Introduction
The opening induction scene in Taming of the Shrew appropriately introduces the themes of identity, metamorphosis and masquerading that will turn the world of this farcical play upside down right before our eyes. The apparent contest of outrageousness in the relationship between the two main characters, Petruchio and Kate, is never quite what it seems. Petruchio at first is brutish and indefensible in his behaviour and simply desperate to marry money until he becomes more gentle and loving by act V. Kate, likewise, appears a torrent of strong-willed rage until she accepts Petruchio with her own gentleness and devoted love. In fact, Kate’s complicity in their relationship is key, as, in fact, she tames him just as much as he tames her. Dissecting and determining the parts they play compared to what their true natures are throughout their ever evolving characterizations is what makes Taming of the Shrew so intriguing a work. It can seem a disorienting play at times, as Petruchio and Kate constantly try to get the better of each other with much confusion and great discomfort. What may seem like a rough and tumble farcical version of Benedict and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, this Shakespeare comedy is a complex and mesmerizing examination of a relationship evolving from a state of war to one committed and devoted to love. It is also a controversial play reflective of Shakespeare’s times. Many modern critics would that he had never written it, as it depicts attitudes toward women surely to offend modern audiences. Petruchio’s treatment of Kate is often ruthless and yet at the close of the play she plays the role of his obedient wife. But again, little is what it seems here and Kate discovers in Petruchio the ideal outrageous character-actor who will free her from the hum-drum domestic banality far more disturbing to her than who he merely pretends to be. She is genuinely smittened by the madcap Petruchio, as themes such as strength and weakness interchange their meaning and Kate’s apparent subservience leads her directly to the true marriage of her strong will, loving heart and truest sense of self. Nonetheless, the controversy continues, and there are many interpretations where the couple walk off the stage in the end happily arm in arm and there are those as well depicting them left staring at each other in a cold and bewildered silence. Shakespeare never decides for us.
Induction
Scene i
Before an alehouse on a heath
Enter Host and Sly
Host: “A pair of stocks, you rogue!”
Sly: “The Slys are no rogues. Look in the chronicles: we came in with Richard the Conquerer.”
Host: “You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?”
Sly: “No, not a denier.”
Sly falls asleep
Enter a Lord and his Huntsmen
Lord: “What’s here? One dead, or drunk? Does he breathe?”
2 Huntsman: “He breathes, my lord.”
Lord: “O monstrous beast, how like a swine he lies! Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image! Sirs, I will practice on this drunken man. What think you, if he were conveyed to bed, wrapped in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers, a most delicious banquet by his bed, and brave attendants near him when he wakes, would not the beggar then forget himself?”
2 Huntsman: “It would seem strange unto him when he waked.”
Lord: “Then take him up and manage well the jest: carry him gently to my fairest chamber, balm his foul head in warm distilled waters, procure me music ready when he wakes, and if he chance to speak, be ready straight, and say ‘what is it your honour will command?’ Let one attend him with a silver basin full of rose-water and bestrewed with flowers; someone be ready with a costly suit, and ask him what apparel he will wear; another tell him of his hounds and horse, and that his lady mourns at his disease; persuade him that he has been lunatic, and, when he says he is, say that he dreams, for he is nothing but a mighty lord. This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs; it will be pastime passing excellent.”
1 Huntsman: “We will play our part as he shall think by our true diligence he is no less than what we say he is.”
Sly is carried out
Enter a servant
Servant: “Players offer service to your lordship.”
Lord: “Bid them come near.”
Enter players
Lord: “Fellows, you are welcome. I have some sport in hand wherein your cunning can assist me much. Go you to Bartholomew, my page, and see him dressed in all suits like a lady; conduct him to the drunkard’s chamber and call him madam. Tell him from me he should bear himself with honourable action, such as he has observed in noble ladies. Then to the drunkard let him do and say ‘what is it your honour will command?’ Bid him shed tears, as being overjoyed. I long to hear him call the drunkard husband.”
Analysis
A drunken beggar, Christopher Sly, argues with an alehouse hostess over glassware he broke while drunk. He passes out and a lord arrives and decides to pull a prank on him by treating him as though he were a lord. He is placed in a luxurious bed, with rings on his fingers, a banquet available to him and a lovely wife. The Taming of the Shrew will be a play about our true identity compared to how we choose to portray ourselves. A major question in the play will centre around just who are Petruchio and Katherine really. When are they acting and when are they truly themselves? The induction focuses similarly on the true and the portrayed versions of Christopher Sly. Sly will watch the play along with us and will interject only once during its performance.
Induction
Scene ii
A bedchamber in the lord’s house
Enter Sly with attendants
Sly: “For God’s sake, a pot of small ale.”
1 Servant: “Will it please your lordship drink a cup of sack?”
3 Servant: “What raiment will your honour wear today?”
Sly: “I am Christopher Sly; call me not ‘honour’ nor ‘lordship’. I never drank sack in my life. Never ask me what raiment I’ll wear, for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, no more shoes than feet – nay, sometimes more feet than shoes.”
Lord: “Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! O, that a mighty man of such high esteem should be infused with so foul a spirit!”
Sly: “Am I not Christopher Sly?”
Lord: “O noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth and banish hence these abject lowly dreams; look how thy servants do attend on thee. Will thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays. (music is heard) Or will thou sleep? We’ll have thee to a couch. Say thou will walk and we will beshrew the ground. Or will thou ride? Thy horses shall be trapped, their harness studded with gold and pearls. Does thou love hawking? Thou has hawks will soar above the morning larks. Thou art a lord and thou has a lady far more beautiful than any woman.”
Sly: “Am I a lord and have I such a lady? Or do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now? I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak; and I feel soft things. Upon my life, I am a lord indeed, and not a tinker, nor Christopher Sly. Well, bring our lady hither to our sight.”
2 Servant: “O, how we joy to see your wit restored! These fifteen years you have been in a dream.”
Sly: “Fifteen years! A goodly nap. Where is my wife?”
Page: “Here, noble lord; what is thy will with her?”
Sly: “Are you my wife?”
Page: “I am your wife in all obedience.”
Sly: “Madam wife, they say that I have dreamed and slept above some fifteen years or more.”
Page: “Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me, being all this time abandoned from your bed.”
Sly: “Servants, leave me and her alone. (exit servants) Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.”
Page: “Let me entreat of you to pardon me yet for a night or two; for your physicians have expressly charged in peril to incur your former malady, that I should yet absent me from your bed.”
Sly: “I would be loath to fall into my dreams again.“
Enter a messenger
Messenger: “Players are come to play a pleasant comedy; for so your doctors thought it good you hear a play and frame your mind to mirth and merriment, which bars a thousand harms.”
Sly: “Marry, I will; let them play it. Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let the world slip; we shall never be younger.”
They sit down and a flourish of trumpets announce the play.
Analysis
Sly is told that he has just awoken from a fifteen year dream and that his true identity is that of a much indulged lord. He buys into this completely once he meets his supposed wife and a drama troupe arrive to put on a play for him. The play will be The Taming of the Shrew. This induction is a very unusual device for Shakespeare, but the theme of wrestling to discern true identity as opposed to appearance and perception is the essential link. Now on to our play within a play, a not so uncommon Shakespearean device.
Act I (2 scenes)
Scene i
Padua. A public place
Enter Lucentio and his man Tranio
Lucentio: “Tranio, since for the great desire I had to see fair Padua, nursery of the arts, here let us breathe, and happily institute a course of learning and ingenious studies.”
Tranio: “Gentle master, mine; I am glad that you thus continue your resolve to suck the sweets of sweet philosophy. Only, good master, let’s be no stoics. No profit grows where is no pleasure taken.“
Lucentio: “Tranio, well does thou advise. We could at once put us in readiness to entertain such friends as time in Padua shall beget. But stay awhile; what company is this?”
Tranio: “Master, some show to welcome us to town.”
Enter Baptista with his two daughters, Katherine and Bianca; Gremio and Hortensio, suitors to Bianca
Baptista: “Gentlemen, importune me no farther, for how I firmly am resolved you know; that is, not to bestow my youngest daughter before I have a husband for the elder. If either of you love Katherine, leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.”
Gremio: “To cart her rather. She’s too rough for me.”
Katherina: (to Baptista) “I pray you, sir, is it your will to make a stale of me amongst these mates?”
Hortensio: “Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you, unless you were of gentler, milder mould.”
Katherine: “In faith, sir, you shall never need to fear.”
