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b"ACT I. SCENE II. Padua. Before HORTENSIO'S house
\\nEnter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO
\\nPETRUCHIO. Verona, for a while I take my leave,
\\nTo see my friends in Padua; but of all
\\nMy best beloved and approved friend,
\\nHortensio; and I trow this is his house.
\\nHere, sirrah Grumio, knock, I say.
\\nGRUMIO. Knock, sir! Whom should I knock?
\\nIs there any man has rebus'd your worship?
\\nPETRUCHIO. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.
\\nGRUMIO. Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I
\\nshould knock you here, sir?
\\nPETRUCHIO. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,
\\nAnd rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
\\nGRUMIO. My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
\\nAnd then I know after who comes by the worst.
\\nPETRUCHIO. Will it not be?
\\nFaith, sirrah, an you'll not knock I'll ring it;
\\nI'll try how you can sol-fa, and sing it.
\\n[He wrings him by the ears]
\\nGRUMIO. Help, masters, help! My master is mad.
\\nPETRUCHIO. Now knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!
\\nEnter HORTENSIO
\\nHORTENSIO. How now! what's the matter? My old friend Grumio and my
\\ngood friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona?
\\nPETRUCHIO. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?
\\n'Con tutto il cuore ben trovato' may I say.
\\nHORTENSIO. Alla nostra casa ben venuto,
\\nMolto honorato signor mio Petruchio.
\\nRise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel.
\\nGRUMIO. Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this
\\nbe not a lawful cause for me to leave his service- look you, sir:
\\nhe bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir. Well, was it fit
\\nfor a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I
\\nsee, two and thirty, a pip out?
\\nWhom would to God I had well knock'd at first,
\\nThen had not Grumio come by the worst.
\\nPETRUCHIO. A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
\\nI bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
\\nAnd could not get him for my heart to do it.
\\nGRUMIO. Knock at the gate? O heavens! Spake you not these words
\\nplain: 'Sirrah knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and
\\nknock me soundly'? And come you now with 'knocking at the gate'?
\\nPETRUCHIO. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
\\nHORTENSIO. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge;
\\nWhy, this's a heavy chance 'twixt him and you,
\\nYour ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.
\\nAnd tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale
\\nBlows you to Padua here from old Verona?
\\nPETRUCHIO. Such wind as scatters young men through the world
\\nTo seek their fortunes farther than at home,
\\nWhere small experience grows. But in a few,
\\nSignior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
\\nAntonio, my father, is deceas'd,
\\nAnd I have thrust myself into this maze,
\\nHaply to wive and thrive as best I may;
\\nCrowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
\\nAnd so am come abroad to see the world.
\\nHORTENSIO. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee
\\nAnd wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?
\\nThou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel,
\\nAnd yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,
\\nAnd very rich; but th'art too much my friend,
\\nAnd I'll not wish thee to her.
\\nPETRUCHIO. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we
\\nFew words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
\\nOne rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
\\nAs wealth is burden of my wooing dance,
\\nBe she as foul as was Florentius' love,
\\nAs old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
\\nAs Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse-
\\nShe moves me not, or not removes, at least,
\\nAffection's edge in me, were she as rough
\\nAs are the swelling Adriatic seas.
\\nI come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
\\nIf wealthily, then happily in Padua.
\\nGRUMIO. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is.
\\nWhy, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an
\\naglet-baby, or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though
\\nshe has as many diseases as two and fifty horses. Why, nothing
\\ncomes amiss, so money comes withal.
\\nHORTENSIO. Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in,
\\nI will continue that I broach'd in jest.
\\nI can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
\\nWith wealth enough, and young and beauteous;
\\nBrought up as best becomes a gentlewoman;
\\nHer only fault, and that is faults enough,
\\nIs- that she is intolerable curst,
\\nAnd shrewd and froward so beyond all measure
\\nThat, were my state far worser than it is,
\\nI would not wed her for a mine of gold.
\\nPETRUCHIO. Hortensio, peace! thou know'st not gold's effect.
\\nTell me her father's name, and 'tis enough;
\\nFor I will board her though she chide as loud
\\nAs thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.
\\nHORTENSIO. Her father is Baptista Minola,
\\nAn affable and courteous gentleman;
\\nHer name is Katherina Minola,
\\nRenown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue.
\\n
\\n
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