Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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1.1 Flourish. Enter Lucentio and his man, Tranio

LUCENTIO

Tranio, since for the great desire I had

To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,

I am arrived fore fruitful Lombardy,

The pleasant garden of great Italy,

And by my father’s love and leave am armed

With his good will and thy good company,

My trusty servant, well approved in all,

Here let us breathe, and haply institute

A course of learning and ingenious studies.

Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

Gave me my being, and my father first—

A merchant of great traffic through the world,

Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.

Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become to serve all hopes conceived

To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds.

And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,

Virtue and that part of philosophy

Will I apply that treats of happiness

By virtue specially to be achieved.

Tell me thy mind, for I have Pisa left

And am to Padua come as he that leaves

A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,

And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

TRANIO

Mi perdonate, gentle master mine.

I am in all affected as yourself,

Glad that you thus continue your resolve

To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.

Only, good master, while we do admire

This virtue and this moral discipline,

Let’s be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray,

Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks

As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured.

Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,

And practise rhetoric in your common talk.

Music and poesy use to quicken you;

The mathematics and the metaphysics,

Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you.

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en.

In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

LUCENTIO

Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,

We could at once put us in readiness

And take a lodging fit to entertain

Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.

But stay a while, what company is this?

TRANIO

Master, some show to welcome us to town.

Enter Baptista with his two daughters, Katherine and Bianca; Gremio, a pantaloon; Hortensio, suitor to Bianca. Lucentio and Tranio stand by

BAPTISTA

Gentlemen, importune me no farther,

For how I firmly am resolved you know:

That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter

Before I have a husband for the elder.

If either of you both love Katherina,

Because I know you well and love you well

Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.

GREMIO

To cart her rather. She’s too rough for me.

There, there, Hortensio. Will you any wife?

KATHERINE (to Baptista)

I pray you, sir, is it your will

To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

HORTENSIO

‘Mates’, maid? How mean you that? No mates for

you

Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

KATHERINE

I’faith, sir, you shall never need to fear.

Iwis it is not half-way to her heart,

But if it were, doubt not her care should be

To comb your noddle with a three-legged stool,

And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

HORTENSIO

From all such devils, good Lord deliver us.

GREMIO And me too, good Lord.

TRANIO (aside to Lucentio)

Husht, master, here’s some good pastime toward.

That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.

LUCENTIO (aside to Tranio)

But in the other’s silence do I see

Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.

Peace, Tranio.

TRANIO (aside to Lucentio)

Well said, master. Mum, and gaze your fill.

BAPTISTA

Gentlemen, that I may soon make good

What I have said—Bianca, get you in.

And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,

For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.

KATHERINE A pretty peat! It is best

Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.

BIANCA

Sister, content you in my discontent.

(To Baptista) Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe.

My books and instruments shall be my company,

On them to look and practise by myself.

LUCENTIO (aside to Tranio)

Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

HORTENSIO

Signor Baptista, will you be so strange?

Sorry am I that our good will effects

Bianca’s grief.

GREMIO Why will you mew her up,

Signor Baptista, for this fiend of hell,

And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

BAPTIST

Gentlemen, content ye. I am resolved.

Go in, Bianca.

Exit Bianca

And for I know she taketh most delight

In music, instruments, and poetry,

Schoolmasters will I keep within my house

Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,

Or, Signor Gremio, you know any such,

Prefer them hither; for to cunning men

I will be very kind, and liberal

To mine own children in good bringing up.

And so farewell. Katherina, you may stay,

For I have more to commune with Bianca.

Exit

KATHERINE Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What, shall I be appointed hours, as though belike I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!

Exit

GREMIO You may go to the devil’s dam. Your gifts are so good here’s none will hold you. Their love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together and fast it fairly out. Our cake’s dough on both sides. Farewell. Yet for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her father.

HORTENSIO So will I, Signor Gremio. But a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us both—that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress and be happy rivals in Bianca’s love—to labour and effect one thing specially.

GREMIO What’s that, I pray?

HORTENSIO Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

GREMIO A husband?—a devil!

HORTENSIO I say a husband.

GREMIO I say a devil. Think’st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

HORTENSIO Tush, Gremio. Though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

GREMIO I cannot tell, but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition: to be whipped at the high cross every morning.

HORTENSIO Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten apples. But come, since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained till by helping Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to’t afresh. Sweet Bianca Happy man be his dole. He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, Signor Gremio?

GREMIO I am agreed, and would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin his wooing that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her. Come on.

Exeunt Hortensio and Gremio. Tranio and Lucentio remain

TRANIO

I pray, sir, tell me : is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?

LUCENTIO

O Tranio, till I found it to be true

I never thought it possible or likely.

