1    At last, though long, our jarring notes agree:
2    And time it is, when raging war is done,
3    To smile at scapes and perils overblown.
4    My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome,
5    While I with self-same kindness welcome thine.
6    Brother Petruchio, sister Katharina,
7    And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow,
8    Feast with the best, and welcome to my house:
9    My banquet is to close our stomachs up,
10   After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down;
11   For now we sit to chat as well as eat.

12   Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!

13   Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio.

14   Padua affords nothing but what is kind.

15   For both our sakes, I would that word were true.

16   Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.

17   Then never trust me, if I be afeard.

18   You are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense:
19   I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you.

20   He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

21   Roundly replied.

22   Mistress, how mean you that?

23   Thus I conceive by him.

24   Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that?

25   My widow says, thus she conceives her tale.

26   Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow.

27   'He that is giddy thinks the world turns round:'
28   I pray you, tell me what you meant by that.

29   Your husband, being troubled with a shrew,
30   Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe:
31   And now you know my meaning,

32   A very mean meaning.

33   Right, I mean you.

34   And I am mean indeed, respecting you.

35   To her, Kate!

36   To her, widow!

37   A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down.

38   That's my office.

39   Spoke like an officer; ha' to thee, lad!

40   How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?

41   Believe me, sir, they butt together well.

42   Head, and butt! an hasty-witted body
43   Would say your head and butt were head and horn.

44   Ay, mistress bride, hath that awaken'd you?

45   Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again.

46   Nay, that you shall not: since you have begun,
47   Have at you for a bitter jest or two!

48   Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush;
49   And then pursue me as you draw your bow.
50   You are welcome all.

51   She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio.
52   This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not;
53   Therefore a health to all that shot and miss'd.

54   O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound,
55   Which runs himself and catches for his master.

56   A good swift simile, but something currish.

57   'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself:
58   'Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay.

59   O ho, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now.

60   I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.

61   Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here?

62   A' has a little gall'd me, I confess;
63   And, as the jest did glance away from me,
64   'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright.

65   Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio,
66   I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all.

67   Well, I say no: and therefore for assurance
68   Let's each one send unto his wife;
69   And he whose wife is most obedient
70   To come at first when he doth send for her,
71   Shall win the wager which we will propose.

72   Content. What is the wager?

73   Twenty crowns.

74   Twenty crowns!
75   I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound,
76   But twenty times so much upon my wife.

77   A hundred then.

78   Content.

79   A match! 'tis done.

80   Who shall begin?

81   That will I.
82   Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me.

83   I go.

84   Son, I'll be your half, Bianca comes.

85   I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.
Re-enter BIONDELLO
86   How now! what news?

87   Sir, my mistress sends you word
88   That she is busy and she cannot come.

89   How! she is busy and she cannot come!
90   Is that an answer?

91   Ay, and a kind one too:
92   Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse.

93   I hope better.

94   Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife
95   To come to me forthwith.

96   O, ho! entreat her!
97   Nay, then she must needs come.

98   I am afraid, sir,
99   Do what you can, yours will not be entreated.
Re-enter BIONDELLO
100  Now, where's my wife?

101  She says you have some goodly jest in hand:
102  She will not come: she bids you come to her.

103  Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile,
104  Intolerable, not to be endured!
105  Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress;
106  Say, I command her to come to me.

107  I know her answer.

108  What?

109  She will not.

110  The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.

111  Now, by my holidame, here comes Katharina!

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

113  Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife?

114  They sit conferring by the parlor fire.

115  Go fetch them hither: if they deny to come.
116  Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands:
117  Away, I say, and bring them hither straight.

118  Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder.

119  And so it is: I wonder what it bodes.

120  Marry, peace it bodes, and love and quiet life,
121  And awful rule and right supremacy;
122  And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy?

123  Now, fair befal thee, good Petruchio!
124  The wager thou hast won; and I will add
125  Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns;
126  Another dowry to another daughter,
127  For she is changed, as she had never been.

128  Nay, I will win my wager better yet
129  And show more sign of her obedience,
130  Her new-built virtue and obedience.
131  See where she comes and brings your froward wives
132  As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.
Re-enter KATHARINA, with BIANCA and Widow
133  Katharina, that cap of yours becomes you not:
134  Off with that bauble, throw it under-foot.

135  Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh,
136  Till I be brought to such a silly pass!

137  Fie! what a foolish duty call you this?

138  I would your duty were as foolish too:
139  The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
140  Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper-time.

141  The more fool you, for laying on my duty.

142  Katharina, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women
143  What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.

144  Come, come, you're mocking: we will have no telling.

145  Come on, I say; and first begin with her.

146  She shall not.

147  I say she shall: and first begin with her.

148  Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
149  And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
150  To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
151  It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
152  Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
153  And in no sense is meet or amiable.
154  A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
155  Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
156  And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
157  Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
158  Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
159  Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
160  And for thy maintenance commits his body
161  To painful labour both by sea and land,
162  To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
163  Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
164  And craves no other tribute at thy hands
165  But love, fair looks and true obedience;
166  Too little payment for so great a debt.
167  Such duty as the subject owes the prince
168  Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
169  And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
170  And not obedient to his honest will,
171  What is she but a foul contending rebel
172  And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
173  I am ashamed that women are so simple
174  To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
175  Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
176  When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
177  Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
178  Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
179  But that our soft conditions and our hearts
180  Should well agree with our external parts?
181  Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
182  My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
183  My heart as great, my reason haply more,
184  To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
185  But now I see our lances are but straws,
186  Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
187  That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
188  Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
189  And place your hands below your husband's foot:
190  In token of which duty, if he please,
191  My hand is ready; may it do him ease.

192  Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.

193  Well, go thy ways, old lad; for thou shalt ha't.

194  'Tis a good hearing when children are toward.

195  But a harsh hearing when women are froward.

196  Come, Kate, we'll to bed.
197  We three are married, but you two are sped.
To LUCENTIO
198  'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white;
199  And, being a winner, God give you good night!

200  Now, go thy ways; thou hast tamed a curst shrew.

201  'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.