Act 5, Scene 2

A room in LUCENTIO'S house.

[Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the PEDANT, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, HORTENSIO, and WIDOW. TRANIO, BIONDELLO, and GRUMIO, and Others, attending.]
Lucentio
2382 At last, though long, our jarring notes agree:
2383 And time it is when raging war is done,
2384 To smile at 'scapes and perils overblown.
2385 My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,
2386 While I with self-same kindness welcome thine.
2387 Brother Petruchio, sister Katherina,
2388 And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,
2389 Feast with the best, and welcome to my house:
2390 My banquet is to close our stomachs up,
2391 After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down;
2392 For now we sit to chat as well as eat.
[They sit at table.]
Petruchio
2393 Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!
Baptista
2394 Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.
Petruchio
2395 Padua affords nothing but what is kind.
Hortensio
2396 For both our sakes I would that word were true.
Petruchio
2397 Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.
Widow
2398 Then never trust me if I be afeard.
Petruchio
2399 You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense:
2400 I mean Hortensio is afeard of you.
Widow
2401 He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.
Petruchio
2402 Roundly replied.
Katherina
2403 Mistress, how mean you that?
Widow
2404 Thus I conceive by him.
Petruchio
2405 Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that?
Hortensio
2406 My widow says thus she conceives her tale.
Petruchio
2407 Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.
Katherina
2408 'He that is giddy thinks the world turns round':
2409 I pray you tell me what you meant by that.
Widow
2410 Your husband, being troubled with a shrew,
2411 Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe;
2412 And now you know my meaning.
Katherina
2413 A very mean meaning.
Widow
2414 Right, I mean you.
Katherina
2415 And I am mean, indeed, respecting you.
Petruchio
2416 To her, Kate!
Hortensio
2417 To her, widow!
Petruchio
2418 A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.
Hortensio
2419 That's my office.
Petruchio
2420 Spoke like an officer: ha' to thee, lad.
[Drinks to HORTENSIO.]
Baptista
2421 How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?
Gremio
2422 Believe me, sir, they butt together well.
Bianca
2423 Head and butt! An hasty-witted body
2424 Would say your head and butt were head and horn.
Vincentio
2425 Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you?
Bianca
2426 Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again.
Petruchio
2427 Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun,
2428 Have at you for a bitter jest or two.
Bianca
2429 Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush,
2430 And then pursue me as you draw your bow.
2431 You are welcome all.
[Exeunt BIANCA, KATHERINA, and WIDOW.]
Petruchio
2432 She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio;
2433 This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not:
2434 Therefore a health to all that shot and miss'd.
Tranio
2435 O, sir! Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound,
2436 Which runs himself, and catches for his master.
Petruchio
2437 A good swift simile, but something currish.
Tranio
2438 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself:
2439 'Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay.
Baptista
2440 O ho, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now.
Lucentio
2441 I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.
Hortensio
2442 Confess, confess; hath he not hit you here?
Petruchio
2443 A' has a little gall'd me, I confess;
2444 And, as the jest did glance away from me,
2445 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright.
Baptista
2446 Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,
2447 I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.
Petruchio
2448 Well, I say no; and therefore, for assurance,
2449 Let's each one send unto his wife,
2450 And he whose wife is most obedient,
2451 To come at first when he doth send for her,
2452 Shall win the wager which we will propose.
Hortensio
2453 Content. What's the wager?
Lucentio
2454 Twenty crowns.
Petruchio
2455 Twenty crowns!
2456 I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound,
2457 But twenty times so much upon my wife.
Lucentio
2458 A hundred then.
Hortensio
2459 Content.
Petruchio
2460 A match! 'tis done.
Hortensio
2461 Who shall begin?
Lucentio
2462 That will I.
2463 Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.
Biondello
2464 I go.
[Exit.]
Baptista
2465 Son, I'll be your half, Bianca comes.
Lucentio
2466 I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.
[Re-enter BIONDELLO.]
