Taming of the Shrew

LUCENTIO


I would your duty were as foolish too:
The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper-time.
 
PETRUCHIO


Katharina, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women
What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
 
Widow


Come, come, you're mocking: we will have no telling.
 
KATHARINA


Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest 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 oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
 
PETRUCHIO


Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
 
LUCENTIO


Well, go thy ways, old lad; for thou shalt ha't.
 
VINCENTIO


'Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
 
PETRUCHIO


Come, Kate, we'll to bed.
We three are married, but you two are sped.

To LUCENTIO

'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white;
And, being a winner, God give you good night!

Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA
 
HORTENSIO


Now, go thy ways; thou hast tamed a curst shrew.
 
LUCENTIO


'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.

Exeunt
 
Thunderous Applause!

Whistling as Petruchio and Kate make for the bedroom! Three cheers for Guru!

Outstanding!

And now, I'll to bed as well...

My God, it's early.

Sleepy in Stratford,
Ellie
 
Had I been here in Feb 2003 I perhaps would have fallen in love with Guru for this thread...

Kate.
 
EllieTalbot said:
Thunderous Applause!
THOSE hands which you so clapp'd, go now and wring,
You
Britons brave; for done are Shakespeare's days;
His days are done that made the dainty plays,
Which made the
Globe of heaven and earth to ring:
Dried is that vein, dried is the
Thespian spring,
Turn'd all to tears, and
Phoebus clouds his rays:
That corpse, that coffin, now bestick those bays,
Which crown'd him
poet first, then poets' king.
If
tragedies might any prologue have,
All those he made would scarce make one to this;
Where
Fame, now that he gone is to the grave —
Death's public tiring-house — the
Nuntius is:
For, though his line of life went soon about,
The life yet of his lines shall never out.


- Hugh Holland
 
Back
Top