The Taming of The Shrew

SCENE I

Hortensio, Gremio are talking to Bianca and her father. Music.

Father, Signior Baptista: Enough, gentlemen! You can’t influence me on this point, for I am firmly resolved not to allow my younger daughter to marry before I have a husband for the elder one. If either of you is partial to Katherine, he shall have my permission to court her freely.

Katherine rushes towards her father past the two suitors, they both fall down.

Signior Gremio: (rising) To court her? Oh, no! She is too rough for me.

Katherine: I pray you, sir, is it your intention to publicly humiliate me in front of these suitors?

Signior Hortensio: (rising) We are not your suitors, that’s for sure! Not until you improve your temper, girl!

Katherine: (screaming and frightening the men) Yahhh!

Signior Hortensio: From all such devils, good lord, deliver us.

Signior Gremio: And me, too.

Bianca is crying, her father embraces her.

Father, Signior Baptista: Bianca, go inside. And don’t be unhappy, good Bianca, Whatever happens, I’ll never love you less, my girl.

Katherine: What a spoiled little brat!

Bianca: Sister, be happy in my unhappiness. Sir, to your pleasure I will humbly obey you. I’ll take comfort in my books and music.

Signior Gremio: Signior Baptista, why does one daughter have to be punished for the other’s mouth?

Signior Baptista: Gentlemen, I have made my decision. Go inside, Bianca. (Bianca goes away) Katharina, you may stay.

Katherine: Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? (goes away S. Baptista goes away).

Joker: Well, well, what a wretched state of affairs. Old Batista will never give his consent to the marriage of the fair Bianca not until a husband is found for Katharina. No consent, no dowry.

SCENE II

Petruchio: Farewell, Verona! I’m off to visit my friends in Padua – particularly my best friend Hortensio.

Signior Hortensio: My good friend, Petruchio, what happy wind blows you to Padua here from old Verona?

Petruchio: Such wind as scatters young men through the world, Signior Hortensio. I have set off into this crazy world to see if I can marry well and make a good life for myself.

Signior Hortensio: I can, Petruchio, help you to find a wife with wealth enough and young and beautiful. Her only fault is that she is a total witch. I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

Petruchio: Hortensio, tell me her father’s name – that’s all I need.

SCENE III

Katherine and Bianca enter, Bianca’s hands are tied.

Bianca: Good sister, it’s unfair to me – and unfair to yourself – to turn me into a slave. That I won’t stand for.

Signior Baptista enters, he is shocked by what he sees.

Signior Baptista: What in the world is going on! (to Bianca) Get behind me, Bianca. (Bianca hides behind her father) Poor girl, she is hysterical! Go do some sewing. (to Katherine) Why would you want to hurt your sister?

Katherine: Nay, now I see. She is your treasure. She must have a husband. I must dance barefoot on her wedding day. Talk not to me, I will sit and weep till I can find occasion for revenge. (goes away)

Signior Baptista: (wiping tears away with his handkerchief) Was ever a gentleman thus grieved as I? But who comes here?

Petruchio enters.

Petruchio: I am a gentleman of Verona, sir. Petruchio is my name. Pray, have you not a daughter, called Katherine, fair and virtuous?

Signior Baptista: I have a daughter, sir, called Katherine.

Petruchio: Signior Baptsta, I’m actually in a bit of a hurry. Then tell me, if I get your daughter’s love, what dowry shall I have with her to wife?

Signior Batista: After my death, the one half of my lands, and in possession 20.000 crowns.

Petruchio: Fair enough. Let’s have contracts drawn up between us.

Signior Batista: Ay, when the special thing is well obtained that is her love, for that is all in all.

Petruchio: Why, that is nothing.

Signior Baptista: Well, good luck. But prepare yourself for some unpleasant words. Shall I send my daughter, Kate, to you?

Petruchio: I pray, you do. I’ll attend her here.

Signior Baptista: Kate, Kate. (goes away)

Some time later Kate appears.

Petruchio: Oh, good morrow, Kate, for that’s your name, I hear.

Katherine: Well have you heard but something hard of hearing. They call me Katherine, that to talk of me.