Hortensio: “From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!”
Gremio: “And me, too, good Lord!”
Tranio: “That wench is stark mad or wonderful forward.”
Lucentio: “But in the other’s silence do I see a maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.”
Baptista: “Bianca, get you in.”
Bianca: “Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe; my books and my instruments shall be my company.”
Hortensio: “Sorry am I that our good will effects Bianca’s grief.”
Gremio: “Why will you mew her up, Signor Baptista, for this fiend of hell, and make her bear the penance of her tongue?”
Baptista: “Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolved. Go in, Bianca. (exit Bianca) And for I know she takes most delight in music, instruments and poetry, schoolmasters will I keep within my house fit to instruct her youth. If you know any such, prefer them hither.”
Katherine: “Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?”
Exit Katherine
Gremio: “You may go to the devil’s dam.”
Hortensio: “Signior Gremio, but a word, I pray. That we may yet have access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca’s love – to labour and effect one thing specially.”
Gremio: “What’s that, I pray?”
Hortensio: “Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.”
Gremio: “A husband? A devil.”
Hortensio: “I say a husband.”
Gremio: “I say a devil. Think thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?”
Hortensio: “Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world would take her with all faults, and money enough. Come, it shall be so far maintained till by helping Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest free for a husband.”
Gremio: “I am agreed.”
Exit Gremio and Hortensio
Lucentio: “Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio, if I achieve not this young modest girl. Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou can; assist me, Tranio, for I know thou will.”
Tranio: “Master, if love has touched you, nought remains but so.”
Lucentio: “O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face.”
Tranio: “You saw no more? Marked you not how her sister began to scold and raise up such a storm that mortal ears might hardly endure the din?”
Lucentio: “I saw her coral lips move, and with her breath she did perfume the air; sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.”
Tranio: “I pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid, bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands: her elder sister is so cursed and shrewd that, till the father rid his hands of her, master, your love must live a maid at home; and therefore he has closely mew’d her up.”
Lucentio: “Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father is he! But are thou not advised he took some care to get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?”
Tranio: “And now tis plotted. You will be schoolmaster, and undertake the teaching of the maid. That’s your device.”
Lucentio: “It is. May it be done?”
Tranio: “Not possible; for who shall bear your part and be in Padua here Vincentio’s son?”
Lucentio: “Content thee, for I have it full. It follows thus: thou shall be master, Tranio, in my stead, keep house and port and servants, as I should; I will some other be. Tis hatched, and shall be so. Tranio, at once take my coloured hat and cloak.”
They exchange habits
Tranio: “In brief, sir, I am tied to be obedient, for so your father charged me: ‘be serviceable to my son’. I am content to be Lucentio, because so well I love Lucentio.”
Lucentio: “Tranio, be so because Lucentio loves; and let me be a slave to achieve that maid whose sudden sight hath enthralled my wounded eye.”
Enter Biondello, Lucentio’s other servant
Biondello: “Master, has my fellow Tranio stolen your clothes? Or you stolen his? Or both? Pray, what’s the news?”
Lucentio: “Sirrah, come hither; tis no time to jest, and therefore frame your manners to the time. Your fellow Tranio here puts my apparel and my countenance on, and I have put on his; wait you on him. Do you understand me?”
Biondello: “I, sir? Never a whit.”
Lucentio: “Tranio is changed into Lucentio.”
Biondello: “The better for him; would I were so too!”
Tranio: “So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after that Lucentio indeed had Baptista’s youngest daughter.”
Switch to Sly, his servant and wife, watching the play
Servant: “My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.”
Sly: “Yes, by St Anne, do I. A good matter, surely; comes there any more of it?”
Wife: “My lord, tis but begun.”
Sly: “Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. Would it were done.”
Analysis
Lucentio comes to Padua, with his servant, to study. That does not last very long, as he encounters Baptista with his two daughters: the lovely and gentle Bianca and Katherine, her furious and boisterous sister. Lucentio, and everyone else, is attracted to Bianca, but Baptista has declared that no one may approach Bianca until Katherine has been married. This is a serious problem since it is hard to imagine anyone marrying the unruly Katherine. Lucentio hatches a plot to disguise himself as Bianca’s schoolmaster as a way to woo her.
It is immediately obvious in this very first scene that Katherine is the shrew of the play’s title. The men all find her too rough and even stark mad, characteristics which would have definitively rendered Katherine a shrew in Shakespeare’s renaissance, where obedience was considered a primary virtue in the selection of a wife. This is the cultural bias Shakespeare will explore throughout the play, as Bianca’s suitors can only hope to find a match for sister Katherine, the shrew. Enter Petruchio.
Act I
Scene ii
Padua, before Hortensio’s house
Enter Petruchio and his servant Grumio
Petruchio: “Verona, for a while I take my leave, to see my friends in Padua; but of all my best beloved friend, Hortensio, and this is his house. Grumio, knock, I say.”
Grumio: “Knock, sir! Whom should I knock?”
Petruchio: “Villain, I say, knock.”
Grumio: “Knock you here, sir?”
Petruchio: “I say knock me at this gate, or I’ll knock your knave’s pate.”
He wrings him by the ears
Grumio: “Help, masters, help! My master is mad.”
Petruchio: “Now, knock when I bid you, villain!”
Enter Hortensio
Hortensio: “How now! My old friend Grumio and my good friend Petruchio! Rise, Grumio, rise.”
Grumio: “If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service.”
Petruchio: “Senseless villain! Good Hortensio, I bade the rascal knock upon your gate. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.”
Hortensio: “Tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale blows you to Padua from old Verona?”
Petruchio: “Such wind as scatters young men through the world to seek their fortunes farther than at home. I have thrust myself into this maze, happily to wive and thrive as best I may, and so am come abroad to see the world.”
Hortensio: “Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee and wish thee to a shrewd, ill favoured wife? And yet I’ll promise thee she shall be rich, and very rich; but I’ll not wish thee to her.”
Petruchio: “Hortensio, if thou know one rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife, be she as foul and old as Sibyl, or worse, were she as rough as are the swelling Adriatic Seas, I come to wive wealthily in Padua; if wealthily, then happily.”
Grumio: “Look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is. Why, give him gold enough and marry him to an old trot with never a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two and fifty horse.”
Hortensio: “I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife with wealth enough and young and beauteous. Her only fault is that she is intolerable, curst, shrewd and froward so beyond all measure that I would not wed her for a mine of gold.”
Petruchio: “Hortensio, peace! Thou knows not gold’s effect. Tell me her father’s name, and tis enough; for I will board her though she chide as loud as thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.”
Hortensio: “Her father is Baptista, an affable and courteous gentleman. Her name is Katherine, renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue.”
Petruchio: “I know her father; and he knew my deceased father as well. I will not sleep, Hortensio, until I see her.”
Hortensio: “Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee, for in Baptista’s keep my treasure is. He has the jewel of my life in hold, his youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca. This order has Bianca taken, that none shall have access unto her till Katherine the curst has a husband.”
Grumio: “Katherine the curst! A title for a maid of all titles the worst.”
Hortensio: “Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace, and offer me disguised in sober robes to old Baptista as a schoolmaster well seen in music, to instruct Bianca; that so I may by this device at least have leave and leisure to make love to her, and unsuspected court her by herself.”
Enter Gremio with Lucentio, disguised as schoolmaster Cambio
Grumio: “Who goes there, ha?”
Hortensio: “Peace, Grumio! It is the rival of my love.”
Gremio: “She is sweeter than perfume itself. What will you read to her?”
Hortensio: “Gremio, tis now no time to vent our love. Listen to me. Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met, will undertake to woo curst Katherine; yea, and to marry her.”
Gemio: “So said, Hortensio, have you told him all of her faults?”
Petruchio: “I know she is an irksome brawling scold. If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.”
Gremio: “O sir, such a life with such a wife were strange! But if you have a stomach to it, you shall have me assisting you in all. Will you woo this wildcat?”
Petruchio: “Will I live? Why came I hither but to that intent? Think you a little din can daunt my ears? Have I not in my time heard lion’s roar? Have I not heard the sea rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat? And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue? Tush! Tush!”
Grumio: “He fears none.”
Gremio: “Hortensio, hark: this gentleman is happily arrived, my mind presumes, for his good and ours.”
Enter Tranio, disguised as Lucentio, and Biondello
Tranio: “Gentlemen, tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way to the house of Signior Baptista?
Biondello: “He who has the two fair daughters, you mean?”
