| | Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me. | |
| BIONDELLO | I go. | |
| | Exit | |
| BAPTISTA | Son, I'll be your half, Bianca comes. | 85 |
| LUCENTIO | I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself. | |
| | Re-enter BIONDELLO | |
| | How now! what news? | |
| BIONDELLO | Sir, my mistress sends you word | |
| | That she is busy and she cannot come. | |
| PETRUCHIO | How! she is busy and she cannot come! | 90 |
| | Is that an answer? | |
| GREMIO | Ay, and a kind one too: | |
| | Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse. | |
| PETRUCHIO | I hope better. | |
| HORTENSIO | Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife | 95 |
| | To come to me forthwith. | |
| | Exit BIONDELLO | |
| PETRUCHIO | O, ho! entreat her! | |
| | Nay, then she must needs come. | |
| HORTENSIO | I am afraid, sir, | |
| | Do what you can, yours will not be entreated. | 100 |
| | Re-enter BIONDELLO | |
| | Now, where's my wife? | |
| BIONDELLO | She says you have some goodly jest in hand: | |
| | She will not come: she bids you come to her. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile, | |
| | Intolerable, not to be endured! | 105 |
| | Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress; | |
| | Say, I command her to come to me. | |
| | Exit GRUMIO | |
| HORTENSIO | I know her answer. | |
| PETRUCHIO | What? | |
| HORTENSIO | She will not. | 110 |
| PETRUCHIO | The fouler fortune mine, and there an end. | |
| BAPTISTA | Now, by my holidame, here comes Katharina! | |
| | Re-enter KATARINA | |
| KATHARINA | What is your will, sir, that you send for me? | |
| PETRUCHIO | Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife? | |
| KATHARINA | They sit conferring by the parlor fire. | 115 |
| PETRUCHIO | 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 | |
| LUCENTIO | Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. | |
| HORTENSIO | And so it is: I wonder what it bodes. | 120 |
| PETRUCHIO | Marry, peace it bodes, and love and quiet life, | |
| | And awful rule and right supremacy; | |
| | And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy? | |
| BAPTISTA | Now, fair befal thee, good Petruchio! | |
| | The wager thou hast won; and I will add | 125 |
| | Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns; | |
| | Another dowry to another daughter, | |
| | For she is changed, as she had never been. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Nay, I will win my wager better yet | |
| | And show more sign of her obedience, | 130 |
| | Her new-built virtue and obedience. | |
| | See where she comes and brings your froward wives | |
| | As prisoners to her womanly persuasion. | |
| | Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA and Widow | |
| | Katharina, that cap of yours becomes you not: | |
| | Off with that bauble, throw it under-foot. | 135 |
| Widow | Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh, | |
| | Till I be brought to such a silly pass! | |
| BIANCA | Fie! what a foolish duty call you this? | |
| LUCENTIO | I would your duty were as foolish too: | |
| | The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, | 140 |
| | Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper-time. | |
| BIANCA | The more fool you, for laying on my duty. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Katharina, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women | |
| | What duty they do owe their lords and husbands. | |
| Widow | Come, come, you're mocking: we will have no telling. | 145 |
| PETRUCHIO | Come on, I say; and first begin with her. | |
| Widow | She shall not. | |
| PETRUCHIO | I say she shall: and first begin with her. | |
| KATHARINA | Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, | |
| | And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, | 150 |
| | 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, | 155 |
| | 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, | 160 |
| | And for thy maintenance commits his body | |
| | To painful labour both by sea and land, | |
| | To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, | |
| | Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe; | |
| | And craves no other tribute at thy hands | 165 |
| | 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 is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, | 170 |
| | And not obedient to his honest will, | |
| | What is she but a foul contending rebel | |
| | And graceless traitor to her loving lord? | |
| | I am ashamed that women are so simple | |
| | To offer war where they should kneel for peace; | 175 |
| | Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway, | |
| | When they are bound to serve, love and obey. | |
| | Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, | |
| | Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, | |
| | But that our soft conditions and our hearts | 180 |
| | Should well agree with our external parts? | |
| | Come, come, you froward and unable worms! | |
| | My mind hath been as big as one of yours, | |
| | My heart as great, my reason haply more, | |
| | To bandy word for word and frown for frown; | 185 |
| | But now I see our lances are but straws, | |
| | Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare, | |
| | That seeming to be most which we indeed least are. | |
| | Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, | |
| | And place your hands below your husband's foot: | 190 |
| | In token of which duty, if he please, | |
| | My hand is ready; may it do him ease. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate. | |
| LUCENTIO | Well, go thy ways, old lad; for thou shalt ha't. | |
| VINCENTIO | 'Tis a good hearing when children are toward. | 195 |
| LUCENTIO | But a harsh hearing when women are froward. | |
| PETRUCHIO | Come, Kate, we'll to bed. | |
| | We three are married, but you two are sped. | |
| | To LUCENTIO | |
| | 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white; | |
| | And, being a winner, God give you good night! | 200 |
| | Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA | |
| HORTENSIO | Now, go thy ways; thou hast tamed a curst shrew. | |
| LUCENTIO | 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so. | |
| | Exeunt | |
