Act 1, Scene 2

Padua. Before HORTENSIO'S house.

[Enter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO.]
Petruchio
528 Verona, for a while I take my leave,
529 To see my friends in Padua; but of all
530 My best beloved and approved friend,
531 Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
532 Here, sirrah Grumio, knock, I say.
Grumio
533 Knock, sir! Whom should I knock? Is there any man has rebused
534 your worship?
Petruchio
535 Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.
Grumio
536 Knock you here, sir! Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I
537 should knock you here, sir?
Petruchio
538 Villain, I say, knock me at this gate;
539 And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.
Grumio
540 My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
541 And then I know after who comes by the worst.
Petruchio
542 Will it not be?
543 Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;
544 I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.
[He wrings GRUMIO by the ears.]
Grumio
545 Help, masters, help! my master is mad.
Petruchio
546 Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!
[Enter HORTENSIO.]
Hortensio
547 How now! what's the matter? My old friend Grumio! and my
548 good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona?
Petruchio
549 Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?
550 Con tutto il cuore ben trovato, may I say.
Hortensio
551 Alla nostra casa ben venuto; molto honorato signor mio Petruchio.
552 Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel.
Grumio
553 Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this
554 be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you, sir,
555 he bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir: well, was it fit for
556 a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I see,
557 two-and-thirty, a pip out?
558 Whom would to God I had well knock'd at first,
559 Then had not Grumio come by the worst.
Petruchio
560 A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
561 I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
562 And could not get him for my heart to do it.
Grumio
563 Knock at the gate! O heavens! Spake you not these words
564 plain: 'Sirrah knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and
565 knock me soundly'? And come you now with 'knocking at the gate'?
Petruchio
566 Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
Hortensio
567 Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge;
568 Why, this's a heavy chance 'twixt him and you,
569 Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.
570 And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale
571 Blows you to Padua here from old Verona?
Petruchio
572 Such wind as scatters young men through the world
573 To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
574 Where small experience grows. But in a few,
575 Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
576 Antonio, my father, is deceas'd,
577 And I have thrust myself into this maze,
578 Haply to wive and thrive as best I may;
579 Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
580 And so am come abroad to see the world.
Hortensio
581 Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee
582 And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?
583 Thou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel;
584 And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich,
585 And very rich: but th'art too much my friend,
586 And I'll not wish thee to her.
Petruchio
587 Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we
588 Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
589 One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife,
590 As wealth is burden of my wooing dance,
591 Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
592 As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
593 As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse,
594 She moves me not, or not removes, at least,
595 Affection's edge in me, were she as rough
596 As are the swelling Adriatic seas:
597 I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
598 If wealthily, then happily in Padua.
Grumio
599 Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is: why,
600 give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an
601 aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though
602 she has as many diseases as two-and-fifty horses: why, nothing
603 comes amiss, so money comes withal.
Hortensio
604 Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in,
605 I will continue that I broach'd in jest.
606 I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
607 With wealth enough, and young and beauteous;
608 Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman:
609 Her only fault,—and that is faults enough,—
610 Is, that she is intolerable curst
611 And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure,
612 That, were my state far worser than it is,
613 I would not wed her for a mine of gold.
Petruchio
614 Hortensio, peace! thou know'st not gold's effect:
615 Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough;
616 For I will board her, though she chide as loud
617 As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack.
Hortensio
618 Her father is Baptista Minola,
619 An affable and courteous gentleman;
620 Her name is Katherina Minola,
621 Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue.
Petruchio
622 I know her father, though I know not her;
623 And he knew my deceased father well.
624 I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her;
625 And therefore let me be thus bold with you,
626 To give you over at this first encounter,
627 Unless you will accompany me thither.
Grumio
628 I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts. O' my
629 word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding
630 would do little good upon him. She may perhaps call him half a
631 score knaves or so; why, that's nothing; and he begin once, he'll
632 rail in his rope-tricks. I'll tell you what, sir, an she stand him
633 but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure
634 her with it that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a
635 cat. You know him not, sir.