Lucentio
2467 How now! what news?
Biondello
2468 Sir, my mistress sends you word
2469 That she is busy and she cannot come.
Petruchio
2470 How! She's busy, and she cannot come!
2471 Is that an answer?
Gremio
2472 Ay, and a kind one too:
2473 Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.
Petruchio
2474 I hope, better.
Hortensio
2475 Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife
2476 To come to me forthwith.
[Exit BIONDELLO.]
Petruchio
2477 O, ho! entreat her!
2478 Nay, then she must needs come.
Hortensio
2479 I am afraid, sir,
2480 Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.
[Re-enter BIONDELLO.]
Hortensio
2481 Now, where's my wife?
Biondello
2482 She says you have some goodly jest in hand:
2483 She will not come; she bids you come to her.
Petruchio
2484 Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile,
2485 Intolerable, not to be endur'd!
2486 Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress; say,
2487 I command her come to me.
[Exit GRUMIO.]
Hortensio
2488 I know her answer.
Petruchio
2489 What?
Hortensio
2490 She will not.
Petruchio
2491 The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.
[Re-enter KATHERINA.]
Baptista
2492 Now, by my holidame, here comes Katherina!
Katherina
2493 What is your sir, that you send for me?
Petruchio
2494 Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife?
Katherina
2495 They sit conferring by the parlour fire.
Petruchio
2496 Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to come,
2497 Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands.
2498 Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.
[Exit KATHERINA.]
Lucentio
2499 Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.
Hortensio
2500 And so it is. I wonder what it bodes.
Petruchio
2501 Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life,
2502 An awful rule, and right supremacy;
2503 And, to be short, what not that's sweet and happy.
Baptista
2504 Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio!
2505 The wager thou hast won; and I will add
2506 Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns;
2507 Another dowry to another daughter,
2508 For she is chang'd, as she had never been.
Petruchio
2509 Nay, I will win my wager better yet,
2510 And show more sign of her obedience,
2511 Her new-built virtue and obedience.
2512 See where she comes, and brings your froward wives
2513 As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.
[Re-enter KATHERINA with BIANCA and WIDOW.]
Petruchio
2514 Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not:
2515 Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot.
[KATHERINA pulls off her cap and throws it down.]
Widow
2516 Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh
2517 Till I be brought to such a silly pass!
Bianca
2518 Fie! what a foolish duty call you this?
Lucentio
2519 I would your duty were as foolish too;
2520 The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
2521 Hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time!
Bianca
2522 The more fool you for laying on my duty.
Petruchio
2523 Katherine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women
2524 What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
Widow
2525 Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling.
Petruchio
2526 Come on, I say; and first begin with her.
Widow
2527 She shall not.
Petruchio
2528 I say she shall: and first begin with her.
Katherina
2529 Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
2530 And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
2531 To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
2532 It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
2533 Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
2534 And in no sense is meet or amiable.
2535 A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
2536 Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
2537 And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
2538 Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
2539 Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
2540 Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
2541 And for thy maintenance commits his body
2542 To painful labour both by sea and land,
2543 To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
2544 Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
2545 And craves no other tribute at thy hands
2546 But love, fair looks, and true obedience;
2547 Too little payment for so great a debt.
2548 Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
2549 Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
2550 And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
2551 And not obedient to his honest will,
2552 What is she but a foul contending rebel
2553 And graceless traitor to her loving lord?—
2554 I am asham'd that women are so simple
2555 To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
2556 Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
2557 When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
2558 Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
2559 Unapt to toll and trouble in the world,
2560 But that our soft conditions and our hearts
2561 Should well agree with our external parts?
2562 Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
2563 My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
2564 My heart as great, my reason haply more,
2565 To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
2566 But now I see our lances are but straws,
2567 Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
2568 That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
2569 Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
2570 And place your hands below your husband's foot:
2571 In token of which duty, if he please,
2572 My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
Petruchio
2573 Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
Lucentio
2574 Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha't.