But see, while idly I stood looking on

I found the effect of love in idleness,

And now in plainness do confess to thee,

That art to me as secret and as dear

As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was,

Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,

If I achieve not this young modest girl.

Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst.

Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

TRANIO

Master, it is no time to chide you now.

Affection is not rated from the heart.

If love have touched you, naught remains but so—

Redime te captum quam queas minimo.

LUCENTIO

Gramercies, lad. Go forward, this contents.

The rest will comfort, for thy counsel’s sound.

TRANIO

Master, you looked so longly on the maid

Perhaps you marked not what’s the pith of all.

LUCENTIO

O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,

Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand

When with his knees he kissed the Cretan strand.

TRANIO

Saw you no more? Marked you not how her sister

Began to scold and raise up such a storm

That mortal ears might hardly endure the din ?

LUCENTIO

Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,

And with her breath she did perfume the air.

Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.

TRANIO (aside)

Nay, then ’tis time to stir him from his trance.

(To Lucentio) I pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it

stands:

Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd

That till the father rid his hands of her,

Master, your love must live a maid at home,

And therefore has he closely mewed her up

Because she will not be annoyed with suitors.

LUCENTIO

Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father’s he!

But art thou not advised he took some care

To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?

TRANIO

Ay, marry am I, sir, and now ’tis plotted.

LUCENTIO

I have it, Tranio.

TRANIO

Master, for my hand,

Both our inventions meet and jump in one.

LUCENTIO

Tell me thine first.

TRANIO You will be schoolmaster

And undertake the teaching of the maid.

That’s your device.

LUCENTIO

It is. May it be done?

TRANIO

Not possible; for who shall bear your part,

And be in Padua here Vincentio’s son,

Keep house, and ply his book, welcome his friends,

Visit his countrymen, and banquet them?

LUCENTIO

Basta, content thee, for I have it full.

We have not yet been seen in any house,

Nor can we be distinguished by our faces

For man or master. Then it follows thus:

Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead;

Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should.

I will some other be, some Florentine,

Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.

Tis hatched, and shall be so. Tranio, at once

Uncase thee. Take my coloured hat and cloak.

When Biondello comes he waits on thee,

But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.

TRANIO So had you need.

[They exchange clothes]

In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,

And I am tied to be obedient—

For so your father charged me at our parting,

‘Be serviceable to my son,’ quoth he,

Although I think ’twas in another sense—

I am content to be Lucentio

Because so well I love Lucentio.

LUCENTIO

Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves,

And let me be a slave t’achieve that maid

Whose sudden sight hath thralled my wounded eye.

Enter Biondello

Here comes the rogue. 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 count’nance on,

And I for my escape have put on his,

For in a quarrel since I came ashore

I killed 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.

Exeunt

The presenters above speak

FIRST SERVINGMAN

My lord, you nod. You do not mind the play.

SLY Yes, by Saint Anne do I. A good matter, surely. Comes there any more of it?

BARTHOLOMEW My lord, ’tis but begun.

SLY ‘Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. Would ’twere done.

They sit and mark

1.2 Enter Petruccio and his man, Grumio

PETRUCCIO

Verona, for a while I take my leave

To see my friends in Padua; but of all

My best-beloved and approved friend

Hortensio, and I trow this is his house.

Here, sirrah Grumio, knock, I say.

GRUMIO Knock, sir? Whom should I knock? Is there any man has rebused your worship?

PETRUCCIO Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

GRUMIO Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

PETRUCCIO

Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,

And rap me well or I’ll knock your knave’s pate.

GRUMIO

My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you

first,

And then I know after who comes by the worst.

PETRUCCIO Will it not be?

Faith, sirrah, an you’ll not knock, I’ll ring it.

I’ll try how you can sol-fa and sing it.

He wrings him by the ears. [Grumio kneels]

GRUMIO Help, masters, help! My master is mad.

PETRUCCIO Now knock when I bid you, sirrah villain.

Enter Hortensio

HORTENSIO How now, what’s the matter? My old friend Grumio and my good friend Petruccio ? How do you all at Verona?

PETRUCCIO

Signor Hortensio, come you to part the fray?

Con tutto il cuore ben trovato, may I say.

HORTENSIO Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto onorato signor mio Petruccio. Rise, Grumio, rise. We will compound this quarrel.

Grumio rises

GRUMIO Nay, ‘tis no matter, sir, what he ’leges in Latin. If this be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service-look you, sir: he bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir. Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so, being perhaps, for aught I see, two-and-thirty, a pip out? Whom would to God I had well knocked at first, Then had not Grumio come by the worst.

PETRUCCIO

A senseless villain. Good Hortensio,

I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,

And could not get him for my heart to do it.

GRUMIO Knock at the gate? O heavens, spake you not these words plain? ‘Sirrah, knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly’ ? And come you now with knocking at the gate?

PETRUCCIO

Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.

