Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
The next day Petruchio pursued the same course, still speaking
kind words to Katharine, but, when she attempted to eat, finding
fault with everything that was set before her, throwing the
breakfast on the floor as he had done the supper; and Katharine,
the haughty Katharine, was fain to beg the servants would bring
her secretly a morsel of food; but they, being instructed by
Petruchio, replied they dared not give her anything unknown to
their master.
“Ah,” said she, “did he marry me to famish me? Beggars that come
to my father’s door have food given them. But I, who never knew
what it was to entreat for anything, am starved for want of food,
giddy for want of sleep, with oaths kept waking, and with
brawling fed; and that which vexes me more than all, he does it
under the name of perfect love, pretending that if I sleep or
eat, it were present death to me.”
Here the soliloquy was interrupted by the entrance of Petruchio.
He, not meaning she should be quite starved, had brought her a
small portion of meat, and he said to her:
“How fares my sweet Kate? Here, love, you see how diligent I am.
I have dressed your meat myself. I am sure this kindness merits
thanks. What, not a word? Nay, then you love not the meat, and
all the pains I have taken is to no purpose.” He then ordered the
servant to take the dish away.
Extreme hunger, which had abated the pride of Katharine, made her
say, though angered to the heart, “I pray you let it stand.”
But this was not all Petruchio intended to bring her to, and he
replied, “The poorest service is repaid with thanks, and so shall
mine before you touch the meat.”
On this Katharine brought out a reluctant “I thank you, sir.”
And now he suffered her to make a slender meal, saying: “Much
good may it do your gentle heart, Kate. Eat apace! And now, my
honey love, we will return to your father’s house and revel it as
bravely as the best, with silken coats and caps and golden rings,
with ruffs and scarfs and fans and double change of finery.” And
to make her believe be really intended to give her these gay
things, he called in a tailor and a haberdasher, who brought some
new clothes he had ordered for her, and then, giving her plate to
the servant to take away, before she had half satisfied her
hunger, he said:
“What, have you dined?”
The haberdasher presented a cap, saying, “Here is the cap your
worship bespoke.” On which Petruchio began to storm afresh,
saying the cap was molded in a porringer and that it was no
bigger than a cockle or walnut shell, desiring the haberdasher to
take it away and make it bigger.
Katharine said, “I will have this; all gentlewomen wear such caps
as these.”
“When you are gentle,” replied Petruchio, “you shall have one,
too, and not till then.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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