Vincentio
2575 'Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
Lucentio
2576 But a harsh hearing when women are froward.
Petruchio
2577 Come, Kate, we'll to bed.
2578 We three are married, but you two are sped.
2579 'Twas I won the wager,
[To LUCENTIO.]
Petruchio
2580 though you hit the white;
2581 And being a winner, God give you good night!
[Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA.]
Hortensio
2582 Now go thy ways; thou hast tam'd a curst shrew.
Lucentio
2583 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2390archaic vocab
“My banquet is to close our stomachs up”
'Close our stomachs up' means to finish off our appetites — to put a seal on the main feast. A 'banquet' in this period often meant a separate course of sweetmeats, fruit, and wine served after dinner rather than the main meal itself. Lucentio is announcing a dessert course, not a second supper.
TLN 2401rhetorical device
“He that is giddy thinks the world turns round”
This is a proverb meaning that someone who is dizzy (in this context, someone afraid of his wife) projects his own confusion onto the world around him. The Widow turns Petruchio's jibe about Hortensio fearing her back on Petruchio himself — and implicitly on Katherina, the one married to a 'giddy' husband.
TLN 2418wordplay
“A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down”
Petruchio bets 'a hundred marks' — roughly sixty-seven pounds, a substantial sum for the period — that Kate will win the verbal sparring match. 'Put her down' means both 'silence her in argument' and, in the bawdy sense Hortensio picks up, 'lay her down sexually.' Hortensio's 'That's my office' claims the sexual role for himself as the Widow's husband.
TLN 2435cultural context
“Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound”
To 'slip' a dog meant to release it from the leash at the moment of the hunt — a technical term of coursing (greyhound-racing after a hare). Tranio says Lucentio unleashed him like a greyhound to run the courtship independently and catch Bianca for his master. The image is a self-deprecating joke: the servant ran the race, the master gets the prize.
TLN 2439cultural context
“your deer does hold you at a bay”
When stags or deer turned to face and fight the hounds instead of running, they were said to 'stand at bay.' Tranio's hunting jibe means Petruchio's wife ('your deer') has turned and is holding him off rather than submitting. A 'deer' was also a common pun on 'dear' (beloved), so the quibble folds affection and defiance into a single image.
TLN 2446archaic vocab
“Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio”
'In good sadness' is an oath meaning 'in all seriousness' or 'in earnest.' It is not connected to grief. Baptista is cutting through the banter to say something he means genuinely: he really does think Petruchio has drawn the most difficult wife.
TLN 2456cultural context
“I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound”
Petruchio scoffs at twenty crowns as a trivial wager — he would risk that on a hawk or a hound, let alone his wife. Hawks and hounds were the two most expensive articles in an Elizabethan gentleman's sporting life; 'hawk or hound' was a conventional pairing for prized possessions. He then raises the wager to a hundred crowns — five times the starting bid.
historical Falconry and the taming of the haggard
TLN 2492archaic vocab
“Now, by my holidame, here comes Katherina!”
'By my holidame' is a mild oath meaning roughly 'by my holy lady' — an invocation of the Virgin Mary as a sworn witness. By Shakespeare's time it was a common exclamation of surprise, more polite than forceful, which makes it appropriate for the shocked Baptista.
TLN 2497archaic vocab
“Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands”
'Swinge' means to beat or flog. Petruchio is instructing Katherina to thrash the other wives out to their husbands if they refuse to come — an instruction so casually violent that the men in the room are shocked into silence. That Katherina goes and returns with the wives without any reported violence makes the command a test of authority, not a literal order.
TLN 2501archaic vocab
“Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, An awful rule”
'Awful' here means 'law-abiding' or 'awe-inspiring' — commanding respect and obedience — not frightening in the modern sense. 'An awful rule, and right supremacy' means a household governed by proper, obedience-inspiring authority. Petruchio is describing his marriage as an orderly hierarchy, not a reign of terror.