Petruchio: You lie, for you are called plain Kate, and Bonny Kate and sometimes Kate the shrew. But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom, I find myself driven to propose. I want you for my wife.

Kate: Driven? Really? Well, let whoever drove you here drive you back again.

Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp, you are too angry.

Kate: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Petruchio: My remedy, then, is to pluck it out.

Kate: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.

Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.

Kate: And , so, farewell.

Petruchio: Kate, I am a husband for your turn. For I am born to tame you, Kate. And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate comformable as other household Kates.

Signior Baptista enters.

Signior Baptista: Now, Signior Petruchio, how are you getting on with my daughter?

Petruchio: How, but well, sir? We have agreed so well together, that upon Sunday is the wedding day.

Kate: I’ll see you hanged on Sunday first.

Petruchio: When we were alone, we agreed that in public she would go on being unpleasant. I tell you it’s incredible to believe how much she loves me.

Signior Baptista: I know not what to say, but give me your hands. God send you joy. It’s a match.

Petruchio: Provide the feast, Father, and invite the guests. I am off to Venice. Sunday is around the corner. We will have rings and things and fancy dress. And kiss me, Kate, we will be married on Sunday.

SCENE IV

Joker: It was Sunday. The bride was ready and everyone awaited the coming of the bridegroom. They waited….and they waited…and they waited. (The guests are gossiping)

Girl 1: (to Girl 2) The bride has been waiting for her bridegroom for three hours. Can you imagine how furious Katherine is? She is not used to being treated in such a way.

Girl 2: I can imagine her fury! But I am not sorry for her. She has always been such a shrew. It will serve her right!

Signior Baptista, Kate and Bianca enter.

Kate: I told you, I, he was a frantic fool. How must the world point at poor Katharine and say, “Look, there goes the wife of that comedian Petruchio.”

Signior Baptista: Go, girl, I cannot blame you now for weeping. Foe such an injury would vex a saint.

Servant: Master, master, news, and such news as you never heard of.

Signior Baptista: Is he here?

Petruchio enters dressed like a clown.

Petruchio: Where is Kate? It is time we were in church.

Signior Bpatista: (shocked) But surely you are not planning to marry her in what you are wearing!

Petruchio: Yes, just like this. It’s me she is marrying and not my clothes. But what a fool am I to chat with you, when I should bid good morrow to my bride and seal the bargain with a lovely kiss. (kisses Kate)

Dinner.

Petruchio: Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for coming. I know you think to dine with me today. But as it happens I am called away. So let me say good-bye.

Signior Baptista: You are not thinking of leaving tonight?

Petruchio: I have to leave.

Gremio: Please, stay till after dinner.

Petruchio: It cannot be.

Kate: Now, if you love me, stay.

Petruchio: Grumio, my horse.

Kate: All right, then, do what you like. I won’t leave today. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner.

Petruchio: They shall go in to the bridal dinner, Kate. Obey the bride, guests! But as for my bonny Kate, she must come with me. I will be master of what belongs to me. (leads her away)

Bianca’s teacher: Mistress, what is your opinion of your sister?

Bianca: That since she is mad herself, she has married a madman.

SCENE V

Joker: Now in Petruchio’s house in Verona servants are making ready for the arrival of the master and his wife.

Petruchio: Go, rascals. Go, bring my supper to me. Sit down, Kate, make yourself at home.

Servants enter with supper. One of the servants spilt some water. Petruchio strikes him.

Katherine: Take it easy! Please! It was just an accident!

Petruchio: Come, Kate, sit down. I know you are hungry. What’s this? (smells the meat) Mutton? It’s burnt. (returns the plate to the servant)

Kate: I pray you, husband, calm down. The meat was fine.

Petruchio: I tell you, Kate, it was burnt and dried out. Better for us to go hungry. Come, I will bring you to your bridal chamber. (leads her away)

Servant 1: Did you ever see anything like it?

Servant 2: He is giving her a taste of her own medicine.

Petruchio returns and takes the rejected meat and eats it hungrily.

Petruchio: Thus have I begun my reign with a carefully thought-out plan. Last night she got no sleep. And she won’t get any tonight. He, that knows better how to tame a shrew, now let him speak.