Hortensio: “Sir, a word ere you go. Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?”
Tranio: “And if I be, sir, is it any offence?”
Gremio: “No; if without more words you will get you hence.”
Tranio: “Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free for me as for you?”
Gremio: “But so is not she. If you’ll know, she is the choice love of Signior Gremio.”
Hortensio: “She is the chosen of Signior Hortensio.”
Tranio: “Softly, my masters, then well one more may fair Bianca have; Lucentio shall make one more.”
Gremio: “What, this gentleman will outtalk us all!”
Hortensio: “Sir, let me be so bold as to ask you; did you yet ever see Baptista’s daughter?”
Tranio: “No, sir, but I hear that he has two: the one as famous for a scolding tongue as is the other for beauteous modesty.”
Petruchio: “Sir, sir, the first is for me.”
Analysis
The plot leaps forward when Petruchio arrives in Padua in search of a wealthy wife and his friend Hortensio informs him about Katherine the shrew. Although he warns him about her extremely unruly nature, Petruchio is not put off in the least and asks to be led to Signior Baptista’s house so the he can woo her. The various suitors for Bianca are very excited that Petruchio may open the way for them to openly court and marry Bianca. The number of Bianca’s suiters can be confusing. Lucentio disguises himself as a schoolmaster to access her, while his servant, Tranio, assumes his master’s identity and bargains with Baptista for Bianca’s hand. Hortensio also disguises himself as a music teacher in order to be near Bianca. Finally, Gremio is yet another suitor.
Petruchio has a very strong personality, which is what will allow him to engage in the volatile relationship with Katherine. He is extremely bold and confident and quick to anger. He is also well educated and charming. While money and wealth are supremely important to him he is also attracted to Katherine for the challenge she represents. The other men strongly dislike Katherine. They seem intimidated by her and really do not give her much opportunity to allow them to see in her anyone other than a shrew, as they forever keep her on the defensive. Their strong bias against Katherine only intrigues Petruchio to find out for himself who she really is.
Act II (1 scene)
Scene i
Padua. Baptista’s house
Enter Katherine and Bianca
Bianca: “Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, to make a slave of me – that I disdain; unbind my hands.”
Katherine: “Of all thy suitors here I charge thee tell who thou loves best.”
Bianca: “Believe me, sister, of all the men alive I never yet beheld that special face which I could fancy more than any other.”
Katherine: “Minion, thou liest. Is it not Hortensio?”
Bianca: “If you affect him, sister, here I swear you shall have him.”
Katherine: “O then you fancy riches more: you will have Gremio to keep you fair.”
Bianca: “Is it for him you do envy me so? Nay, then you jest; and now I well perceive you have best jested with me all this while. I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.”
Katherine strikes Bianca
Enter Baptista
Baptista: “Why, how now, dame! Whence grows this insolence? Bianca, stand aside – poor girl! She weeps.” (he unbinds her) “Meddle not with her. For shame, thou devilish spirit, why does thou wrong her who did never wrong thee? When did she cross thee with a bitter word?”
Katherine: “Her silence flouts me and I’ll be revenged.”
Katherine flies after Bianca
Baptista: “What, in my sight? Bianca, get thee in.”
Exit Bianca
Katherine: “Now I see. She is your treasure, she must have a husband; talk not to me; I will go sit and weep, till I can find occasion of revenge.”
Exit Katherine
Baptista: “Was ever a gentleman thus grieved as I? But who comes here?”
Enter Gremio with Lucentio in the clothes of a poor man; Petruchio with Hortensio as a musician and Tranio as Lucentio, with his boy Biondello bearing a lute and books
Gremio: “Good morrow, neighbour Baptista.”
Baptista: “Good morrow, neighbour Gremio. God save you gentlemen!”
Petruchio: “And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter called Katherine, fair and virtuous?”
Baptista: “I have a daughter, sir, called Katherine.”
Petruchio: “I am a gentleman of Verona, sir, that, hearing of her beauty and her wit, her affability and bashful modesty, her wondrous qualities and mild behaviour, am bold to show myself a forward guest within your house, to make my eye the witness of that report which I so often have heard. And I do present you with a man of mine, (presenting Hortensio) cunning in music and mathematics, to instruct her fully. Accept him, or else you do me wrong.”
Baptista: “You are welcome, sir, and he for your good sake; but for my daughter Katherine, this I know, she is not for your turn, the more my grief.”
Petruchio: “I see you do not mean to part with her, or else you like not my company.”
Baptista: “Mistake me not; I speak but as I find. What may I call you?”
Petruchio: “Petruchio is my name, Antonio’s son, a man well known throughout Italy.”
Baptista: “I know him well; you are welcome for his sake.”
Gremio: “Petruchio, I pray, let us who are poor petitioners speak too. Neighbour, I freely give unto you this young scholar (presenting Lucentio) who has been long studying at Rheims; as cunning in Greek and Latin, as the other is in music and mathematics. His name is Cambio. Pray accept his service.”
Baptista: “A thousand thanks, Signior Gremio. Welcome good Cambio.”
Tranio: “Being a stranger in this city, I do make myself a suitor to your daughter, Bianca, fair and virtuous. This liberty is all that I request; that I may have welcome amongst the rest who woo, and toward the education of your daughters there bestow this small packet of Greek and Latin books.”
Baptista: “Lucentio is your name?”
Tranio: “Of Pisa, sir, son to Vincentio.”
Baptist: “A mighty man of Pisa. By report I know him well. You are very welcome, sir. Take you the lute, and you the set of books; you shall go see your pupils presently.”
Enter a servant
Baptista: “Sirrah, lead these gentlemen to my daughters; and tell them both these are their tutors. Bid them use them well.”
Petruchio: “Signor Baptista, tell me, if I get your daughter’s love, what dowry shall I have?”
Baptista: “After my death, one half of my lands and twenty thousand crowns.”
Petruchio: “I tell you father, I am as peremptory as she proud-minded; and where two raging fires meet together, thy do consume the thing that feeds their fury. Extreme gust will blow out fires. So I to her, and so she yields to me; for I am rough, and woo not like a babe.”
Baptista: “Well be thou armed for some unhappy words.”
Enter Horsensio with his head broken
Baptista: “Why does thou look so pale?”
Hortensio: “For fear, I promise you.”
Baptista: “What, will my daughter prove a good musician?”
Hortensio: “I think she’ll sooner prove a soldier.”
Baptista: “Why, then thou cannot break her to the lute?”
Hortensio: “Why no; for she has broke the lute to me. I did but tell her she mistook her frets. ‘Frets, call you these?’ quote she. ‘I’ll fume with them’. And with that word she struck me on the head, and there stood I amazed, while she did call me a rascal fiddler and tangling Jack, with twenty such vile terms, as had she studied to misuse me so.”
Petruchio: “Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench; I love her ten times more than ever I did. O, how I long to chat with her!”
Baptista: “Well, go with me. Or shall I send my daughter Kate to you?”
Petruchio: “I pray you do.”
Exit all but Petruchio
Petruchio: (aside) “And woo her with some spirit when she comes. Say that she rail; why, then I’ll tell her plain she sings as sweetly as a nightingale. Say that she frown: I’ll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew. If she do bid me pack, I’ll give her thanks, as though she bid me stay; if she deny to wed, I’ll crave the day when I shall ask the banns, and when be married. But here she comes.”
Enter Katherine
Petruchio: “Good morrow, Kate.”
Katherine: “They call me Katherine who do talk of me.”
Petruchio: “You lie, in faith, for you are called plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the cursed; but, Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom, my super-dainty Kate, Kate of my consolation – hearing thy mildness praised in every town, thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded, myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.”
Katherine: “Moved! Let him who moved you hither remove you hence. I knew at the first you were a joined-stool.”
Petruchio: “Come, sit on me.”
Katherine: “Asses are made to bear, and so are you.”
Petruchio: “Women are made to bear, and so are you.”
Katherine: “No such jade as you, if me you mean.”
Petruchio: “Come, come, you wasp; in faith, you are too angry.”
Katherine: “If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”
Petruchio: “My remedy then is to pluck it out.”
Katherine: “Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.”
Petruchio: “Who knows not where a wasp does wear their sting? In her tail.”
Katherine: “In his tongue.”
Petruchio: “Whose tongue?”
Katherine: “Yours, if you talk of tales; and so farewell.”
Petruchio: “What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again. Good Kate, I am a gentleman.”
Katherine: “That I’ll try.”
