The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare (english love story books .txt) 📖

of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr’d her gown. Tailor

Your worship is deceived; the gown is made
Just as my master had direction:
Grumio gave order how it should be done.

Grumio I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff. Tailor But how did you desire it should be made? Grumio Marry, sir, with needle and thread. Tailor But did you not request to have it cut? Grumio Thou hast faced many things. Tailor I have. Grumio Face not me: thou hast braved many men; brave not me; I will neither be faced nor braved. I say unto thee, I bid thy master cut out the gown; but I did not bid him cut it to pieces: ergo, thou liest. Tailor Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify Petruchio Read it. Grumio The note lies in’s throat, if he say I said so. Tailor Reads. “Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown:” Grumio Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread: I said a gown. Petruchio Proceed. Tailor Reads. “With a small compassed cape:” Grumio I confess the cape. Tailor Reads. “With a trunk sleeve:” Grumio I confess two sleeves. Tailor Reads. “The sleeves curiously cut.” Petruchio Ay, there’s the villany. Grumio Error i’ the bill, sir; error i’ the bill. I commanded the sleeves should be cut out and sewed up again; and that I’ll prove upon thee, though thy little finger be armed in a thimble. Tailor This is true that I say: an I had thee in place where, thou shouldst know it. Grumio I am for thee straight: take thou the bill, give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me. Hortensio God-a-mercy, Grumio! then he shall have no odds. Petruchio Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. Grumio You are i’ the right, sir: ’tis for my mistress. Petruchio Go, take it up unto thy master’s use. Grumio Villain, not for thy life: take up my mistress’ gown for thy master’s use! Petruchio Why, sir, what’s your conceit in that? Grumio

O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for:
Take up my mistress’ gown to his master’s use!
O, fie, fie, fie!

Petruchio

Aside. Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid.
Go take it hence; be gone, and say no more.

Hortensio

Tailor, I’ll pay thee for thy gown to-morrow:
Take no unkindness of his hasty words:
Away! I say; commend me to thy master. Exit Tailor.

Petruchio

Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father’s
Even in these honest mean habiliments:
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his fathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me;
And therefore frolic: we will hence forthwith,
To feast and sport us at thy father’s house.
Go, call my men, and let us straight to him;
And bring our horses unto Long-lane end;
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot
Let’s see; I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by dinner-time.

Katharina

I dare assure you, sir, ’tis almost two;
And ’twill be supper-time ere you come there.

Petruchio

It shall be seven ere I go to horse:
Look, what I speak, or do, or think to do,
You are still crossing it. Sirs, let’t alone:
I will not go to-day; and ere I do,
It shall be what o’clock I say it is.

Hortensio Aside. Why, so this gallant will command the sun. Exeunt. Scene IV

Padua. Before Baptista’s house.

Enter Tranio, and the Pedant dressed like Vincentio. Tranio Sir, this is the house: please it you that I call? Pedant

Ay, what else? and but I be deceived
Signior Baptista may remember me,
Near twenty years ago, in Genoa,
Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.

Tranio

’Tis well; and hold your own, in any case,
With such austerity as ’longeth to a father.

Pedant I warrant you. Enter Biondello.

But, sir, here comes your boy;
’Twere good he were school’d.

Tranio

Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello,
Now do your duty throughly, I advise you:
Imagine ’twere the right Vincentio.

Biondello Tut, fear not me. Tranio But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista? Biondello

I told him that your father was at Venice,
And that you look’d for him this day in Padua.

Tranio

Thou’rt a tall fellow: hold thee that to drink.
Here comes Baptista: set your countenance, sir.

Enter Baptista and Lucentio.

Signior Baptista, you are happily met.
To the Pedant. Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of:
I pray you stand good father to me now,
Give me Bianca for my patrimony.

Pedant

Soft, son!
Sir, by your leave: having come to Padua
To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
Of love between your daughter and himself:
And, for the good report I hear of you
And for the love he beareth to your daughter
And she to him, to stay him not too long,
I am content, in a good father’s care,
To have him match’d; and if you please to like
No worse than I, upon some agreement
Me shall you find ready and willing
With one consent to have her so bestow’d;
For curious I cannot be with you,
Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.

Baptista

Sir, pardon me in what I have to say:
Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
Right true it is, your son Lucentio here
Doth love my daughter and she loveth him,
Or both dissemble deeply their affections:
And therefore, if you say no more than this,
That like a father you will deal with him
And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
The match is made, and all is done:
Your son shall have my