SCENE VI

Petruchio’s house.

Hortensio, Kate, Petruchio are at the table.

Hortensio: Mistress, how are you?

Kate: Believe me, I have been better.

Petruchio: Cheer up! I have prepared a meal for you myself, and here it is. (gives her a plate) What, not a word? I guess you don’t want it. Here, take away this dish.

Kate: I pray you, let it stand.

Petruchio: The poorest service is repaid with thanks and so shall mine, before you touch the meat.

Kate: I thank you, sir.

Petruchio: Kate, eat quickly. And now, my honey love, we will return to your father’s house and we’ll dress as well as the best of them with silken coats and caps and golden rings. All finished? The tailor is waiting.

The Tailor: Here is the cap your worship ordered.

Petruchio: Why, ‘tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, a doll cap. Come, let me have a bigger.

Kate: I’ll have no bigger. Gentlewomen wear such caps as these.

Petruchio: When you are gentle, you shall have one too, and not till then.

Hortensio: That will not be in haste.

Petruchio: Your gown. Come, tailor, let us see it. What’s this, a sleeve? What in the world do you call it?

Kate: I never saw a better fashioned gown.

Petruchio: You have ruined the gown. Go, take it away.

Petruchio: (to Hortensio) make sure the tailor will get paid. (to Kate) Well, come, my Kate. We will go to your father’s house, dressed as we are in simple but honest clothes. Let’s see. I think it’s now some 7 o’clock, and well we may come there by dinnertime.

Kate: I hate to say it, but it’s almost 2 o’clock.

Petruchio: It shall be what o’clock I say it is.

Hortensio: I see this fellow intends to command the sun.

Petruchio: Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon.

Kate: The moon? The Sun. It’s not the moonlight now.

Petruchio: I say, it is the moon that shines so bright.

Kate: I know it is the sun that shines so bright.

Petruchio: Evermore crossed and crossed, nothing but crossed.

Kate: And be it moon or sun, or what you please.

Petruchio: I say it is the moon.

Kate: I know it is the moon.

Petruchio: Nay, then you lie. It is the blessed sun.

Kate: Then, God be blessed, it is the blessed sun. But sun it is not, when you say it is not. And the moon changes even as your mind. What you shall have it named, even that it is. And so it shall be so for Katherine.

SCENE VII

Joker: And so they came to Padua. Hortensio married his rich widow and Bianca married her lover, Lucentio. And afterwards, there was a great banquet.

Signior Baptista: Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, I think you have the worst shrew of all.

Petruchio: Well, I say no. And therefore, let’s each one sends for his wife, and he whose wife is most obedient, shall win the bet which we will propose.

Hortensio: Agreed.

Lucentio: What’s the bet? 20 crowns.

Petruchio: 20 crowns? I’ll venture so much of my hawk or hound, but 20 times so much upon my wife.

Hortensio: 100, then.

Petruchio: A match. It’s done.

Hortensio: Who shall begin?

Lucento: I will. Go, bid my mistress come to me. She will be here in a minute! How now? What news?

Servant: Sir, your mistress sends you word that she is busy and cannot come.

Petruchio: How. She is busy and she cannot come. Is that an answer?

Hortensio: Go and entreat my wife to come to me. Now, where is my wife?

Servant: She will not come. She bids you come to her.

Petruchio: Worse and worse, she will not come. Go to your mistress, say, I command her to come to me.

Hortensio: Oh, I know her answer.

Petruchio: What?

Hortensio: She will not.

Kate hurries to her husband.

Kate: What is your will, sir, that you send for me?

Petruchio: Where are your sister and Hortensio’s wife?

Kate: They sit chatting by the parlour fire.

Lucento: Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. Petruchio, you have tamed a terrible shrew!

Kate: An angry woman is like an agitated fountain – muddy, unpleasant, lacking in beauty. And in this condition, no one – however dry or thirsty he may be – will stoop to sip or touch one drop of it.

Petruchio: There, that’s my girl! Come on and kiss me, Kate!

Signior Baptista: Now, you have won the bet, Petruchio. And I will add to their losses 20.000 crowns. Another dowry to another daughter for she is changed, as she had never been.

Photos by the author