Se strikes him
Petruchio: “I swear I’ll cuff you, if you strike again.”
Katherine: “If you strike me, you are no gentleman. What is your crest – a coxcomb?”
Peruchio: “A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.”
Katherine: “No cock of mine; you crow too like a craven.”
Petruchio: “Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour. Now, by Saint George, I am too young for you.”
Katherine: “Yet you are withered.”
Petruchio: “Tis with cares.”
Katherine: “I care not.”
Petruchio: “I find you passing gentle. Twas told me you were rough and coy and sullen, and now I find the report a very liar; for thou art pleasant, courteous, but slow in speech, yet sweet as springtime flowers. Thou cannot frown, as angry wenches will, but thou with mildness entertain thy wooers. Why does the world report that Kate does limp? O slanderous world! Kate is straight and slender.”
Katherine: “Go, fool, and whom thou keep command.”
Petruchio: “Setting all this chat aside, thus in plain terms: your father has consented that you shall be my wife; your dowry agreed upon; and I will marry you. Now Kate, I am a husband for your turn; for, by this light, whereby I see thy beauty, thou must be married to no man but me; for I am he am born to tame you, Kate, and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate comfortable as other household Kates.”
Enter Baptist, Gremio and Tranio
Petruchio: “Here comes your father. I must and will have Katherine for my wife.”
Baptista: “Now, Signior Petruchio, how speed you with my daughter? Why, how now, daughter Katherine? In the dumps?”
Katherine: “Call me your daughter? Now I promise you you have showed a tender fatherly regard to wish me wed to one half lunatic, a mad-cap ruffian and a swearing Jack.”
Petruchio: “Father, tis thus: yourself and all the world that talked of her have talked amiss of her. If she be curst, it is for policy, for she is not forward, but modest as the dove; she is not hot, but temperate as the morn. And, to conclude, we have agreed so well together that upon Sunday is the wedding day.”
Katherine: “I’ll see thee hanged on Sunday first.”
Tranio: “Is this your speeding? Nay, the good night our part.”
Petruchio: “Be patient, gentlemen. I choose her for myself; if she and I be pleased, what’s that to you? Tis bargained twixt us twain, being alone, that she shall still be curst in company. I tell you tis incredible to believe how much she loves me – O, the kindest Kate! She hung about my neck, and kiss on kiss she vied so fast, protesting oath on oath, that in a twink she won me to her love. Give me thy hand, Kate; I will unto Venice, to buy apparel against the wedding day. Provide the feast, father, and bid the guests; I will be sure my Katherine shall be fine.”
Baptista: “I know not what to say; but give me your hands. Tis a match.”
Gremio / Tranio: “Amen, say we; we will be witnesses.”
Petruchio: “Father and wife and gentlemen, adieu. I will to Venice; Sunday comes apace; we will have rings and things, and fine array; and kiss me, Kate; we will be married on Sunday.”
Exit Petruchio and Katherine
Gremio: “But now, Baptista, to your younger daughter: now is the day we long have looked for; I am your neighbour, and was suitor first.”
Tranio: “And I am one who loves Bianca more than words can witness or your thoughts can guess.”
Gremio: “Youngling, thou cannot love so dear as I.”
Tranio: “Greybeard, thy love does freeze.”
Gremio: “Stand back; tis age that nourishes.”
Tranio: “But youth in lady’s eyes does flourish.”
Baptista: “Content you, gentlemen. Tis deeds must win the prize, and he who can assure my daughter greatest dower shall have my Bianca’s love. Signior Gremio, what can you assure her?”
Gremio: “First, as you know, my house within the city is richly furnished; my hangings all of Tyrian tapestry; in ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns; costly apparel, tents, canopies, fine linen, Turkish cushions. Myself am struck in years, I must confess; and if I die tomorrow this is hers, if while I live she will be only mine.”
Tranio: “Sir, list to me: I am my father’s heir and only son; I’ll leave her houses three or four as good within rich Pisa’s walls as any one old Signior Gremio has in Padua; besides two thousand ducats by the year of fruitful lands, all of which will be her jointure. What, have I pinched you, Signior Gremio?”
Gremio: “Two thousand ducats by the year of land! (aside) My land amounts not to so much in all.”
Tranio: “Gremio, tis known my father has three great argosies and twelve tight galleys. These I will assure her, and twice as much whatever thou offers next.”
Gremio: “Nay, I have offered all; I have no more”
Tranio: “Why, then the maid is mine.”
Baptista: “I must confess; your offer is the best: she is your own. Well gentlemen, I am thus resolved: on Sunday next you know my daughter Katherine is to be married; now, on the Sunday following shall Bianca be bride to you.”
Exit Baptista
Tranio: “A vengeance on your crafty withered hide! Tis in my head to do my master’s good.”
Analysis
The scene opens at Baptista’s house, where Katherine is berating Bianca. She has tied her hands behind her back and is threatening to beat her because Bianca refuses to reveal which of her suitors she prefers. Baptista tries to intervene but only infuriates Katherine further. The group of suitors arrive: Petruchio and Hortenio (dressed as a schoolmaster), Lucentio (also dressed as a schoolmaster), Tranio (dressed as Lucentio), Biondello (dressed as a servant) and Gremio. This is a play about identity, as evidenced by the induction scene with Sly and the relationship to come between the two main characters, Petruchio and Katherine. Hence all of the disguises among the suitors. Figuring out who is really who in this play is not easy, and that is the point. Petruchio, impressed by Katherine’s dowry, presses Baptista to see and woo her. Katherine rips into Petruchio immediately and the two exchange a series of caustic verbal blows. Immediately, they have met each other’s match. She gets so frustrated with him that she hits him. Petruchio insists to her that they will be married on Sunday. Katherine contradicts this but Petruchio persists and she says nothing. Here marks an early turning point in the play. Katherine seemingly has a retort for everything, but silently consents to marrying Petruchio. Perhaps her jealousy over all of Bianca’s suitors is a factor in her compliance. More likely, she realizes that she has met her match, wit for wit and will for will. He may also be the first man who is not terribly afraid of her. Their fire is attractive to them both. This will not be a boring match with the likes of Bianca’s intolerable suitors. Their union having been determined, Gremio and Tranio move in to secure the hand of Bianca. They each present their case to Baptista and Tranio clearly has the upper hand and wins Bianca for his master, Lucentio, who he is disguised as, while Lucentio plays tutor to Bianca.
Act III (2 scenes)
Scene I
Padua. Baptista’s house
Enter Lucentio as schoolmaster Cambio, Hortensio as schoolmaster Licio, and Bianca
Bianca: “Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong. I am no breeching scholar and will not be tied to hours, but learn my lessons as I please myself.”
Hortensio: “You’ll leave this lecture when I am in tune?”
Lucentio: “That will be never – tune your instrument.”
Bianca: “Where left we last?”
Lucentio: “Here, madam. As I told you before, I am Lucentio, disguised thus to get your love; Lucentio who comes a-wooing.”
Hortensio: “Madam, my instrument is in tune.”
Bianca: “Let’s hear.”
Lucentio: “Spit in the hole, man, and tune again.”
Hortensio: (aside) “Now, for my life, the knave does court my love.” (to Lucentio) “You may go walk and give me leave awhile.”
Lucentio: “Well, I must wait.” (aside) “and watch withal; for, but I be deceived, our fine musician grows amorous.”
Hortensio: “Madam, to learn the order of my fingering, I must begin with rudiments of art, to teach you gamut more pleasant, pithy and effectual; and there it is in writing fairly drawn. Read the gamut of Hortensio.”
Bianca: (reads) “I am to plead Hortensio’s passion – Bianca, take him for thy lord – who loves with all affection…”
Enter a servant
Servant: “Mistress, your father prays you leave to dress your sister’s chamber up. You know tomorrow is the wedding day.”
Bianca: “Farewell, sweet masters, both; I must be gone.”
Exit Bianca and servant
Analysis
Lucentio and Hortensio compete for Bianca, disguised as the school masters Cambio and Litio. The plot wanders back and forth from the Petruchio / Katherine development to the one featuring Bianca and her various suitors, who now seem to be widdled down to just two, Lucentio and Hortensio.
Act III
Scene ii
Padua. Before Baptista’s house.
Enter Baptista, Gremio, Tranio as Lucentio, Katherine, Bianca, and Lucentio as Cambio
Baptista: (to Tranio) “Signor Luciento, this is the pointed day that Katherine and Petruchio should be married, and yet we hear not of our son-in-law. What mockery will it be to want the bridegroom when the priest attends to speak the ceremonial rites of marriage! What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?”
