Bap. But do you hear, sir? have you married my daughter without asking my good will? Vin. Fear not, Baptista; we will content you, go to: but I will in, to be revenged for this villany. [Exit. 140 Bap. And I, to sound the depth of this knavery. [Exit. Luc. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not frown. [Exeunt Lucentio and Bianca. Gre. My cake is dough; but I'll in among the rest, Out of hope of all, but my share of the feast. [Exit. Pet. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. Hor. That's my office. Pet. Spoke like an officer: ha' to thee, lad! Gre. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. Vin. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd 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 bitter jest or two! Bian. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush; And then pursue me as you draw your bow. Luc. At last, though long, our jarring notes You are welcome all. And time it is, when raging war is done, And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow, Pet. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! chio. [Exeunt Bianca, Katharina, and Widow. Pet. She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio, This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not; Tra. O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his grey- Which runs himself and catches for his master. Pet. A good swift simile, but something currish. Tra. 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for your- 'Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay. 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; The wager thou hast won; and I will add 120 See where she comes and brings your froward wives Katharine, that cap of yours becomes you not: 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 an hundred crowns since supper-time. Bian. The more fool you, for laying on my duty. Pet. Katharine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women 130 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, And in no sense is meet or amiable. A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, Say, I command her come to me. [Exit Grumio. Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; Hor. I know her answer. 140 And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty 160 And craves no other tribute at thy hands 170 Vin. 'Tis a good hearing when children are toward. Luc. But a harsh hearing when women are froward. Pet. Come, Kate, we'll to bed. We three are married, but you two are sped. [To Luc.] 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white; And, being a winner, God give you good night! [Exeunt Petruchio and Katharina. Hor. Now, go thy ways; thou hast tamed a curst shrew. Luc. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so. [Exeunt. ACT I. The COUNT's palace. SCENE I. Rousillon. Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black. Count. In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband. Ber. And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew; but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection. Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you, sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather than lack it where there is such abundance. Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? Laf. He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time. Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, O, that 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis !whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the king's disease. Laf. How called you the man you speak of, madam? Laf. I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? Count. His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that her education promises; her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too: in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness. Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena; go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a sorrow than have it. 61 Hel. I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too. Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal. Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. 70 In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue' Laf He cannot want the best 100 I have forgot him: my imagination Hel. I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. Par. There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin: virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by 't: out with 't! within ten year it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse: away with 't! Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking? Par. Let me see: marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with 't while 'tis vendible; answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion: richly suited, but unsuitable: just like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now. Your date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek: and your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French withered pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a withered pear: will [Aside] One that goes with him: I love him for any thing with it? Par. Are you meditating on virginity? Hel. Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you let me ask you a question. Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it against him? Par. Keep him out. Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant, in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance. Par. There is none: man, sitting down before you, will undermine you and blow you up. 130 Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers and blowers up! Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men? Par. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't! you 181 Hel. Not my virginity yet...... Hel. That I wish well. 'Tis pity- Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Enter Page. 200 |