Hortensio
636 Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee,
637 For in Baptista's keep my treasure is:
638 He hath the jewel of my life in hold,
639 His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca,
640 And her withholds from me and other more,
641 Suitors to her and rivals in my love;
642 Supposing it a thing impossible,
643 For those defects I have before rehears'd,
644 That ever Katherina will be woo'd:
645 Therefore this order hath Baptista ta'en,
646 That none shall have access unto Bianca
647 Till Katherine the curst have got a husband.
Grumio
648 Katherine the curst!
649 A title for a maid of all titles the worst.
Hortensio
650 Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace,
651 And offer me disguis'd in sober robes,
652 To old Baptista as a schoolmaster
653 Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca;
654 That so I may, by this device at least
655 Have leave and leisure to make love to her,
656 And unsuspected court her by herself.
Grumio
657 Here's no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the
658 young folks lay their heads together!
[Enter GREMIO, and LUCENTIO disguised, with books under his arm.]
Grumio
659 Master, master, look about you: who goes there, ha?
Hortensio
660 Peace, Grumio! 'tis the rival of my love. Petruchio,
661 stand by awhile.
Grumio
662 A proper stripling, and an amorous!
Gremio
663 O! very well; I have perus'd the note.
664 Hark you, sir; I'll have them very fairly bound:
665 All books of love, see that at any hand,
666 And see you read no other lectures to her.
667 You understand me. Over and beside
668 Signior Baptista's liberality,
669 I'll mend it with a largess. Take your papers too,
670 And let me have them very well perfum'd;
671 For she is sweeter than perfume itself
672 To whom they go to. What will you read to her?
Lucentio
673 Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you,
674 As for my patron, stand you so assur'd,
675 As firmly as yourself were still in place;
676 Yea, and perhaps with more successful words
677 Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.
Gremio
678 O! this learning, what a thing it is.
Grumio
679 O! this woodcock, what an ass it is.
Petruchio
680 Peace, sirrah!
Hortensio
681 Grumio, mum! God save you, Signior Gremio!
Gremio
682 And you are well met, Signior Hortensio.
683 Trow you whither I am going? To Baptista Minola.
684 I promis'd to enquire carefully
685 About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca;
686 And by good fortune I have lighted well
687 On this young man; for learning and behaviour
688 Fit for her turn, well read in poetry
689 And other books, good ones, I warrant ye.
Hortensio
690 'Tis well; and I have met a gentleman
691 Hath promis'd me to help me to another,
692 A fine musician to instruct our mistress:
693 So shall I no whit be behind in duty
694 To fair Bianca, so belov'd of me.
Gremio
695 Belov'd of me, and that my deeds shall prove.
[Aside.]
Grumio
696 And that his bags shall prove.
Hortensio
697 Gremio, 'tis now no time to vent our love:
698 Listen to me, and if you speak me fair,
699 I'll tell you news indifferent good for either.
700 Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met,
701 Upon agreement from us to his liking,
702 Will undertake to woo curst Katherine;
703 Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please.
Gremio
704 So said, so done, is well.
705 Hortensio, have you told him all her faults?
Petruchio
706 I know she is an irksome brawling scold;
707 If that be all, masters, I hear no harm.
Gremio
708 No, say'st me so, friend? What countryman?
Petruchio
709 Born in Verona, old Antonio's son.
710 My father dead, my fortune lives for me;
711 And I do hope good days and long to see.
Gremio
712 O Sir, such a life, with such a wife, were strange!
713 But if you have a stomach, to't i' God's name;
714 You shall have me assisting you in all.
715 But will you woo this wild-cat?
Petruchio
716 Will I live?
Grumio
717 Will he woo her? Ay, or I'll hang her.
Petruchio
718 Why came I hither but to that intent?
719 Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
720 Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
721 Have I not heard the sea, puff'd up with winds,
722 Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
723 Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
724 And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
725 Have I not in a pitched battle heard
726 Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?
727 And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
728 That gives not half so great a blow to hear
729 As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?
730 Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.