Katherine: “No shame but mine. I must be forced to give my hand, opposed against my heart, unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen, who woo’d in haste and means to wed at leisure. I told you he was a frantic fool, hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour. He’ll woo a thousand, yet never means to wed where he has woo’d. Now must the world point at poor Katherine, and say ‘lo, there is mad Petruchio’s wife, if it would please him come and marry her.'”
Tranio: “Patience, good Katherine, and Baptista too. Upon my life, Petruchio means but well, whatever fortune stays him from his word. Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise; though he be merry, yet he is honest.”
Katherine: “Would Katherine had never seen him.”
Katherine exits weeping, followed by Bianca
Baptista: “Go, girl, I cannot blame thee now to weep, for such an injury would vex a very saint, much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.”
Enter Biondello
Biondello: “Master, master! Is it not news to hear of Peruchio’s coming?”
Baptista: “Is he come?”
Biondello: “Why, no, sir.”
Baptista: “What then?”
Biondello: “He is coming.”
Baptista: “When will he be here?”
Biondello: When he stands where I am and sees you there.”
Bianca: “Why, Petruchio is coming – in a new hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches; a pair of boots, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword with a broken hilt and two broken points; his horse hipped with an old mothy saddle.”
Baptista: “Who comes with him?”
Biondello: “O, sir, his lackey, with a linen stock on one leg and a kersey boot-hose on the other; a monster, a very monster in apparel, and not like a gentleman’s lackey.”
Tranio: “Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion.”
Baptista: “I am glad he’s come, howsoever he comes.”
Enter Petruchio and Grumio
Baptista: “You are welcome, sir.”
Petruchio: “And yet I come not well.”
Tranio: “Not so well apparelled as I wish you were.”
Petruchio: “But where is Kate? Where is my lovely bride? How does my father? Gentles, methinks you frown.”
Baptista: “Why, sir, you know this is your wedding day. First we were sad, fearing you would not come; now sadder that you come so unprovided. Fie, doff this habit, shame to your estate, an eye-sore to our solemn festival!”
Tranio: “And tell us what occasion of import has all so long stained you from your wife, and sent you hither so unlike yourself?”
Petruchio: “Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear; suffice that I have come to keep my word. But where is Kate? I stay too long from her; the morning wears, and tis time we were at church.”
Tranio: “See not your bride in these unreverent robes; go to my chamber and put on clothes of mine.”
Petruchio: “Not I, believe me; thus I’ll visit her.”
Baptista: “But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.”
Petruchio: “Good sooth, even thus. To me she’s married not unto my clothes. But what a fool am I to chat with you, when I should bid good morrow to my bride and seal the title with a lovely kiss.”
Exit Petruchio and Grumio
Tranio: “He has some meaning in his mad attire. We will persuade him to put on better ere he go to church.”
Baptista: “I’ll after him and see the event of this.”
Exit Baptista and Biondello
Tranio: “Signior Gremio, came you from the church? Are the bride and bridegroom coming home?”
Gremio: “A bridegroom, say you? Tis a groom indeed, a grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find. Why, he’s a devil, a very fiend.”
Tranio: “Why she’s a devil, the devil’s dam.”
Gremio: “Tut, she’s a lamb, a dove, a fool to him! I’ll tell you: when the priest should ask if Katherine should be his wife, he swore so loud that, all amazed, the priest let fall the book; and as he stooped again to take it up, this mad-brained bridegroom took him such a cuff that down fell priest and book.”
Tranio: “What said the wench?”
Gremio: “She rambled and shook. He took the bride about the neck, and kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack that at the part all the church did echo. Such a mad marriage never was before. Hark! Hark! I hear the minstrels play.”
Music is heard
Enter Petruchio, Katherine, Bianca, Baptista, Hortensio and Grumio
Petruchio: “Gentlemen and friends, I thank you. I know you think to dine with me today, and have prepared great store of wedding cheer; but so it is – my haste does call me hence, and I mean to take my leave.”
Baptista: “Is it possible you will away tonight?”
Petruchio: “Make it no wonder; if you knew my business, you would entreat me rather go than stay. I thank you all who have beheld me give away myself to this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife. Dine with my father, drink a health to me, for I must hence; and farewell to you all.”
Tranio: “Let us entreat you to stay until after dinner.”
Petruchio: “It may not be.”
Gremio: “Let me entreat you.”
Petruchio: “It cannot be.”
Katherine: “Let me entreat you.”
Petriuchio: “I am content.”
Katherine: “Are you content to stay?”
Petruchio: “I am content that you shall entreat me to stay; but yet not stay.”
Katherine: “Now, if you love me, stay.”
Peruchio: “Grumio, my horse.”
Katherine: “Nay, then, do what they canst, I will not go today; not tomorrow, not till I please myself. The door is open, sir; there lies your way.”
Petruchio: “O, Kate, content thee; prithee be not angry.”
Katherine: “I will be angry; what has thou to do? Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner.”
Petruchio: “Obey the bride, you who attend on her; go to the feast, revel and carouse full measure to her maidenhead; be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves. But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. I will be master of what is my own – she is my goods, my chattels, she is my house, my field, my barn, my horse, my ox, my ass, my anything.”
Exit Petruchio, Katherine and Grunio
Tranio: “Of all mad matches, never was the like.”
Lucentio: “Mistress, what’s your opinion of your sister?”
Bianca: “That, being mad herself, she’s madly mated.“
Analysis
It is the wedding day for Katherine and Petruchio, but first he is late and then he arrives in extremely inappropriate tattered clothes, clearly meant to be a mockery to the proceedings. Baptista tries to convince him to change but Petruchio will hear none of it. We later learn that Petruchio also behaved abhorrently inside the church as well, swearing and striking the priest. Finally, Petruchio announces that he must depart immediately following the ceremony, even though an elaborate wedding feast has been prepared. When Katherine protests he completely over-rides her and insists that she depart with him. He has married Katherine but has a long way to go in order to tame her. He is rough and demanding with her and seems to mock her mercilessly. “I will be master of what is mine. She is my chattle, my barn, my horse, my ass, my anything.” When we consider where this play is eventually going, we must acknowledge that Petruchio is not altogether serious. There is satire and irony at play here. He is clearly up to something. Consider his response to Baptista, when asked to change his clothes: “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes. Could I repair what she will wear in me, as I can change these poor accountrements, twere well for Kate and better for myself.” This reflects a far more reasonable and generous profile of Petruchio. Just who is Petruchio and who is Kate? These are the key questions of the play.
Act IV (5 scenes)
Scene i
Petruchio’s country house
Enter Grumio
Grumio: “Fie on all mad masters and all foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? Was ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm themselves. Now were not I soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth and my tongue to the roof of my mouth. I with blowing the fire shall warm myself. Ho! Curtis!
Enter Curtis, another of Petruchio’s servants
Curtis: “Who is it who calls so coldly?”
Grumio: “A piece of ice.”
Curtis: “Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio?”
Grumio: “O, ay, Curtis, ay: and therefore fire, fire!”
Curtis “Is she so hot a shrew as she is reported?”
Grumio: “She was, good Curtis, before this frost, but thou knows that winter tames man, woman and beast; for it has tamed my old master and my new mistress and myself, Curtis.”
Curtis: “I prithee, good Grumio, tell me how goes the world?”
Grumio: “A cold world, Curtis, therefore fire. Do thy duty, for my master and mistress are almost frozen to death.”
Curtis: “Grumio, the news?”
Grumio: “Why, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where’s the cook? Is supper ready and the house trimmed, cobwebs swept, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Is everything in order?”
Curtis: “All ready; and therefore, I pray thee, news.”
Grumio: “Now I begin: my master riding behind my mistress, her horse fell and she under her horse. He left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; he swore; how she prayed; how the horses ran away.”
Curtis: “By this reckoning he is more shrew than she.”
Enter four or five servants
Grumio: “Is all ready and all things neat?”
Nathaniel: “All things are ready.”
Enter Petruchio and Katherine
Petruchio: “Where be these knaves? What, no man at the door to hold my stirrup nor to take my horse? You logger-headed and unpolished grooms! Where is the foolish knave I sent before?”
Grumio: “Here, sir; as foolish as I was before.”
Petruchio: “You peasant swain! You whoreson malt-horse drudge! Go, rascals, and fetch my supper.”