HORTENSIO

Petruccio, patience. I am Grumio’s pledge.

Why this’ a heavy chance ’twixt him and you,

Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.

And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale

Blows you to Padua here from old Verona ?

PETRUCCIO

Such wind as scatters young men through the world

To seek their fortunes farther than at home,

Where small experience grows. But in a few,

Signor Hortensio, thus it stands with me :

Antonio, my father, is deceased,

And I have thrust myself into this maze

Happily to wive and thrive as best I may.

Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,

And so am come abroad to see the world.

HORTENSIO

Petruccio, shall I then come roundly to thee

And wish thee to a shrewd, ill-favoured wife?

Thou‘dst thank me but a little for my counsel,

And yet I’ll promise thee she shall be rich,

And very rich. But thou’rt too much my friend,

And I’ll not wish thee to her.

PETRUCCIO

Signor Hortensio, ’twixt such friends as we

Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know

One rich enough to be Petruccio’s wife—

As wealth is burden of my wooing dance—

Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love,

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd

As Socrates’ Xanthippe or a worse,

She moves me not—or not removes at least

Affection’s edge in me, were she as rough

As are the swelling Adriatic seas.

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;

If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

GRUMIO (to Hortensio) Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is. Why, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby, or an old trot with ne’er a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two-and-fifty horses. Why, nothing comes amiss so money comes withal.

HORTENSIO

Petruccio, since we are stepped thus far in,

I will continue that I broached in jest.

I can, Petruccio, help thee to a wife

With wealth enough, and young and beauteous,

Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman.

Her only fault—and that is faults enough—

Is that she is intolerable curst,

And shrewd and froward so beyond all measure

That, were my state far worser than it is,

I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

PETRUCCIO

Hortensio, peace. Thou know‘st not gold’s effect.

Tell me her father’s name and ’tis enough,

For I will board her though she chide as loud

As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.

HORTENSIO

Her father is Baptista Minola,

An affable and courteous gentleman.

Her name is Katherina Minola,

Renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue.

PETRUCCIO

I know her father, though I know not her,

And he knew my deceased father well.

I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her,

And therefore let me be thus bold with you

To give you over at this first encounter,

Unless you will accompany me thither.

GRUMIO I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts. O’ my word, an she knew him as well as I do she would think scolding would do little good upon him. She may perhaps call him half a score knaves or so. Why, that’s nothing; an he begin once he’ll rail in his rope-tricks. I’ll tell you what, sir, an she stand him but a little he will throw a figure in her face and so disfigure her with it that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat. You know him not, sir.

HORTENSIO

Tarry, Petruccio, I must go with thee,

For in Baptista’s keep my treasure is.

He hath the jewel of my life in hold,

His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca,

And her withholds from me and other more,

Suitors to her and rivals in my love,

Supposing it a thing impossible,

For those defects I have before rehearsed,

That ever Katherina will be wooed.

Therefore this order hath Baptista ta’en:

That none shall have access unto Bianca

Till Katherine the curst have got a husband.

GRUMIO Katherine the curst—

A title for a maid of all titles the worst.

HORTENSIO

Now shall my friend Petruccio do me grace,

And offer me disguised in sober robes

To old Baptista as a schoolmaster

Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca,

That so I may by this device at least

Have leave and leisure to make love to her,

And unsuspected court her by herself.

Enter Gremio with a paper, and Lucentio disguised as a schoolmaster

GRUMIO Here’s no knavery. See, to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay their heads together. Master, master, look about you. Who goes there, ha?

HORTENSIO

Peace, Grumio, it is the rival of my love.

Petruccio, stand by a while.

GRUMIO

A proper stripling, and an amorous!

Petruccio, Hortensio, and Grumio stand aside

GREMIO (to Lucentio)

O, very well—I have perused the note.

Hark you, sir, I’ll have them very fairly bound—

All books of love, see that at any hand—

And see you read no other lectures to her.

You understand me. Over and beside

Signor Baptista’s liberality,

I’ll mend it with a largess. Take your paper, too,

And let me have them very well perfumed,

For she is sweeter than perfume itself

To whom they go to. What will you read to her?

LUCENTIO

Whate’er I read to her, I’ll plead for you

As for my patron, stand you so assured,

As firmly as yourself were still in place—

Yea, and perhaps with more successful words

Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.

GREMIO

O this learning, what a thing it is!

GRUMIO (aside)

O this woodcock, what an ass it is!

PETRUCCIO Peace, sirrah.

HORTENSIO

Grumio, mum. (Coming forward) God save you, Signor Gremio.

GREMIO

And you are well met, Signor Hortensio.

Trow you whither I am going?

To Baptista Minola.