[Aside]
Grumio
731 For he fears none.
Gremio
732 Hortensio, hark:
733 This gentleman is happily arriv'd,
734 My mind presumes, for his own good and ours.
Hortensio
735 I promis'd we would be contributors,
736 And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er.
Gremio
737 And so we will, provided that he win her.
Grumio
738 I would I were as sure of a good dinner.
[Enter TRANIO, bravely apparelled;and BIONDELLO.]
Tranio
739 Gentlemen, God save you! If I may be bold,
740 Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way
741 To the house of Signior Baptista Minola?
Biondello
742 He that has the two fair daughters; is't he you mean?
Tranio
743 Even he, Biondello!
Gremio
744 Hark you, sir, you mean not her to—
Tranio
745 Perhaps him and her, sir; what have you to do?
Petruchio
746 Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray.
Tranio
747 I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let's away.
[Aside]
Lucentio
748 Well begun, Tranio.
Hortensio
749 Sir, a word ere you go.
750 Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no?
Tranio
751 And if I be, sir, is it any offence?
Gremio
752 No; if without more words you will get you hence.
Tranio
753 Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free
754 For me as for you?
Gremio
755 But so is not she.
Tranio
756 For what reason, I beseech you?
Gremio
757 For this reason, if you'll know,
758 That she's the choice love of Signior Gremio.
Hortensio
759 That she's the chosen of Signior Hortensio.
Tranio
760 Softly, my masters! If you be gentlemen,
761 Do me this right; hear me with patience.
762 Baptista is a noble gentleman,
763 To whom my father is not all unknown;
764 And were his daughter fairer than she is,
765 She may more suitors have, and me for one.
766 Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers;
767 Then well one more may fair Bianca have;
768 And so she shall: Lucentio shall make one,
769 Though Paris came in hope to speed alone.
Gremio
770 What!this gentleman will out-talk us all.
Lucentio
771 Sir, give him head; I know he'll prove a jade.
Petruchio
772 Hortensio, to what end are all these words?
Hortensio
773 Sir, let me be so bold as ask you,
774 Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter?
Tranio
775 No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two,
776 The one as famous for a scolding tongue
777 As is the other for beauteous modesty.
Petruchio
778 Sir, sir, the first's for me; let her go by.
Gremio
779 Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules,
780 And let it be more than Alcides' twelve.
Petruchio
781 Sir, understand you this of me, in sooth:
782 The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for,
783 Her father keeps from all access of suitors,
784 And will not promise her to any man
785 Until the elder sister first be wed;
786 The younger then is free, and not before.
Tranio
787 If it be so, sir, that you are the man
788 Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest;
789 And if you break the ice, and do this feat,
790 Achieve the elder, set the younger free
791 For our access, whose hap shall be to have her
792 Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.
Hortensio
793 Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive;
794 And since you do profess to be a suitor,
795 You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman,
796 To whom we all rest generally beholding.
Tranio
797 Sir, I shall not be slack; in sign whereof,
798 Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,
799 And quaff carouses to our mistress' health;
800 And do as adversaries do in law,
801 Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
Tranio
802 GRUMIO, BIONDELLO.
803 O excellent motion! Fellows, let's be gone.
Hortensio
804 The motion's good indeed, and be it so:—
805 Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 533wordplay
“rebused your worship”
Grumio deliberately mishears 'knock' as a command to knock his master, and says 'rebused' for 'abused' (insulted, wronged). The malapropism is Grumio's comic trick: by misunderstanding 'knock me here' as an instruction to strike Petruchio personally rather than knock on the gate, he creates the argument — and the ear-wringing — that follows.
TLN 543wordplay
“I'll ring it; I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it”
Petruchio puns on 'ring' (to ring a bell / to wring someone's ears) and on musical 'sol-fa' (the syllables do-re-mi used in sight-singing practice). He will test how Grumio performs when his ears are twisted like bell-rope. The next stage direction confirms: he wrings Grumio by the ears.