Exit some of the servants
Petruchio: “Sit down, Kate, and welcome.”
Re-enter servants with supper
Petruchio: “Off with my boots, you rogues! Take that (strikes a servant). Be merry, Kate. Where are my slippers? Come, Kate, and wash. You whoreson villain!” (strikes another servant)
Katherine: “Patience, I pray you; twas a fault unwilling.”
Petruchio: “A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-eared knave! Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. Will you give thanks, sweet Kate, or shall I? What’s this? Mutton?”
1 servant: “Ay.”
Petruchio: “Tis burnt; and so is all the meat. Where is the rascal cook? Here, take it, you trenchers. (throws the meat at them). You heedless jolt heads and unmannered slaves!”
Katherine: “I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet. The meat was well.”
Petruchio: “I tell thee, Kate, it was burnt and dried away. It engenders choler, and better that both of us did fast, than feed with such over-roasted flesh. Be patient; tomorrow it shall be mended. And for this night we will fast. Come, I will bring thee to thy bridal chamber.”
Exit Petruchio and Katherine
Enter servants
Nathaniel: “Peter, did thou ever see the like?”
Peter: “He kills her in her own humour.”
Enter Grumio: “Where is he?”
Curtis: “In her chamber, making a sermon to her with rails and swears, that she, poor soul, knows not which way to stand, to look or to speak, and sits as one newly risen from a dream.”
Exit servants
Enter Peruchio
Petruchio: (aside) “As with the meat, some undeserved fault I’ll find about the making of the bed; and here I’ll fling the pillow, this way the covers, another way the sheets. In conclusion, she shall watch all night; I’ll rail and brawl and with the clamour keep her still awake. This is the way to kill a wife with kindness, and thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour. He who knows better how to tame a shrew, now let him speak.”
Analysis
Petruchio is harsh with his servants about the meal they prepare for he and Katherine and the state of his home he has brought her to. He claims that he wants only the best for her, and is ‘killing her with kindness’, but also withholding everything she desires, under the pretense that it is not good enough for her. His real plan, revealed in his monologue, is to subdue her wild nature enough that she may assume the role of a marriage partner and no longer be so miserable and angry as a despised shrew. By killing her with kindness and not by force, he is endeavouring to ensure a lasting and loving relationship between them, as will become more evident is the play’s final act.
Act IV
Scene ii
Padua, before Baptista’s house
Enter Tranio as Lucentio and Hortensio as Licio.
Tranio: “Is it possible, friend Licio, that Mistress Bianca does fancy any other than Lucentio?”
Hortensio: “Sir, to satisfy you, mark the manner of his teaching.”
They stand aside
Bianca: “What, master, read you?”
Lucentio: “I read ‘The Art of Love’.”
Bianca: “And may you prove, sir, master of your art!”
Lucentio: “While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart.”
They retire
Traino: “I tell thee, Licio, this is wonderful.”
Hortensio: “Mistake no more; I am not Licio, nor a musician as I seem to be; know, sir, that I am called Hortensio.”
Tranio: “Senior Hortensio, I have often heard of your entire affection to Bianca.”
Hortensio: “See how they kiss and court! Here I firmly vow never to woo her more, but do forswear her.”
Tranio: “Fie on her! See how beastly she does court him!”
Hortensio: “For me, I will be married to a wealthy widow before three days pass, and so farewell, Signior Lucentio.”
Exit
Lucentio: “Then we are rid of Licio.”
Tranio: “In faith, he’ll have a lusty widow now.”
Bianca: “God give him joy!”
Tranio: “He has gone into the taming school.”
Bianca: “The taming school! What, is there such a place?”
Tranio: “Ay, mistress; and Petruchio is the master, who teaches tricks to tame a shrew and charm her chattering tongue.”
Enter Biondello
Biondello: “O master, I spied an ancient angel coming down the hill.”
Tranio: “Who is he, Biondello?”
Biondello: “Master, a pedant, formal in apparel, like a father.”
Enter a pedant
Pedant: “God save you, sir.”
Tranio: “And you, sir. Travel you far on?”
Pedant: “As far as Rome, and so to Tripoli, if God lend me life.”
Tranio: “What countryman, I pray?”
Pedant: “Of Mantua.”
Tranio: “Of Mantua, sir? Marry, God forbid, careless of your life. Tis death for anyone from Mantua to come to Padua. Know you not the cause? The Duke has published and proclaimed it openly. Tell me, have you ever been to Pisa?”
Pedant: “Ay, sir, in Pisa have I often been.”
Tranio: “Know you one Vincentio?”
Pedant: “I have heard of him.”
Tranio: “He is my father, sir, and somewhat does resemble you. To save your life in this extremity, this favour will I do you. You are like to Sir Vincentio. His name and credit shall you undertake. My father is here and looked for every day to pass assurance of a dowry in marriage between me and one of Baptista’s daughters here. In these circumstances I’ll instruct you. Go with me to clothe you as becomes you.”
Analysis
Lucentio gets closer to winning Bianca, as Hortensio witnesses the well developing romance between Lucentio and Bianca and determines to marry a wealthy widow. An elderly man, referred to as a Pedant, arrives and Lucentio convinces him to assume the role of his father, so that Senior Baptista can meet Lucentio’s father, assure the dowry and approve the marriage. Lucentio has been involved in a host of disguises, involving himself and Tranio, so Bianca really has no idea who he is as they advance toward their marriage, in this play about the mysteries of true identity.
Act IV
Scene iii
Petruchio’s house
Enter Katherine and Grumio
Grumio: “No, no, forsooth; I dare not for my life.”
Katherine: “Did he marry me to famish me? I am starved for meat and giddy for lack of sleep. And he does it under the name of perfect love. I prithee go and get me some wholesome food.”
Grumio: “How say you to a fat tripe finely broiled?”
Katherine: “I like it well; good Grumio, fetch it me.”
Grumio: “I fear its choleric. What say you to a piece of beef and mustard?”
Katherine: “A dish that I do love to feed upon.”
Grumio: “Ay, but the mustard is too hot.”
Katherine: “Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest.”
Grumio: “Nay; you shall have the mustard, or else you get no beef.”
Katherine: “Then both, or one, or anything thou will.”
Grumio: “Why then the mustard without the beef.”
Katherine: “Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave, who feeds me with the very name of meat. Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you who triumph upon my misery.”
She beats him
Enter Petruchio and Hortensio with meat
Petruchio: “How fares my Kate?”
Hortensio: “Mistress, what cheer?”
Katherine: “Faith, as cold as can be.”
Petruchio: “Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me. Here, love, thou see’st how diligent I am to dress thy meat myself, and bring it to thee. I am sure, sweet Kate, that this kindness merits thanks. What, not a word? Nay, then thou loves it not. Here, take away this dish.”
Katherine: “I pray you, let it stand.”
Petruchio: “The poorest service is repaid with thanks; and so shall mine, before you touch the meat.”
Katherine: “I thank you, sir.”
Petruchio: “Kate, we will return to thy father’s house and revel with silken coats and caps and golden rings, scarves and fans, amber bracelets and beads. The tailor stays thy leisure, to deck thy body.”
Enter tailor
Petruchio: “Come tailor, let us see these ornaments.”
Enter Haberdasher
Haberdasher: “Here is the cap your worship did bespeak.”
Petruchio: “Why, fie, fie! Tis lewd and filthy; why, tis a baby’s cap. Away with it. Come, let me have a bigger one.”
Katherine: “I’ll have no bigger; this does fit the time, and gentlewomen wear such caps as these.”
Petruchio: “When you are gentle, you shall have one too, and not till then.”
Katherine: “Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak; and speak I will. I am no child. My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart, concealing it, will break.”
Petruchio: “It is a paltry cap. I love thee well in that thou lik’st not.”
Katherine: “Love me or love me not, I like the cap; and it I will have, or I will have none.”
Petruchio: “Thy gown? Why, come tailor, let’s see it. O mercy, what’s this? A sleeve carved like an apple-tart? I’ll none of it!”
Katherine: “I never saw a better fashioned gown. Belike you mean to make a puppet of me.”
Petruchio: “Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee.”
Tailor: “She says your worship means to make a puppet of her.”
Petruchio: “O, monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble, thou yard, thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket. Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant; thou has marred her gown.”
Tailor: “Your worship is deceived; the gown is made just as directed.”
Petruchio: “Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me.”
Grumio: “You are in the right, sir; tis for my mistress.”
