The Taming of the Shrew
Act IV, Scene 4
Padua. Before Baptista’s house.
Baptista
Robert L. Bööcke, circa 1890
- Enter Tranio as Lucentio, and the Pedant dress’d like
- Vincentio, booted and bare-headed.
Tranio
1- Sir, this is the house, please it you that I call?
Pedant
2 - 5- Ay, what else? And but I be deceived,
- Signior Baptista may remember me
- Near twenty years ago in Genoa,
- Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.
Tranio
6 - 7- ’Tis well, and hold your own in any case
- With such austerity as ’longeth to a father.
- Enter Biondello.
Pedant
8 - 9- I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy;
- ’Twere good he were school’d.
Tranio
10 - 12- Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello,
- Now do your duty throughly, I advise you.
- Imagine ’twere the right Vincentio.
Biondello
13- Tut, fear not me.
Tranio
14- But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?
Biondello
15 - 16- I told him that your father was at Venice,
- And that you look’d for him this day in Padua.
Tranio
17 - 22- Th’ art a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink.
- Here comes Baptista; set your countenance, sir.
- Enter Baptista and Lucentio as Cambio.
- Signior Baptista, you are happily met.
- To the Pedant.
- Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of.
- I pray you stand good father to me now,
- Give me Bianca for my patrimony.
Pedant
23 - 37- Soft, son!
- Sir, by your leave, having come to Padua
- To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
- Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
- Of love between your daughter and himself;
- And for the good report I hear of you,
- And for the love he beareth to your daughter,
- And she to him, to stay him not too long,
- I am content, in a good father’s care,
- To have him match’d; and if you please to like
- No worse than I, upon some agreement
- Me shall you find ready and willing
- With one consent to have her so bestowed;
- For curious I cannot be with you,
- Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.
Baptista
38 - 47- Sir, pardon me in what I have to say—
- Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
- Right true it is, your son Lucentio here
- Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him,
- Or both dissemble deeply their affections;
- And therefore if you say no more than this,
- That like a father you will deal with him,
- And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
- The match is made, and all is done:
- Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
Tranio
48 - 50- I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best
- We be affied and such assurance ta’en
- As shall with either part’s agreement stand?
Baptista
51 - 54- Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know
- Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants;
- Besides, old Gremio is heark’ning still,
- And happily we might be interrupted.
Tranio
55 - 61- Then at my lodging, and it like you.
- There doth my father lie; and there this night
- We’ll pass the business privately and well.
- Send for your daughter by your servant here;
- My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
- The worst is this, that at so slender warning,
- You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.
Charles Fisher as Baptista
Napoleon Sarony, circa 1875
Baptista
62 - 66- It likes me well. Cambio, hie you home,
- And bid Bianca make her ready straight;
- And if you will, tell what hath happened:
- Lucentio’s father is arriv’d in Padua,
- And how she’s like to be Lucentio’s wife.
- Exit Lucentio.
Biondello
67- I pray the gods she may with all my heart!
Tranio
68 - 71- Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
- Exit Biondello.
- Enter Peter, a servant, who whispers to Tranio.
- Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way?
- Welcome! One mess is like to be your cheer.
- Come, sir, we will better it in Pisa.
Baptista
72- I follow you.
- Exeunt.
- Enter Lucentio as Cambio and Biondello.
Biondello
73- Cambio!
Lucentio
74- What say’st thou, Biondello?
Biondello
75- You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?
Lucentio
76- Biondello, what of that?
Biondello
77 - 78- Faith, nothing; but h’as left me here behind to expound the
- meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.
Lucentio
79- I pray thee moralize them.
Biondello
80 - 81- Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving
- father of a deceitful son.
Lucentio
82- And what of him?
Biondello
83- His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.
Lucentio
84- And then?
Biondello
85 - 86- The old priest of Saint Luke’s church is at your command at
- all hours.
Lucentio
87- And what of all this?
Biondello
88 - 93- I cannot tell, except they are busied about a counterfeit
- assurance. Take you assurance of her, cum privilegio ad
- imprimendum solum; to th’ church take the priest, clerk, and
- some sufficient honest witnesses.
- If this be not that you look for, I have no more to say,
- But bid Bianca farewell forever and a day.
Lucentio
94- Hear’st thou, Biondello?
Biondello
95 - 99- I cannot tarry. I knew a wench married in an afternoon as
- she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit, and so
- may you, sir. And so adieu, sir; my master hath appointed me
- to go to Saint Luke’s to bid the priest be ready to come
- against you come with your appendix.
- Exit.
Lucentio
100 - 103- I may and will, if she be so contented.
- She will be pleas’d, then wherefore should I doubt?
- Hap what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her;
- It shall go hard if Cambio go without her.
- Exit.
From: Flowers from Shakespeare’s Garden
Walter Crane, 1909