TLN 550cultural context
“Con tutto il cuore ben trovato”
Petruchio greets Hortensio in Italian: 'With all my heart, well met.' Hortensio replies, 'Welcome to our house; much honoured, my lord Petruchio.' The exchange signals that these gentlemen are bilingual Italians in a fashionable Paduan world where Italian was the prestige language of educated men.
TLN 557archaic vocab
“two-and-thirty, a pip out”
A gambling phrase from the card game One-and-Thirty (an early form of blackjack): a score of thirty-one wins, but thirty-two — 'a pip out' — is one over the limit and loses. Grumio implies Petruchio is one pip short of sane, i.e. slightly mad.
TLN 574archaic vocab
“But in a few, Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me”
'In a few' means 'in a few words' or 'briefly.' Petruchio is signalling that he will give a quick summary of his situation. The phrase was a standard Elizabethan idiom for 'to put it briefly.'
TLN 591classical allusion
“Be she as foul as was Florentius' love, As old as Sibyl”
Petruchio names two bywords for undesirable wives: Florentius loved an old, ugly hag to fulfill a bargain; the Sibyl was the most ancient prophetess in classical tradition, so old that she had shrivelled to almost nothing. Neither ugliness nor age will deter Petruchio if the woman is rich enough.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis
TLN 593classical allusion
“As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse”
Xanthippe was the wife of the philosopher Socrates, famous in antiquity for her terrible temper and sharp tongue. Ancient sources describe her as the archetypal scold; her name became Elizabethan shorthand for a quarrelsome, shrewish wife. Petruchio claims even she would not deter him from a wealthy match.
TLN 600archaic vocab
“marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby”
An 'aglet' is the metal tag at the end of a lace or ribbon fastening a garment. An 'aglet-baby' was a tiny decorative figure mounted on such a tag — a trivially small doll. Grumio is piling up comic examples of undesirable brides: a puppet, a miniature ornament, a toothless old woman sick as horses.
TLN 610archaic vocab
“intolerable curst And shrewd and froward”
'Curst' means ill-tempered, sharp-tongued; 'shrewd' in this older sense means scolding and shrewish (it has since softened to 'clever'); 'froward' means stubbornly contrary, disobedient, refusing to be governed. All three were standard Elizabethan terms for a woman who would not perform expected submission, and the play stacks them to emphasize Katherina's reputation.
TLN 616wordplay
“I will board her, though she chide as loud”
'Board' carries a nautical sense (to board a ship, i.e. seize it by force) and a bawdy sense (to mount sexually). Petruchio's aggressive confidence — he will take Katherina by storm whatever noise she makes — is expressed through a military-maritime metaphor that also carries a sexual threat, establishing the power-contest of their relationship from the first mention of her.
TLN 651cultural context
“offer me disguis'd in sober robes, To old Baptista as a schoolmaster Well seen in music”
Hortensio plans to disguise himself in a music tutor's plain, professional dress ('sober robes') and present himself to Baptista as a qualified teacher. A 'schoolmaster well seen in music' meant someone expert and experienced in the subject — 'well seen' being the Elizabethan phrase for proficient. This launches the subplot of suitors disguising as tutors to gain private access to Bianca.
TLN 679archaic vocab
“O! this woodcock, what an ass it is”
A 'woodcock' was Elizabethan slang for a simpleton or gullible fool. The woodcock was proverbially stupid because it was easily caught by simple snares. Grumio uses it as a contemptuous aside for Gremio, the elderly would-be suitor, whose rapture over Bianca's learning strikes Grumio as comically foolish. Grumio's rejoinder directly parodies Gremio's preceding line ('O! this learning, what a thing it is').
TLN 696cultural context
“And that his bags shall prove”
Grumio's aside punctures Gremio's romantic declaration ('Belov'd of me, and that my deeds shall prove') by substituting 'bags' (money-bags) for 'deeds.' The joke is that Gremio, a rich old man, can only offer money rather than deeds of valor or romantic love. 'Bags' = money-bags was a standard shorthand for the elderly suitor's only advantage.
TLN 720rhetorical device
“Have I not in my time heard lions roar? Have I not heard the sea, puff'd up with winds”
Petruchio's speech is a series of rhetorical questions called 'anaphora' — each line begins 'Have I not...?' — building a catalogue of terrifying sounds (lions, storms, artillery, battle trumpets) to diminish the threat of Katherina's tongue by comparison. The device is also called 'auxesis' or climax, piling up examples to reinforce a single point. The speech is Petruchio's self-advertisement as a man literally battle-hardened and thus unshockable.
TLN 721archaic vocab
“the sea, puff'd up with winds, Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat”
'Chafed' means inflamed or maddened, specifically by the heat and friction of exertion. A boar worked into a sweat of fury was an image of dangerous, irrational rage. The simile is double: the heaving sea is like an angry boar, both uncontrollable and terrifying. For Petruchio even this natural violence is less than a scold's tongue.
TLN 726archaic vocab
“Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang”
'Larums' is a contracted form of 'alarms' — specifically the trumpet or drum call to arms on a battlefield. In stage directions and speech it indicated a general call to battle. Petruchio is cataloguing the loudest sounds of war to dwarf a woman's scolding; 'clang' (a clanging, ringing noise) was the standard word for the sharp clash of metal or the blare of a trumpet.
TLN 730archaic vocab
“fear boys with bugs”
'Bugs' here means bogeys or bugbears — imaginary terrors used to frighten children. The line means 'frighten boys with bogeys,' i.e. use such nonsense on those who are easily scared, not on him. The proverb 'to fear boys with bugs' meant to use empty threats on those who are easily gulled.
TLN 766classical allusion
“Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers; Then well one more may fair Bianca have”
'Leda's daughter' is Helen of Troy: Leda was the Spartan queen whom Jupiter (disguised as a swan) seduced, and Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, whose abduction by Paris caused the ten-year Trojan War. The 'thousand ships' of her suitors was a classical commonplace. Tranio (really Lucentio's servant, speaking as his disguised master) argues that if Helen could have a thousand suitors, one more for Bianca is nothing remarkable.
TLN 769classical allusion
“Though Paris came in hope to speed alone”
Paris was the Trojan prince whose seduction of Helen (Leda's daughter, just named) began the Trojan War. 'Speed' here means succeed, win the prize. Tranio is saying: even if Paris himself arrived expecting to win Bianca unopposed, Lucentio would still compete. The allusion pairs with 'Leda's daughter' above: both Paris and Helen are named within two lines, completing the mythological comparison.
TLN 779classical allusion
“leave that labour to great Hercules, And let it be more than Alcides' twelve”
Hercules (called 'Alcides' from his grandfather Alcaeus) performed twelve near-impossible labours as penance. Gremio jokes that wooing Katherina would be a thirteenth labour — harder than all twelve combined. 'Alcides' is simply another name for Hercules, used interchangeably with 'Hercules' in classical literature and by Shakespeare.
classical Hercules and his labours
TLN 789archaic vocab
“if you break the ice, and do this feat, Achieve the elder”
'Break the ice' in Elizabethan English meant to open the way through a difficult or frozen situation, making things passable for those who follow. Tranio is saying that if Petruchio can force a path through the obstacle of Katherina, the other suitors — for Bianca — will owe him gratitude. This is one of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase in something close to its modern sense.
TLN 798archaic vocab
“contrive this afternoon, And quaff carouses to our mistress' health”
'Contrive' here means to pass or spend time (not to plot, as in modern usage). 'Carouse' (verb: 'quaff carouses') means to drink deeply in toasts — from the German 'gar aus' (drink it all up), imported into English as a term for drinking full bumpers. Tranio is proposing they spend the afternoon drinking toasts to Bianca.
TLN 805cultural context
“Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto”
Hortensio closes by offering to be Petruchio's 'benvenuto' — Italian for 'welcome,' but also a word used in Elizabethan English for a welcome feast or entertainment. The line means: Hortensio will host the celebration for Petruchio's arrival. The Italian word, like the Italian greetings at the scene's opening (TLN 550-551), bookends the scene in the fashionable Italian register of the Paduan world.