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. O no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse for this poor furniture and mean array. We will hence forthwith to feast and sport us at thy father’s house. Let’s see: I think tis now 7 o’clock, and well we may come there by dinner time.”
Katherine: “I dare assure you, sir, tis almost two, and twill be supper time ere you come there.”
Petruchio: “It shall be seven. Look what I speak; you are still crossing it. Sirs, let it alone; I will not go today; and ere I do, it shall be what o’clock I say it is.”
Hortensio: “Why, so this gallant shall command the sun.”
Analysis
Petruchio has denied Katherine sufficient food and sleep for several days now. He also rejects their tailored clothes for their celebration back at her father’s house and determines that they will not go anywhere after an argument about the correct time. He claims this behaviour is all in the interest of ensuring that every high standard is met in his expectations for her. She puts up with it, therefore, in the hope that her new marriage may succeed. Once again, the question persists as to who Petruchio and Katherina really are, beyond his jests and her cautious compliance.
Act IV
Scene iv
Padua. Before Baptista’s house
Enter Tranio as Lucentio and the pedant dressed as Vincentio.
Tranio: “Biondello, hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?”
Biondello: “I told him that your father was in Venice.”
Tranio: “Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir.”
Enter Baptista and Lucentio, as Cambio
Tranio: “Signor 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: (to Baptista) “Sir, having come to Padua, my son Lucentio made me acquainted with a weighty cause of love between your daughter and himself; and for the love he bears for your daughter, and she to him, I am content, in a good father’s care, to have him matched.”
Baptista: “Sir, your plainness and your shortness please me well. Right true it is your son Lucentio here does love my daughter, and she loves him. And therefore, like a father you will deal with him, and pass from my daughter a sufficient dower; the match is made and all is done. Your son shall have my daughter with consent. Tell Bianca what has happened – that Lucentio’s father has arrived in Padua, and how she is to be Lucentio’s wife.”
Exit all
Enter Lucentio as Cambio and Biondello
Biondello: “Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a deceitful son. His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper. To the church take the priest and some honest witnesses.”
Lucentio: “Hap what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her.”
Analysis
Lucentio and Tranio have tricked Baptista into thinking that the Pedant is, in fact, his father, who has granted his consent for Lucentio’s marriage to Bianca. The problem is that Tranio is still standing in as Lucentio, as Lucentio remains in the guise of a schoolmaster who has woo’d her on his behalf. The theme of who is really who runs deep and wide throughout virtually every scene of this play.
Act IV
Scene v
A public road
Enter Petruchio, Katherine, Hortensio and servants
Petruchio: “Good lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!”
Katherine: “The moon? The Sun!”
Petruchio: “I say it is the moon.”
Katherine: “I know it is the sun.”
Petruchio: “It shall be the moon, or star, or what I list, or ere I journey to your father’s house. Go fetch our horses back again. Evermore crossed and crossed; nothing but crossed!”
Hortensio: “Say as he says, or we shall never go.”
Katherine: “Forward, I pray, since we have come so far, and be it moon or sun, or whatever you please.”
Petruchio: “I say it is the moon.”
Katherine: “I know it is the moon.”
Petruchio: “Nay, then you lie; it is the blessed sun.”
Katherine: “Then, God be blessed, it is the blessed sun; but sun it is not, when you say it is not; and the moon changes even as your mind. What you will have it named, even that it is, and so it shall be so for Katherine.”
Petruchio: “Well, forward, forward! But soft! Company is coming.”
Enter Vincentio
Peruchio: (to Vincentio) “Good morrow, gentle mistress. Tell me, sweet Kate, has thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman? Embrace her for her beauty’s sake.”
Hortensio: “He will make the man mad, to make a woman of him.”
Katherine: “Young, budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet, happy the man whom favourable stars allots thee for his lovely bed fellow.”
Petruchio: “Why, how now, Kate, I hope thou art not mad! This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered, and not a maiden, as thou says he is.”
Katherine: “Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, that have been so bedazzled by the sun; now I perceive thou art a reverend father.”
Vincent: “My name is Vincentio, my dwelling Pisa, and I am bound to Padua, there to visit a son of mine.”
Peruchio: “What is his name?”
Vincentio: “Lucentio.”
Petruchio: “And now by law, I may entitle thee my loving father: the sister to my wife, thy son by this has married. Wonder not – she is of good esteem, her dowry wealthy.”
Vincentio: “But is this true, or is it your pleasure to break a jest upon the company you overtake?”
Hortensio: “I do assure thee, father, so it it true.”
Analysis
Petruchio continues to challenge Katherine’s patience with a declaration that the sun is, in fact, the moon. She finally goes along with him and claims that it is whatever he says it is. When they pass an old gentleman on the road, Petruchio insists it is a young woman. Once again, she plays along with him, and it would appear that they have come to some understanding in their relationship with one another. The old man turns out to be Vincentio, Lucentio’s actual father. He is quite shocked to hear that he son is getting married to one of Baptista’s daughters. So by the end of act IV Petruchio and Katherine seem to be doing well and Lucentio is about to marry Bianca. Often, act V has its work cut out for it, but since Bianca is spoken for and the shrew has been tamed, all that is left to resolve is the question of Lucentio’s father and a little wager of loyalty on behalf of the wives of Hortensio, Lucentio and Petruchio.
Act V (2 scenes)
Scene i
Padua, before Lucentio’s house
Enter Biondello, Lucentio, Bianca and Gremio
Biondello: “The priest is ready.”
Exit Lucentio, Bianca and Biondello
Enter Petruchio, Katherine, Vincentio and Grumio
Petruchio: “Sir, here is the door; this is Lucentio’s house.”
Vincentio knocks
Pedant: (looking out a window) “What is he who knocks as he would beat down the gate?”
Petruchio: “I pray you tell Signior Lucentio that his father has come from Pisa, and is here at the door to speak with him.”
Pedant: “Thou liest: his father is here looking out the window.”
Vincentio: “Art thou his father?”
Pedant: “Ay, sir; so his mother says. Lay hands on the villain.”
Enter Biondello
Biondello: “Vincentio! Now we are undone.”
Vincentio: (seeing Biondello) “Come hither, crack-hemp. You rogue. What, have you forgotten me?”
Biondello: “Forgot you! No, sir. I could not forget you, for I never saw you before in all my life.”
Vincentio: “What, you notorious villain, did thou never see thy master’s father, Vincentio?”
Biondello: “Yes, marry, sir; see where he looks out of the window.”
Vincentio: “Is it so, indeed?” (He beats Biondello)
Biondello: “Help! Help! Help! Here is a madman who will murder me.”
Pedant: “Help, son! Help Senior Baptista!”
Petruchio: “Prithee, Kate, let’s stand aside and see the end of this controversy.”
Enter Baptista and Tranio
Tranio: “Sir, who are you that offers to beat my servant?”
Vincentio: “Who am I, sir? Nay, who are you, sir? O fine villain! I am undone! I am undone!”
Baptista: “What, is the man lunatic?”
Tranio: “Sir, you seem a sober and ancient gentleman, but your words show you a madman. I thank my good father.”
Vincentio: “Thy father! O villain! My son, my son! Tell me, where is my son, Lucentio?
Tranio: “Call forth an officer and carry this mad knave to the jail.”
Gremio: “Stay, officer; he shall not go to prison.”
Baptista: “Talk not, Signior Gremio; I say he shall go to prison.”
Gremio: “Take heed, Signior Baptista; I dare swear this is the right Vincentio.”
Pedant: “Swear if thou dar’st.
Tranio: “Then thou were best to say that I am not Lucentio.”
Gremio: “Yes, I know thee to be Signior Lucentio.”
Baptista: “Away with the dotard; to the jail with him!”
Vincentio: “Thus strangers may be hailed and abused. O monstrous villain!”
Biondello: “Yonder he is! Deny him, forswear him, or else we are all undone.”
Exit Biondello, Tranio and Pedant as fast as may be
Lucentio: “Pardon, sweet father.”
Vincentio: “Lives my sweet son?”
Baptista: “Where is Lucentio?”
Lucentio: “Here is Lucentio, right son to the right Vincentio, who has by marriage made thy daughter mine, while counterfeit supposes blurred thine eye.”
Vincentio: “Where is that damn villain, Tranio?”
Baptista: “Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio?”
Bianca: “Cambio is changed into Lucentio.”
Lucentio: “Love wrought these miracles. Bianca’s love made me exchange my state with Tranio, while he did bear my countenance in the town. What Tranio did, myself enforced him to; then pardon him, sweet father, for my sake.”
