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b"BAPTISTA. ... Bianca, get you in;
\\nAnd let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
\\nFor I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl.
\\nKATHERINA. A pretty peat! it is best
\\nPut finger in the eye, an she knew why.
\\nBIANCA. Sister, content you in my discontent.
\\nSir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe;
\\nMy books and instruments shall be my company,
\\nOn them to look, and practise by myself.
\\nLUCENTIO. Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak!
\\nHORTENSIO. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?
\\nSorry am I that our good will effects
\\nBianca's grief.
\\nGREMIO. Why will you mew her up,
\\nSignior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,
\\nAnd make her bear the penance of her tongue?
\\nBAPTISTA. Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv'd.
\\nGo in, Bianca. Exit BIANCA
\\nAnd for I know she taketh most delight
\\nIn music, instruments, and poetry,
\\nSchoolmasters will I keep within my house
\\nFit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
\\nOr, Signior Gremio, you, know any such,
\\nPrefer them hither; for to cunning men
\\nI will be very kind, and liberal
\\nTo mine own children in good bringing-up;
\\nAnd so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay;
\\nFor I have more to commune with Bianca. Exit
\\nKATHERINA. Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?
\\nWhat! shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike,
\\nI knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha! Exit
\\nGREMIO. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts are so good
\\nhere's none will hold you. There! Love is not so great,
\\nHortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly
\\nout; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell; yet, for the love
\\nI bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man
\\nto teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her
\\nfather.
\\nHORTENSIO. SO Will I, Signior Gremio; but a word, I pray. Though
\\nthe nature of our quarrel yet never brook'd parle, know now, upon
\\nadvice, it toucheth us both- that we may yet again have access to
\\nour fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love- to
\\nlabour and effect one thing specially.
\\nGREMIO. What's that, I pray?
\\nHORTENSIO. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
\\nGREMIO. A husband? a devil.
\\nHORTENSIO. I say a husband.
\\nGREMIO. I say a devil. Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father
\\nbe very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?
\\nHORTENSIO. Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to
\\nendure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the
\\nworld, an a man could light on them, would take her with all
\\nfaults, and money enough.
\\nGREMIO. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this
\\ncondition: to be whipp'd at the high cross every morning.
\\nHORTENSIO. Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten
\\napples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it
\\nshall be so far forth friendly maintain'd till by helping
\\nBaptista's eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest free
\\nfor a husband, and then have to't afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man
\\nbe his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you,
\\nSignior Gremio?
\\nGREMIO. I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in
\\nPadua to begin his wooing that would thoroughly woo her, wed her,
\\nand bed her, and rid the house of her! Come on.
\\nExeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO
\\nTRANIO. I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
\\nThat love should of a sudden take such hold?
\\nLUCENTIO. O Tranio, till I found it to be true,
\\nI never thought it possible or likely.
\\nBut see! while idly I stood looking on,
\\nI found the effect of love in idleness;
\\nAnd now in plainness do confess to thee,
\\nThat art to me as secret and as dear
\\nAs Anna to the Queen of Carthage was-
\\nTranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
\\nIf I achieve not this young modest girl.
\\nCounsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;
\\nAssist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.
\\nTRANIO. Master, it is no time to chide you now;
\\nAffection is not rated from the heart;
\\nIf love have touch'd you, nought remains but so:
\\n'Redime te captum quam queas minimo.'
\\nLUCENTIO. Gramercies, lad. Go forward; this contents;
\\nThe rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.
\\nTRANIO. Master, you look'd so longly on the maid.
\\nPerhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.
\\nLUCENTIO. O, yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
\\nSuch as the daughter of Agenor had,
\\nThat made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
\\nWhen with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.
\\nTRANIO. Saw you no more? Mark'd you not how her sister
\\nBegan to scold and raise up such a storm
\\nThat mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
\\nLUCENTIO. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
\\nAnd with her breath she did perfume the air;
\\nSacred and sweet was all I saw in her.
\\nTRANIO. Nay, then 'tis time to stir him from his trance.
\\nI pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid,
\\nBend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:
\\nHer elder sister is so curst and shrewd
\\nThat, till the father rid his hands of her,
\\nMaster, your love must live a maid at home;
\\nAnd therefore has he closely mew'd her up,
\\nBecause she will not be annoy'd with suitors.
\\nLUCENTIO. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
\\nBut art thou not advis'd he took some care
\\nTo get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?
\\nTRANIO. Ay, marry, am I, sir, and now 'tis plotted.
\\nLUCENTIO. I have it, Tranio.
\\nTRANIO. Master, for my hand,
\\nBoth our inventions meet and jump in one.
\\nLUCENTIO. Tell me thine first.
\\nTRANIO. You will be schoolmaster,
\\nAnd undertake the teaching of the maid-
\\nThat's your device.
\\nLUCENTIO. It is. May it be done?
\\nTRANIO. Not possible; for who shall bear your part
\\nAnd be in Padua here Vincentio's son;
\\nKeep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,
\\nVisit his countrymen, and banquet them?
\\nLUCENTIO. Basta, content thee, for I have it full.
\\nWe have not yet been seen in any house,
\\nNor can we be distinguish'd by our faces
\\nFor man or master. Then it follows thus:
\\nThou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
\\nKeep house and port and servants, as I should;
\\nI will some other be- some Florentine,
\\nSome Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.
\\n'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so. Tranio, at once
\\nUncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak.
\\nWhen Biondello comes, he waits on thee;
\\nBut I will charm him first to keep his tongue.
\\nTRANIO. So had you need. [They exchange habits]
\\nIn brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
\\nAnd I am tied to be obedient-
\\nFor so your father charg'd me at our parting:
\\n'Be serviceable to my son' quoth he,
\\nAlthough I think 'twas in another sense-
\\nI am content to be Lucentio,
\\nBecause so well I love Lucentio.
\\nLUCENTIO. Tranio, be so because Lucentio loves;
\\nAnd let me be a slave t' achieve that maid
\\nWhose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.
\\n
\\nEnter BIONDELLO.
\\n
\\nHere comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been?
\\nBIONDELLO. Where have I been! Nay, how now! where are you?
\\nMaster, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes?
\\nOr you stol'n his? or both? Pray, what's the news?
\\nLUCENTIO. Sirrah, come hither; 'tis no time to jest,
\\nAnd therefore frame your manners to the time.
\\nYour fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
\\nPuts my apparel and my count'nance on,
\\nAnd I for my escape have put on his;
\\nFor in a quarrel since I came ashore
\\nI kill'd a man, and fear I was descried.
\\nWait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
\\nWhile I make way from hence to save my life.
\\nYou understand me?
\\nBIONDELLO. I, sir? Ne'er a whit.
\\nLUCENTIO. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth:
\\nTranio is chang'd into Lucentio.
\\nBIONDELLO. The better for him; would I were so too!
\\nTRANIO. So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after,
\\nThat Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter.
\\nBut, sirrah, not for my sake but your master's, I advise
\\nYou use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies.
\\nWhen I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;
\\nBut in all places else your master Lucentio.
\\nLUCENTIO. Tranio, let's go.
\\nOne thing more rests, that thyself execute-
\\nTo make one among these wooers. If thou ask me why-
\\nSufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty. Exeunt
\\n
\\nThe Presenters above speak
\\n
\\nFIRST SERVANT. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.
\\nSLY. Yes, by Saint Anne do I. A good matter, surely; comes there
\\nany more of it?
\\nPAGE. My lord, 'tis but begun.
\\nSLY. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady
\\nWould 'twere done! [They sit and mark]
\\n
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