SCENE III. A room in PETRUCHIO'S house. The Taming of the Shrew  Shakespeare homepage  |  Taming of the Shrew  | Act 4, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. A room in PETRUCHIO'S house. 

 Enter KATHARINA and GRUMIO  GRUMIO  No, no, forsooth; I dare not for my life. 

 KATHARINA  The more my wrong, the more his spite appears: 

 What, did he marry me to famish me? 

 Beggars, that come unto my father's door, 

 Upon entreaty have a present aims; 

 If not, elsewhere they meet with charity: 

 But I, who never knew how to entreat, 

 Nor never needed that I should entreat, 

 Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep, 

 With oath kept waking and with brawling fed: 

 And that which spites me more than all these wants, 

 He does it under name of perfect love; 

 As who should say, if I should sleep or eat, 

 'Twere deadly sickness or else present death. 

 I prithee go and get me some repast; 

 I care not what, so it be wholesome food. 

 GRUMIO  What say you to a neat's foot? 

 KATHARINA  'Tis passing good: I prithee let me have it. 

 GRUMIO  I fear it is too choleric a meat. 

 How say you to a fat tripe finely broil'd? 

 KATHARINA  I like it well: good Grumio, fetch it me. 

 GRUMIO  I cannot tell; I fear 'tis choleric. 

 What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? 

 KATHARINA  A dish that I do love to feed upon. 

 GRUMIO  Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. 

 KATHARINA  Why then, the beef, and let the mustard rest. 

 GRUMIO  Nay then, I will not: you shall have the mustard, 

 Or else you get no beef of Grumio. 

 KATHARINA  Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt. 

 GRUMIO  Why then, the mustard without the beef. 

 KATHARINA  Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave, 



 Beats him  That feed'st me with the very name of meat: 

 Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you, 

 That triumph thus upon my misery! 

 Go, get thee gone, I say. 



 Enter PETRUCHIO and HORTENSIO with meat  PETRUCHIO  How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort? 

 HORTENSIO  Mistress, what cheer? 

 KATHARINA  Faith, as cold as can be. 

 PETRUCHIO  Pluck up thy spirits; look cheerfully upon me. 

 Here love; thou see'st how diligent I am 

 To dress thy meat myself and bring it thee: 

 I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks. 

 What, not a word? Nay, then thou lovest it not; 

 And all my pains is sorted to no proof. 

 Here, take away this dish. 

 KATHARINA  I pray you, let it stand. 

 PETRUCHIO  The poorest service is repaid with thanks; 

 And so shall mine, before you touch the meat. 

 KATHARINA  I thank you, sir. 

 HORTENSIO  Signior Petruchio, fie! you are to blame. 

 Come, mistress Kate, I'll bear you company. 

 PETRUCHIO  [Aside]  Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou lovest me. 

 Much good do it unto thy gentle heart! 

 Kate, eat apace: and now, my honey love, 

 Will we return unto thy father's house 

 And revel it as bravely as the best, 

 With silken coats and caps and golden rings, 

 With ruffs and cuffs and fardingales and things; 

 With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery, 

 With amber bracelets, beads and all this knavery. 

 What, hast thou dined? The tailor stays thy leisure, 

 To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure. 



 Enter Tailor  Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments; 

 Lay forth the gown. 



 Enter Haberdasher  What news with you, sir? 

 Haberdasher  Here is the cap your worship did bespeak. 

 PETRUCHIO  Why, this was moulded on a porringer; 

 A velvet dish: fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy: 

 Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, 

 A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap: 

 Away with it! come, let me have a bigger. 

 KATHARINA  I'll have no bigger: this doth fit the time, 

 And gentlewomen wear such caps as these 

 PETRUCHIO  When you are gentle, you shall have one too, 

 And not till then. 

 HORTENSIO  [Aside]  That will not be in haste. 

 KATHARINA  Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak; 

 And speak I will; I am no child, no babe: 

 Your betters have endured me say my mind, 

 And if you cannot, best you stop your ears. 

 My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, 

 Or else my heart concealing it will break, 

 And rather than it shall, I will be free 

 Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words. 

 PETRUCHIO  Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap, 

 A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie: 

 I love thee well, in that thou likest it not. 

 KATHARINA  Love me or love me not, I like the cap; 

 And it I will have, or I will have none. 



 Exit Haberdasher  PETRUCHIO  Thy gown? why, ay: come, tailor, let us see't. 

 O mercy, God! what masquing stuff is here? 

 What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon: 

 What, up and down, carved like an apple-tart? 

 Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, 

 Like to a censer in a barber's shop: 

 Why, what, i' devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this? 

 HORTENSIO  [Aside]  I see she's like to have neither cap nor gown. 

 Tailor  You bid me make it orderly and well, 

 According to the fashion and the time. 

 PETRUCHIO  Marry, and did; but if you be remember'd, 

 I did not bid you mar it to the time. 

 Go, hop me over every kennel home, 

 For you shall hop without my custom, sir: 

 I'll none of it: hence! make your best of it. 

 KATHARINA  I never saw a better-fashion'd gown, 

 More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable: 

 Belike you mean to make a puppet of me. 

 PETRUCHIO  Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee. 

 Tailor  She says your worship means to make 

 a puppet of her. 

 PETRUCHIO  O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, 

 thou thimble, 

 Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail! 

 Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou! 

 Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread? 

 Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant; 

 Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard 

 As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest! 

 I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr'd her gown. 

 Tailor  Your worship is deceived; the gown is made 

 Just as my master had direction: 

 Grumio gave order how it should be done. 

 GRUMIO  I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff. 

 Tailor  But how did you desire it should be made? 

 GRUMIO  Marry, sir, with needle and thread. 

 Tailor  But did you not request to have it cut? 

 GRUMIO  Thou hast faced many things. 

 Tailor  I have. 

 GRUMIO  Face not me: thou hast braved many men; brave not 

 me; I will neither be faced nor braved. I say unto 

 thee, I bid thy master cut out the gown; but I did 

 not bid him cut it to pieces: ergo, thou liest. 

 Tailor  Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify 

 PETRUCHIO  Read it. 

 GRUMIO  The note lies in's throat, if he say I said so. 

 Tailor  [Reads]  'Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown:' 

 GRUMIO  Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in 

 the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom 

 of brown thread: I said a gown. 

 PETRUCHIO  Proceed. 

 Tailor  [Reads]  'With a small compassed cape:' 

 GRUMIO  I confess the cape. 

 Tailor  [Reads]  'With a trunk sleeve:' 

 GRUMIO  I confess two sleeves. 

 Tailor  [Reads]  'The sleeves curiously cut.' 

 PETRUCHIO  Ay, there's the villany. 

 GRUMIO  Error i' the bill, sir; error i' the bill. 

 I commanded the sleeves should be cut out and 

 sewed up again; and that I'll prove upon thee, 

 though thy little finger be armed in a thimble. 

 Tailor  This is true that I say: an I had thee 

 in place where, thou shouldst know it. 

 GRUMIO  I am for thee straight: take thou the 

 bill, give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me. 

 HORTENSIO  God-a-mercy, Grumio! then he shall have no odds. 

 PETRUCHIO  Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. 

 GRUMIO  You are i' the right, sir: 'tis for my mistress. 

 PETRUCHIO  Go, take it up unto thy master's use. 

 GRUMIO  Villain, not for thy life: take up my mistress' 

 gown for thy master's use! 

 PETRUCHIO  Why, sir, what's your conceit in that? 

 GRUMIO  O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for: 

 Take up my mistress' gown to his master's use! 

 O, fie, fie, fie! 

 PETRUCHIO  [Aside]  Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid. 

 Go take it hence; be gone, and say no more. 

 HORTENSIO  Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown tomorrow: 

 Take no unkindness of his hasty words: 

 Away! I say; commend me to thy master. 



 Exit Tailor  PETRUCHIO  Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's 

 Even in these honest mean habiliments: 

 Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; 

 For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich; 

 And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, 

 So honour peereth in the meanest habit. 

 What is the jay more precious than the lark, 

 Because his fathers are more beautiful? 

 Or is the adder better than the eel, 

 Because his painted skin contents the eye? 

 O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse 

 For this poor furniture and mean array. 

 if thou account'st it shame. lay it on me; 

 And therefore frolic: we will hence forthwith, 

 To feast and sport us at thy father's house. 

 Go, call my men, and let us straight to him; 

 And bring our horses unto Long-lane end; 

 There will we mount, and thither walk on foot 

 Let's see; I think 'tis now some seven o'clock, 

 And well we may come there by dinner-time. 

 KATHARINA  I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two; 

 And 'twill be supper-time ere you come there. 

 PETRUCHIO  It shall be seven ere I go to horse: 

 Look, what I speak, or do, or think to do, 

 You are still crossing it. Sirs, let't alone: 

 I will not go to-day; and ere I do, 

 It shall be what o'clock I say it is. 

 HORTENSIO  [Aside]  Why, so this gallant will command the sun. 



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