Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate—

For dainties are all cates, and therefore ‘Kate’—

Take this of me, Kate of my consolation:

Hearing thy mildness praised in every town,

Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded—

Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs—

Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.

KATHERINE

Moved? In good time. Let him that moved you hither

Re-move you hence. I knew you at the first

You were a movable.

PETRUCCIO

Why, what’s a movable?

KATHERINE

A joint-stool.

PETRUCCIO

Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.

KATHERINE

Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

PETRUCCIO

Women are made to bear, and so are you.

KATHERINE

No such jade as you, if me you mean.

PETRUCCIO

Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee,

For knowing thee to be but young and light.

KATHERINE

Too light for such a swain as you to catch,

And yet as heavy as my weight should be. 205

PETRUCCIO

Should be?—should buzz.

KATHERINE Well ta’en, and like a buzzard.

PETRUCCIO

O slow-winged turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?

KATHERINE

Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.

PETRUCCIO

Come, come, you wasp, i’faith you are too angry.

KATHERINE

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

PETRUCCIO

My remedy is then to pluck it out.

KATHERINE

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

PETRUCCIO

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

KATHERINE In his tongue.

PETRUCCIO Whose tongue?

KATHERINE

Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.

PETRUCCIO

What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, Good Kate, I am a gentleman.

KATHERINE That I’ll try.

She strikes him

PETRUCCIO

I swear I’ll cuff you if you strike again.

KATHERINE So may you lose your arms.

If you strike me you are no gentleman,

And if no gentleman, why then, no arms.

PETRUCCIO

A herald, Kate? O, put me in thy books.

KATHERINE What is your crest—a coxcomb?

PETRUCCIO

A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.

KATHERINE

No cock of mine. You crow too like a craven.

PETRUCCIO

Nay, come, Kate, come. You must not look so sour.

KATHERINE

It is my fashion when I see a crab.

PETRUCCIO

Why, here’s no crab, and therefore look not sour.

KATHERINE There is, there is.

PETRUCCIO Then show it me. 230

KATHERINE

Had I a glass I would.

PETRUCCIO

What, you mean my face?

KATHERINE

Well aimed, of such a young one.

PETRUCCIO

Now, by Saint George, I am too young for you.

KATHERINE

Yet you are withered.

PETRUCCIO ‘Tis with cares.

KATHERINE

I care not.

PETRUCCIO

Nay, hear you, Kate. In sooth, you scape not so. 235

KATHERINE

I chafe you if I tarry. Let me go.

PETRUCCIO

No, not a whit. I find you passing gentle.

‘Twas told me you were rough, and coy, and sullen,

And now I find report a very liar,

For thou art pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous,

But slow in speech, yet sweet as springtime flowers.

Thou canst not frown. Thou canst not look askance,

Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will,

Nor hast thou pleasure to be cross in talk,

But thou with mildness entertain’st thy wooers,

With gentle conference, soft, and affable.

Why does the world report that Kate doth limp?

O sland’rous world ! Kate like the hazel twig

Is straight and slender, and as brown in hue

As hazelnuts, and sweeter than the kernels.

O let me see thee walk. Thou dost not halt.

KATHERINE

Go, fool, and whom thou keep’st command.

PETRUCCIO

Did ever Dian so become a grove

As Kate this chamber with her princely gait?

O, be thou Dian, and let her be Kate,

And then let Kate be chaste and Dian sportful.

KATHERINE

Where did you study all this goodly speech?

PETRUCCIO

It is extempore, from my mother-wit.

KATHERINE

A witty mother, witless else her son.

PETRUCCIO

Am I not wise?

KATHERINE Yes, keep you warm.

PETRUCCIO

Marry, so I mean, sweet Katherine, in thy bed.

And therefore setting all this chat aside,

Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented

That you shall be my wife, your dowry ’greed on,

And will you, nill you, I will marry you.

Now, Kate, I am a husband for your turn,

For by this light, whereby I see thy beauty—

Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well—

Thou must be married to no man but me,

Enter Baptista, Gremio, and Tranio as Lucentio

For I am he am born to tame you, Kate,

And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate

Conformable as other household Kates.

Here comes your father. Never make denial.

I must and will have Katherine to my wife.

BAPTISTA Now, Signor Petruccio, how speed you with my daughter? 276

PETRUCCIO How but well, sir, how but well?

It were impossible I should speed amiss.

BAPTISTA

Why, how now, daughter Katherine—in your dumps?

KATHERINE

Call you me daughter? Now I promise you 280

You have showed a tender fatherly regard,

To wish me wed to one half-lunatic,

A madcap ruffian and a swearing Jack,

That thinks with oaths to face the matter out.

PETRUCCIO

Father, ‘tis thus: yourself and all the world 285

That talked of her have talked amiss of her.

If she be curst, it is for policy,

For she’s not froward, but modest as the dove.

She is not hot, but temperate as the morn.

For patience she will prove a second Grissel, 290

And Roman Lucrece for her chastity.

And to conclude, we have ’greed so well together

That upon Sunday is the wedding day.

KATHERINE

I’ll see thee hanged on Sunday first.

GREMIO Hark, Petruccio, she says she’ll see thee hanged first. 296