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hearing your amendment,

       Are come to play a pleasant comedy;

       For so your doctors hold it very meet,

       Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood,

       And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:

       Therefore they thought it good you hear a play,

       And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,

       Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.

       SLY.

       Marry, I will; let them play it. Is not a commonty a

       Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?

       PAGE.

       No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.

       SLY.

       What! household stuff?

       PAGE.

       It is a kind of history.

       SLY. Well, we’ll see’t. Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.

       [Flourish.]

       ACT I.

       SCENE I. Padua. A public place.

       [Enter LUCENTIO and TRANIO.]

       LUCENTIO.

       Tranio, since for the great desire I had

       To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,

       I am arriv’d for fruitful Lombardy,

       The pleasant garden of great Italy,

       And by my father’s love and leave am arm’d

       With his good will and thy good company,

       My trusty servant well approv’d in all,

       Here let us breathe, and haply institute

       A course of learning and ingenious studies.

       Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

       Gave me my being and my father first,

       A merchant of great traffic through the world,

       Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii.

       Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,

       It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv’d,

       To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:

       And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,

       Virtue and that part of philosophy

       Will I apply that treats of happiness

       By virtue specially to be achiev’d.

       Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left

       And am to Padua come as he that leaves

       A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,

       And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

       TRANIO.

       Mi perdonato, gentle master mine;

       I am in all affected as yourself;

       Glad that you thus continue your resolve

       To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.

       Only, good master, while we do admire

       This virtue and this moral discipline,

       Let’s be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;

       Or so devote to Aristotle’s checks

       As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur’d.

       Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,

       And practise rhetoric in your common talk;

       Music and poesy use to quicken you;

       The mathematics and the metaphysics,

       Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:

       No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en;

       In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

       LUCENTIO.

       Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

       If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,

       We could at once put us in readiness,

       And take a lodging fit to entertain

       Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.

       But stay awhile; what company is this?

       TRANIO.

       Master, some show to welcome us to town.

       [Enter BAPTISTA, KATHERINA, BIANCA, GREMIO,and HORTENSIO.

       LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.]

       BAPTISTA.

       Gentlemen, importune me no further,

       For how I firmly am resolv’d you know;

       That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter

       Before I have a husband for the elder.

       If either of you both love Katherina,

       Because I know you well and love you well,

       Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.

       GREMIO.

       To cart her rather: she’s too rough for me.

       There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?

       KATHERINA.

       [To BAPTISTA] I pray you, sir, is it your will

       To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

       HORTENSIO.

       Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you,

       Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

       KATHERINA.

       I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;

       I wis it is not halfway to her heart;

       But if it were, doubt not her care should be

       To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,

       And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

       HORTENSIO.

       From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!

       GREMIO.

       And me, too, good Lord!

       TRANIO.

       Husht, master! Here’s some good pastime toward:

       That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.

       LUCENTIO.

       But in the other’s silence do I see

       Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.

       Peace, Tranio!

       TRANIO.

       Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.

       BAPTISTA.

       Gentlemen, that I may soon make good

       What I have said,—Bianca, get you in:

       And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,

       For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.

       KATHERINA.

       A pretty peat! it is best

       Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.

       BIANCA.

       Sister, content you in my discontent.

       Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:

       My books and instruments shall be my company,

       On them to look, and practise by myself.

       LUCENTIO.

       Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

       HORTENSIO.

       Signior Baptista, will

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