Vincentio: “I’ll slit the villain’s nose who would have sent me to the jail.”
Baptista: (to Lucentio) “But so you hear, sir? Have you married my daughter without asking my goodwill?”
Vincentio: “I will be revenged for this villainy.”
Baptista: “And I to sound the depth of this knavery.”
Exit Vincentio, Baptista, Lucentio, Bianca and Gremio
Petruchio: “Kiss me, Kate.”
Katherine: “What, in the middle of the street?”
Petruchio: “What, are thou ashamed of me?”
Katherine: “No, sir; God forbid; but ashamed to kiss.”
Petruchio: “Why, then, let’s home again.”
Katherine: “Nay, I will give thee a kiss; now pray thee, love, stay.”
Analysis
The various disguises cause much confusion in this scene, as the real father to Lucentio arrives on the scene with the Pedant, a supposed father to Lucentio. As well, the exchange of identity between Tranio and Lucentio comes to an end, which causes even more confusion. But the wedding has already taken place and both Baptista and Vincentio, the fathers of the newlyweds, must reconcile to the apparent madness afoot. Once they all depart Petruchio demands a kiss from Katherine, right in the street. At first she refuses, but once he threatens to have them return immediately to his country estate, she kisses him and they exchange romantic words. “I will give thee a kiss; now pray thee, love, stay.” “Come, my sweet Kate.”
Act V
Scene ii
Lucentio’s house
Enter Baptista, Vincentio, Gremio, the Pedant, Lucentio, Bianca, Petruchio, Katherine, Hortensio and his widow, Tranio, Biondello and Grumio
Lucentio: “My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, while I with self-same kindness welcome thine. Brother Petruchio and sister Katherine, welcome to my house. My banquet is our great good cheer.”
Baptista: “Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, I think thou has the veriest shrew of all.”
Petruchio: “Well, I say no; and therefore, for assurance, let’s each one send for his wife, and he whose wife is most obedient, to come at first when he does send for her, shall win the wager which we will propose.”
Hortensio: “Content. What’s the wager?”
Lucentio: “Twenty crowns.”
Petruchio: “Twenty crowns! I’ll venture twenty times so much upon my wife.”
Lucentio: “A hundred then.”
Hortensio: “Content. Who shall begin?”
Lucentio: “That will I. Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.”
Biondello: “I go.” (exits)
Re-enter Biondello
Biondello: “Sir, my mistress sends you word that she is busy and cannot come.”
Petruchio: “How? Is that an answer?”
Hortensio: “Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife to come to me forthwith.”
Exit Biondello
Peruchio: “O, ho! Entreat her, for then she must needs come.”
Re-enter Biondello
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 and not to be endured! Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress; say I command she come to me.”
Exit Grumio
Enter Katherine
Baptista: “Now, by my holiday, here comes Katherine!”
Katherine “What is your will, sir, that you send for me?”
Petruchio: “Where is your sister, and Hortensio’s wife?”
Katherine: “They sit conferring by the parlour fire.”
Petruchio: “Go, fetch them hither.”
Exit Katherine
Lucentio: “Here is a wonder, if you talk of wonders.”
Hortensio: “And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.”
Petruchio: “Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and a quiet life.”
Baptista: “Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio! The wager thou has won. For she is changed, as she had never been.”
Re-enter Katherine with Bianca and the widow
Petruchio: “See where she comes, and brings your forward wives as prisoners to her womanly persuasion. Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not: throw it underfoot.”
Katherine complies
Bianca: Fie! What foolish duty call you this?”
Lucentio: “I would your duty were as foolish, too; the wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, has cost me a hundred crowns.”
Bianca: “The more fool you for laying on my duty.”
Petruchio: “Katherine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women what duty they do owe their lords and husbands.”
Widow: “She shall not.”
Petruchio: “I say she shall.”
Katherine: “Fie, fie! Unknit that threatening and unkind brow, and dart not scornful glances to wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor. Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign; one who cares for thee, and for thy maintenance commits his body to painful labour, while thou lies warm at home, secure and safe; and craves no other tribute at thy hands 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 owes to her husband. I am ashamed that women are so simple to offer war when they should kneel for peace; or seek for rule, supremacy and sway, when they are bound to serve, love and obey.”
Petruchio: Why, here’s a wench! Come on and kiss me, Kate. Come, Kate, we’ll to bed.”
Exit Petruchio and Katherine
Hortensio; ‘Now go thy ways; thou has tamed a cursed shrew.”
Lucentio: “Tis a wonder she will be so tamed.”
Analysis
Petruchio has tamed Katherine, the shrew. How has he done it? He was certainly firm and harsh, but it was all done with the clear intent to ensure her the finest of everything. He did not want to marry a shrew, but a partner who first had to be tamed from the wildness of so much disdain for traditional roles for men and women. She could never be with a Lucentio or a Hortensio, and thinking that that was all the entire world was comprised of, she raged on in earnest against her very sister and father, who both yearned to see the girls married conventionally. But then along came Petruchio, who was not at all dull and who commanded with ample wit and more than a touch of madness, ensuring that theirs would be anything but a traditional and boring marriage. Their wits intertwined and a genuine love grew between them and she was wholly convinced that he was behaving in a way that confounded all but her, and enabled them to love one another entirely outside the bounds of everything conventional that she feared and hated. At the start of the play Bianca seemed to have everything and Katherine was unpossessed of even the most remote prospect for love. And yet in the end both Bianca and the widow demonstrate disdain for their ‘traditional’ husbands, while Katherine is both honour bound and full of love in her marriage to the very exotic Petruchio. And Petruchio, far from settling for who at first appeared to be a ferocious shrew, has found a spicy partner who matches him wit for wit and energy for energy and love for love. They have done well in finding one another. While demonstrating the outward trappings of a stale life of convention, it is abundantly evident that there is enough character and passion, wisdom and wit in the two of them to ensure a lasting partnership of vibrancy and love, which they will revel in while the traditions surround them in the relationships they chose to avoid. I see no reason why Petruchio and Katherine would not remain one of Shakespeare’s limited number of more promising relationships. In a play about identity, these two have learned who they are and what they require in a marriage in order to be truly happy. Not sure we can say the same about the other twisted identities throughout the play. Certainly Bianca and Lucentio seem to be launching into a marital battle of wills, the likes of which Petruchio and Katherine have demonstrated little or any need or desire to partake in. Bravo!
Final thoughts
The Taming of the shrew is a superb commentary by William Shakespeare on relations between Italian men and women during the renaissance . Women were expected to be obedient to their often brutish and uninspired husbands and Katherine wants nothing to do with so traditional an arrangement. It is only when unconventional Petruchio arrives does Katherine realize she has an opportunity to partner up with a most interesting man and consents to the role of obedient wife in exchange for marrying into a witty and exotic union where she is clearly loved and appreciated. Katherine’s change throughout the play is quite dramatic. Initially, she is considered a shrew by everyone around her, including her sister and father, so she lives up to the expectations she encounters every day and has some pretty serious anger management issues. But when Petruchio tells her she is actually mild and loving, she begins to see herself quite differently and finds for herself a meaningful role in society as respected wife to Petruchio. In a play full of disguises and questions of identity, Katherine learns that she need not be wholly defined by the society which judges her so harshly, but can find a vibrant life of love with a worthy partner.
The Taming of the Shrew was an early work of Shakespeare’s, written in 1594, just after Richard III and before Love’s Labour’s Lost. He invented the induction and the main plot himself and borrowed the Bianca and suitors subplot from the 15th Century Italian poet, Ludovico Aristo. There was a play entitled The Taming of ‘a’ Shrew, also published in 1594. It is thought today that ‘a’ Shrew was most likely a version of Shakespeare’s play pieced together by his actor friends.
The play was very popular in Shakespeare’s day, so much so that playwright John Fletcher actually wrote a sequel in 1611 entitled ‘The Tamer Tamed’, in which Peruchio’s second wife treats him exactly as he treated Kate. Notable modern Katherines have been played by Peggy Ashcroft, Vanessa Redgrave, Mary Pickford and Elizabeth Taylor, while memorable Petruchios have been portrayed by Ralph Richardson, Peter O’Toole, John Cleese, Douglas Fairbanks and Richard Burton. Per usual, youtube has plenty of stage and film productions of Taming of the Shrew and there are numerous clips and much analysis.
William Shakespeare: Journey Through Genius 