Brick Shakespeare: The Comedies—A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew (82 page)

And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid

Whose sudden sight hath thrall’d my wounded eye.

Here comes the rogue.

LUCENTIO (cont.)

Sirrah, where have you been?

BIONDELLO

Where have I been! Nay, how now! where are you?

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, to save my life,

Puts my apparel and my countenance on,

And I for my escape have put on his;

For in a quarrel since I came ashore

I kill’d a man and fear I was descried:

Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,

While I make way from hence to save my life:

You understand me?

BIONDELLO

I, sir! ne’er a whit.

LUCENTIO

And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth:

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.

But, sirrah, not for my sake, but your master’s, I advise

You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies:

When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio;

But in all places else your master Lucentio.

LUCENTIO

Tranio, let’s go: one thing more rests, that thyself execute, to make one among these wooers: if thou ask me why, sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty.

ACT II. Scene I (1–404).

A
t the conclusion of the first scene, the spotlight returns fleetingly to the characters from the Induction. Christopher Sly is nodding off to sleep, and his noble “wife” and “servant” are prodding him to keep awake and enjoy the performance. He sleepily responds that he loves it and wishes it were over.

The second scene opens with Petruchio and his servant, Grumio, arriving at Hortensio’s house from Verona. Grumio perceives everything Petruchio says in a literal sense, which leads to much misunderstanding, comic banter, and Grumio being pulled by the ears. Petruchio explains at length that he has come to Padua to find a wife, so long as she is exceedingly rich. Hortensio knows of a beautiful and wealthy young woman named Katharina for him to marry, but he warns that she is a quarrelsome, “intolerable curst” (I.i.86) whom even he would not marry for all the gold in a mine. Hortensio urges Petruchio to aid him in his own quest for love, as he has eyes for the shrew’s sister. The sisters’ father, Baptista, has declared that the younger Bianca cannot wed until Katharina has married. Hortensio decides that he will dress up as a music tutor so that during private lessons he can properly court Bianca. At the same time, Lucentio dresses up as the Latin teacher “Cambio” under the guise that he will help another old man of Padua, Gremio, to win Bianca. Petruchio agrees to pursue Katharina so that Hortensio and Gremio can compete for Bianca’s affections. In yet another twist, Lucentio has instructed his servant Tranio to dress up as Lucentio and also compete for Bianca.

BIANCA

Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself,

To make a bondmaid and a slave of me;

That I disdain: but for these other gawds,

Unbind my hands, I’ll pull them off myself,

Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;

Or what you will command me will I do,

So well I know my duty to my elders.

KATHARINA

Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell

Whom thou lovest best: see thou dissemble not.

BIANCA

Believe me, sister, of all the men alive

I never yet beheld that special face

Which I could fancy more than any other.

KATHARINA

Minion, thou liest. Is’t not Hortensio?

BIANCA

If you affect him, sister, here I swear

I’ll plead for you myself, but you shall have him.

KATHARINA

O then, belike, 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 but jested with me all this while: