Act 4, Scene 4

Padua. Before BAPTISTA'S house.

[Enter TRANIO, and the PEDANT dressed like VINCENTIO.]
Tranio
2071 Sir, this is the house; please it you that I call?
Pedant
2072 Ay, what else? and, but I be deceived,
2073 Signior Baptista may remember me,
2074 Near twenty years ago in Genoa,
2075 Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.
Tranio
2076 'Tis well; and hold your own, in any case,
2077 With such austerity as 'longeth to a father.
Pedant
2078 I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy;
2079 'Twere good he were school'd.
[Enter BIONDELLO.]
Tranio
2080 Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello,
2081 Now do your duty throughly, I advise you.
2082 Imagine 'twere the right Vincentio.
Biondello
2083 Tut! fear not me.
Tranio
2084 But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?
Biondello
2085 I told him that your father was at Venice,
2086 And that you look'd for him this day in Padua.
Tranio
2087 Thou'rt a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink.
2088 Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir.
[Enter BAPTISTA and LUCENTIO.]
Tranio
2089 Signior Baptista, you are happily met.
[To the PEDANT]
Tranio
2090 Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of;
2091 I pray you stand good father to me now;
2092 Give me Bianca for my patrimony.
Pedant
2093 Soft, son!
2094 Sir, by your leave: having come to Padua
2095 To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
2096 Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
2097 Of love between your daughter and himself:
2098 And,—for the good report I hear of you,
2099 And for the love he beareth to your daughter,
2100 And she to him,—to stay him not too long,
2101 I am content, in a good father's care,
2102 To have him match'd; and, if you please to like
2103 No worse than I, upon some agreement
2104 Me shall you find ready and willing
2105 With one consent to have her so bestow'd;
2106 For curious I cannot be with you,
2107 Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.
Baptista
2108 Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.
2109 Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
2110 Right true it is your son Lucentio here
2111 Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him,
2112 Or both dissemble deeply their affections;
2113 And therefore, if you say no more than this,
2114 That like a father you will deal with him,
2115 And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
2116 The match is made, and all is done:
2117 Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
Tranio
2118 I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best
2119 We be affied, and such assurance ta'en
2120 As shall with either part's agreement stand?
Baptista
2121 Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know
2122 Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants;
2123 Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still,
2124 And happily we might be interrupted.
Tranio
2125 Then at my lodging, an it like you:
2126 There doth my father lie; and there this night
2127 We'll pass the business privately and well.
2128 Send for your daughter by your servant here;
2129 My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
2130 The worst is this, that at so slender warning
2131 You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.
Baptista
2132 It likes me well. Cambio, hie you home,
2133 And bid Bianca make her ready straight;
2134 And, if you will, tell what hath happened:
2135 Lucentio's father is arriv'd in Padua,
2136 And how she's like to be Lucentio's wife.
Lucentio
2137 I pray the gods she may, with all my heart!
Tranio
2138 Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
2139 Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way?
2140 Welcome! One mess is like to be your cheer;
2141 Come, sir; we will better it in Pisa.
Baptista
2142 I follow you.
[Exeunt TRANIO, Pedant, and BAPTISTA.]
Biondello
2143 Cambio!
Lucentio
2144 What say'st thou, Biondello?
Biondello
2145 You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?
Lucentio
2146 Biondello, what of that?
Biondello
2147 Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind to expound
2148 the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.
Lucentio
2149 I pray thee moralize them.
Biondello
2150 Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the
2151 deceiving father of a deceitful son.
Lucentio
2152 And what of him?
Biondello
2153 His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.
Lucentio
2154 And then?
Biondello
2155 The old priest at Saint Luke's church is at your
2156 command at all hours.
Lucentio
2157 And what of all this?
Biondello
2158 I cannot tell, except they are busied about a
2159 counterfeit assurance. Take your assurance of her, cum privilegio
2160 ad imprimendum solum; to the church! take the priest, clerk, and
2161 some sufficient honest witnesses.
2162 If this be not that you look for, I have more to say,
2163 But bid Bianca farewell for ever and a day.
[Going.]