TLN 2514cultural context
“Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not: Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot”
Petruchio orders Katherina to remove and destroy her cap in front of the assembled company. A woman's cap was a marker of social status and feminine propriety in the period — the same point of contention as in the haberdasher scene (4.3) where Petruchio rejected the fashionable cap Katherina wanted. The destruction of a piece of dress before witnesses signals her willingness to put his will above her own public presentation.
TLN 2531cultural context
“thy lord, thy king, thy governor”
The ascending triad — lord, king, governor — maps the husband's authority over his wife onto the political structure of the state: as a subject owes obedience to a lord, as a citizen owes it to a king, so a wife owes it to her husband. This was the standard patriarchal doctrine of Elizabethan domestic conduct manuals, sermons, and homilies. Katherina's speech draws directly on this official ideology, which Shakespeare presents without approval or disapproval: the play lets it stand as culturally real.
TLN 2535rhetorical device
“A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty”
This is an extended simile (the formal term is 'similitudo'): an angry woman is like a stirred-up spring — cloudy, thick, ugly, and unfit to drink from. The image works on two levels: literal (no one will drink from a muddy fountain) and social (no one will approach or value an angry woman). The point is tactical: anger destroys its own possessor, not the target.
TLN 2548cultural context
“Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband”
Katherina makes explicit the political analogy that runs through her speech: a wife's duty to her husband is identical in kind to a subject's duty to the monarch — total, unconditional, non-negotiable. A wife who defies her husband is therefore not merely unpleasant but a 'foul contending rebel / And graceless traitor' — criminal vocabulary from the law of treason, applied to the domestic sphere.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 2562archaic vocab
“Come, come, you froward and unable worms!”
'Froward' means stubbornly contrary or disobedient — the opposite of 'toward' (compliant). It is the play's key epithet for difficult behaviour (applied earlier to Katherina herself). 'Unable' means weak, lacking strength or capacity. 'Worms' is a term of contempt for small, weak, worthless creatures. Katherina is now applying to the Widow and Bianca the same dismissive vocabulary that was once used about her.
TLN 2569archaic vocab
“Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, And place your hands below your husband's foot”
'Vail your stomachs' means lower your pride — 'stomach' in the period meant arrogance, spirit, or temper, not the digestive organ. 'It is no boot' means there is no benefit (no 'good') in resisting. The physical gesture — placing one's hand beneath the husband's foot in token of submission — is a stylized act of feudal homage, offering to put oneself literally under his foot as a servant to a lord.
TLN 2573cultural context
“Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate”
Petruchio's response to Katherina's long speech is a public kiss — not a word of acknowledgment of her argument, just physical approval ('there's a wench'). 'Wench' could be affectionate (a spirited girl) or dismissive (a servant-woman); in context it is approbatory, a term of rough endearment from a social superior. The scene ends not with a conversation about obedience but with a display of it, and the closing action rewards the speech with a kiss rather than a reply.
TLN 2580wordplay
“though you hit the white; And being a winner, God give you good night!”
'Hit the white' is an archery term for hitting the white central ring of a target — equivalent to a modern bullseye. But 'Bianca' means 'white' in Italian, so Petruchio is saying Lucentio hit Bianca (married the beautiful girl) while Petruchio — the winner — won the larger prize: a truly obedient wife. The pun caps the whole play's plot.
TLN 2582cultural context
“thou hast tam'd a curst shrew”
'Curst' means bad-tempered, sharp, shrewish — the standard Elizabethan word for the quality the play is named after. A 'shrew' was a scolding, quarrelsome woman; the word's literal sense (a small, fierce, sharp-toothed rodent) gave it its figurative force. The play ends by naming its own subject, and Lucentio's final half-line — ''Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so' — leaves the question open: it is a wonder, possibly a suspicious one.
historical Patient Griselda