I promised to enquire carefully

About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca,

And by good fortune I have lighted well

On this young man, for learning and behaviour

Fit for her turn, well read in poetry

And other books—good ones, I warrant ye.

HORTENSIO

‘Tis well, and I have met a gentleman

Hath promised me to help me to another,

A fine musician, to instruct our mistress.

So shall I no whit be behind in duty

To fair Bianca, so beloved of me.

GREMIO

Beloved of me, and that my deeds shall prove.

GRUMIO (aside) And that his bags shall prove.

HORTENSIO

Gremio, ’tis now no time to vent our love.

Listen to me, and if you speak me fair

I’ll tell you news indifferent good for either.

Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met,

Upon agreement from us to his liking

Will undertake to woo curst Katherine,

Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.

GREMIO So said, so done, is well.

Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?

PETRUCCIO

I know she is an irksome brawling scold.

If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.

GREMIO

No, sayst me so, friend? What countryman?

PETRUCCIO

Born in Verona, old Antonio’s son.

My father dead, his fortune lives for me,

And I do hope good days and long to see.

GREMIO O sir, such a life with such a wife were strange.

But if you have a stomach, to’t, a’ God’s name.

You shall have me assisting you in all.

But will you woo this wildcat?

PETRUCCIO Will I live!

GRUMIO

Will he woo her? Ay, or I’ll hang her.

PETRUCCIO

Why came I hither but to that intent?

Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?

Have I not in my time heard lions roar?

Have I not heard the sea, puffed up with winds,

Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?

Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,

And heaven’s artillery thunder in the skies?

Have I not in a pitched battle heard

Loud ’larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets’ clang?

And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,

That gives not half so great a blow to hear

As will a chestnut in a farmer’s fire ?

Tush, tush—fear boys with bugs.

GRUMIO For he fears none.

GREMIO Hortensio, hark.

This gentleman is happily arrived,

My mind presumes, for his own good and ours.

HORTENSIO

I promised we would be contributors,

And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe’er.

GREMIO

And so we will, provided that he win her.

GRUMIO

I would I were as sure of a good dinner.

Enter Tranio, brave, as Lucentio, and Biondello

TRANIO Gentlemen, God save you. If I may be bold, tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way to the house of Signor Baptista Minola?

BIONDELLO He that has the two fair daughters—is’t he you mean?

TRANIO Even he, Biondello.

GREMIO

Hark you, sir, you mean not her to—

TRANIO

Perhaps him and her, sir. What have you to do?

PETRUCCIO

Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.

TRANIO

I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let’s away.

LUCENTIO (aside)

Well begun, Tranio.

HORTENSIO Sir, a word ere you go.

Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of—yea or no?

TRANIO

And if I be, sir, is it any offence?

GREMIO

No, if without more words you will get you hence.

TRANIO

Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free

For me as for you?

GREMIO But so is not she.

TRANIO

For what reason, I beseech you?

GREMIO

For this reason, if you’ll know—

That she’s the choice love of Signor Gremio.

HORTENSIO

That she’s the chosen of Signor Hortensio.

TRANIO

Softly, my masters. If you be gentlemen,

Do me this right, hear me with patience.

Baptista is a noble gentleman

To whom my father is not all unknown,

And were his daughter fairer than she is

She may more suitors have, and me for one.

Fair Leda’s daughter had a thousand wooers;

Then well one more may fair Bianca have,

And so she shall. Lucentio shall make one,

Though Paris came, in hope to speed alone.

GREMIO

What, this gentleman will out-talk us all!

LUCENTIO

Sir, give him head, I know he’ll prove a jade.

PETRUCCIO

Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

HORTENSIO

Sir, let me be so bold as ask you,

Did you yet ever see Baptista’s daughter?

TRANIO

No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two,

The one as famous for a scolding tongue

As is the other for beauteous modesty.

PETRUCCIO

Sir, sir, the first’s for me. Let her go by.

GREMIO

Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules,

And let it be more than Alcides’ twelve.

PETRUCCIO

Sir, understand you this of me in sooth,

The youngest daughter whom you hearken for

Her father keeps from all access of suitors,

And will not promise her to any man

Until the elder sister first be wed.

The younger then is free, and not before.

TRANIO

If it be so, sir, that you are the man

Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest,

And if you break the ice and do this feat,

Achieve the elder, set the younger free

For our access, whose hap shall be to have her

Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.

HORTENSIO

Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive;

And since you do profess to be a suitor

You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman,

To whom we all rest generally beholden.

TRANIO

Sir, I shall not be slack. In sign whereof,

Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,

And quaff carouses to our mistress’ health,

And do as adversaries do in law—

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

GRUMIO and BIONDELLO

O excellent motion! Fellows, let’s be gone.

HORTENSIO

The motion’s good indeed, and be it so.

Petruccio, I shall be your ben venuto.

Exeunt