Lucentio
2164 Hear'st thou, Biondello?
Biondello
2165 I cannot tarry: I knew a wench married in an afternoon
2166 as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit; and so
2167 may you, sir; and so adieu, sir. My master hath appointed me to
2168 go to Saint Luke's to bid the priest be ready to come against you
2169 come with your appendix.
[Exit.]
Lucentio
2170 I may, and will, if she be so contented.
2171 She will be pleas'd; then wherefore should I doubt?
2172 Hap what hap may, I'll roundly go about her;
2173 It shall go hard if Cambio go without her:
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 2075cultural context
“lodgers at the Pegasus”
Pegasus was one of the most common English inn signs — taken from the winged horse of Greek mythology — giving such inns their name throughout the country. The Pedant claims he and Baptista stayed at the Padua equivalent, a plausible Italian innkeeper detail that makes his false identity convincing.
TLN 2076archaic vocab
“hold your own, in any case, With such austerity as 'longeth to a father”
"Hold your own" means maintain your role or stay in character. "Austerity" here means the serious, dignified bearing appropriate to a wealthy father. "'Longeth" is a contraction of 'belongeth,' meaning 'is fitting for' or 'belongs to.' Tranio is coaching the Pedant to act like a stern, respectable parent, not an impostor.
TLN 2087archaic vocab
“Thou'rt a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink”
"Tall" in Elizabethan English means brave, capable, or excellent — not physically tall. Tranio praises Biondello's work by calling him a 'tall fellow,' then presses a coin into his hand: 'hold thee that to drink' means 'take this to spend on drink,' a common idiom for tipping a servant in gratuity.
TLN 2092archaic vocab
“Give me Bianca for my patrimony”
A "patrimony" is an estate or inheritance handed down from a father, literally 'the father's share.' The disguised Tranio is asking the Pedant — who is playing his father — to formally present Bianca to him as a son would receive his inheritance. The joke is that Bianca is not property at all, but Tranio is deliberately speaking the language of commercial marriage bargaining.
TLN 2115cultural context
“pass my daughter a sufficient dower”
A "dower" was the portion of a husband's estate that English common law guaranteed a widow after his death; a "sufficient dower" was a legally adequate provision. Baptista is asking the fake Vincentio to formally settle property on Bianca as part of the marriage contract. "Pass" here means to convey or transfer by legal instrument. This is the standard Elizabethan marriage-settlement negotiation, done between fathers as a business transaction before the wedding.
TLN 2119archaic vocab
“affied, and such assurance ta'en As shall with either part's agreement stand”
"Affied" means formally betrothed or pledged in marriage by a legal contract. The word comes from Old French 'affier,' to promise on one's faith. Tranio asks where they should formalize the 'assurance' — the legally binding marriage agreement — that will hold up on both sides. The whole passage uses the vocabulary of contract law: 'assurance' (a deed that makes an agreement legally secure), 'agreement,' 'stand' (hold good in law).
TLN 2122rhetorical device
“Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants”
"Pitchers have ears" was a proverbial saying meaning that eavesdroppers are everywhere — a pitcher's handle was called its 'ear,' so a jug with ears can 'hear.' Baptista uses it to explain why he will not conduct the secret betrothal in his own house, where curious servants might overhear. The proverb is a neat shorthand for the danger of the Gremio subplot (the old suitor is still lurking nearby).
TLN 2129archaic vocab
“My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently”
A scrivener was a professional legal copyist who drew up contracts, bonds, deeds, and other formal documents for a fee. Tranio proposes to bring in a scrivener to write up the marriage settlement ('assurance') that Baptista has just demanded. The scrivener is the guarantor of legality — ironically, since the entire negotiation is fraudulent. "Presently" means at once, immediately.
TLN 2165cultural context
“I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit”
Biondello's comic anecdote captures the Elizabethan reality of the clandestine marriage: a couple could marry with almost no preparation so long as a priest, a clerk, and two witnesses were at hand. Going to the garden for parsley — a domestic errand — is Biondello's way of saying the elopement need take no longer than a routine chore. His point to Lucentio: stop hesitating and go now, while Baptista is safely distracted at Tranio's lodging.