READ STUDY GUIDE: Act IV, scenes iii–v |
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Act IV, Scene iii:
A room in PETRUCHIO'S house.
A room in PETRUCHIO'S house.
| [Enter KATHERINA and GRUMIO.] |
| GRUMIO: |
| No, no, forsooth; I dare not for my life. |
| KATHERINA: |
| The more my wrong, the more his spite appears. |
| What, did he marry me to famish me? |
| Beggars that come unto my father's door |
| Upon entreaty have a present alms; |
| If not, elsewhere they meet with charity; |
| But I, who never knew how to entreat, |
| Nor never needed that I should entreat, |
| Am starv'd for meat, giddy for lack of sleep; |
| With oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed. |
| And that which spites me more than all these wants, |
| He does it under name of perfect love; |
| As who should say, if I should sleep or eat |
| 'Twere deadly sickness, or else present death. |
| I prithee go and get me some repast; |
| I care not what, so it be wholesome food. |
| GRUMIO: |
| What say you to a neat's foot? |
| KATHERINA: |
| 'Tis passing good; I prithee let me have it. |
| GRUMIO: |
| I fear it is too choleric a meat. |
| How say you to a fat tripe finely broil'd? |
| KATHERINA: |
| I like it well; good Grumio, fetch it me. |
| GRUMIO: |
| I cannot tell; I fear 'tis choleric. |
| What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? |
| KATHERINA: |
| A dish that I do love to feed upon. |
| GRUMIO: |
| Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. |
| KATHERINA: |
| Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest. |
| GRUMIO: |
| Nay, then I will not: you shall have the mustard, |
| Or else you get no beef of Grumio. |
| KATHERINA: |
| Then both, or one, or anything thou wilt. |
| GRUMIO: |
| Why then the mustard without the beef. |
| KATHERINA: |
| Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave, |
| [Beats him.] |
| That feed'st me with the very name of meat. |
| Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you |
| That triumph thus upon my misery! |
| Go, get thee gone, I say. |
| [Enter PETRUCHIO with a dish of meat; and HORTENSIO.] |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort? |
| HORTENSIO: |
| Mistress, what cheer? |
| KATHERINA: |
| Faith, as cold as can be. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Pluck up thy spirits; look cheerfully upon me. |
| Here, love; thou seest how diligent I am, |
| To dress thy meat myself, and bring it thee: |
| [Sets the dish on a table.] |
| I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks. |
| What! not a word? Nay, then thou lov'st it not, |
| And all my pains is sorted to no proof. |
| Here, take away this dish. |
| KATHERINA: |
| I pray you, let it stand. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| The poorest service is repaid with thanks; |
| And so shall mine, before you touch the meat. |
| KATHERINA: |
| I thank you, sir. |
| HORTENSIO: |
| Signior Petruchio, fie! you are to blame. |
| Come, Mistress Kate, I'll bear you company. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| [Aside.] Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou lovest me. |
| Much good do it unto thy gentle heart! |
| Kate, eat apace: and now, my honey love, |
| Will we return unto thy father's house |
| And revel it as bravely as the best, |
| With silken coats and caps, and golden rings, |
| With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things; |
| With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery, |
| With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery. |
| What! hast thou din'd? The tailor stays thy leisure, |
| To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure. |
| [Enter TAILOR.] |
| Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments; |
| Lay forth the gown.— |
| [Enter HABERDASHER.] |
| What news with you, sir? |
| HABERDASHER: |
| Here is the cap your worship did bespeak. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Why, this was moulded on a porringer; |
| A velvet dish: fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy: |
| Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, |
| A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap: |
| Away with it! come, let me have a bigger. |
| KATHERINA: |
| I'll have no bigger; this doth fit the time, |
| And gentlewomen wear such caps as these. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| When you are gentle, you shall have one too, |
| And not till then. |
| HORTENSIO: |
| [Aside] That will not be in haste. |
| KATHERINA: |
| Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak; |
| And speak I will. I am no child, no babe. |
| Your betters have endur'd me say my mind, |
| And if you cannot, best you stop your ears. |
| My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, |
| Or else my heart, concealing it, will break; |
| And rather than it shall, I will be free |
| Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap, |
| A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie; |
| I love thee well in that thou lik'st it not. |
| KATHERINA: |
| Love me or love me not, I like the cap; |
| And it I will have, or I will have none. |
| [Exit HABERDASHER.] |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Thy gown? Why, ay: come, tailor, let us see't. |
| O mercy, God! what masquing stuff is here? |
| What's this? A sleeve? 'Tis like a demi-cannon. |
| What, up and down, carv'd like an appletart? |
| Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, |
| Like to a censer in a barber's shop. |
| Why, what i' devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this? |
| HORTENSIO: |
| [Aside] I see she's like to have neither cap nor gown. |
| TAILOR: |
| You bid me make it orderly and well, |
| According to the fashion and the time. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Marry, and did; but if you be remember'd, |
| I did not bid you mar it to the time. |
| Go, hop me over every kennel home, |
| For you shall hop without my custom, sir. |
| I'll none of it: hence! make your best of it. |
| KATHERINA: |
| I never saw a better fashion'd gown, |
| More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable; |
| 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, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail! |
| Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou! |
| Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread! |
| Away! thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant, |
| Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard |
| As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st! |
| I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr'd her gown. |
| TAILOR: |
| Your worship is deceiv'd: the gown is made |
| Just as my master had direction. |
| Grumio gave order how it should be done. |
| GRUMIO: |
| I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff. |
| TAILOR: |
| But how did you desire it should be made? |
| GRUMIO: |
| Marry, sir, with needle and thread. |
| TAILOR: |
| But did you not request to have it cut? |
| GRUMIO: |
| Thou hast faced many things. |
| TAILOR: |
| GRUMIO: |
| Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave not me: I |
| will neither be fac'd nor brav'd. I say unto thee, I bid thy |
| master cut out the gown; but I did not bid him cut it to pieces: |
| ergo, thou liest. |
| TAILOR: |
| Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Read it. |
| GRUMIO: |
| The note lies in 's throat, if he say I said so. |
| TAILOR: |
| 'Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown.' |
| GRUMIO: |
| Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the |
| skirts of it and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread; |
| I said, a gown. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Proceed. |
| TAILOR: |
| 'With a small compassed cape.' |
| GRUMIO: |
| I confess the cape. |
| TAILOR: |
| 'With a trunk sleeve.' |
| GRUMIO: |
| I confess two sleeves. |
| TAILOR: |
| 'The sleeves curiously cut.' |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Ay, there's the villainy. |
| GRUMIO: |
| Error i' the bill, sir; error i' the bill. I commanded the |
| sleeves should be cut out, and sew'd up again; and that I'll |
| prove upon thee, though thy little finger be armed in a thimble. |
| TAILOR: |
| This is true that I say; an I had thee in place where thou |
| shouldst know it. |
| GRUMIO: |
| I am for thee straight; take thou the bill, give me thy |
| mete-yard, and spare not me. |
| HORTENSIO: |
| God-a-mercy, Grumio! Then he shall have no odds. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. |
| GRUMIO: |
| You are i' the right, sir; 'tis for my mistress. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Go, take it up unto thy master's use. |
| GRUMIO: |
| Villain, not for thy life! Take up my mistress' gown for |
| thy master's use! |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| Why, sir, what's your conceit in that? |
| GRUMIO: |
| O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for. |
| Take up my mistress' gown to his master's use! |
| O fie, fie, fie! |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| [Aside] Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid. |
| [To Tailor.] Go take it hence; be gone, and say no more. |
| HORTENSIO: |
| [Aside to Tailor.] Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown to-morrow; |
| Take no unkindness of his hasty words. |
| Away, I say! commend me to thy master. |
| [Exit TAILOR.] |
| 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; |
| And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, |
| So honour peereth in the meanest habit. |
| What, is the jay more precious than the lark |
| Because his feathers are more beautiful? |
| Or is the adder better than the eel |
| Because his painted skin contents the eye? |
| O no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse |
| For this poor furniture and mean array. |
| If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me; |
| And therefore frolic; we will hence forthwith, |
| To feast and sport us at thy father's house. |
| Go call my men, and let us straight to him; |
| And bring our horses unto Long-lane end; |
| There will we mount, and thither walk on foot. |
| Let's see; I think 'tis now some seven o'clock, |
| And well we may come there by dinner-time. |
| KATHERINA: |
| I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two, |
| And 'twill be supper-time ere you come there. |
| PETRUCHIO: |
| It shall be seven ere I go to horse. |
| Look what I speak, or do, or think to do, |
| You are still crossing it. Sirs, let 't alone: |
| I will not go to-day; and ere I do, |
| It shall be what o'clock I say it is. |
| HORTENSIO: |
| Why, so this gallant will command the sun. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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