Comedy plays; Man-woman relationships -- Drama; Married people -- Drama; Padua (Italy) -- Drama; Sex role -- Drama
PETRUCHIO.
Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.
GRUMIO.
Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you
here, sir?
PETRUCHIO.
Villain, I say, knock me at this gate;
And rap me well, or I’ll knock your knave’s pate.
GRUMIO.
My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
And then I know after who comes by the worst.
PETRUCHIO.
Will it not be?
Faith, sirrah, and you’ll not knock, I’ll ring it;
I’ll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.
[_He wrings Grumio by the ears._]
GRUMIO.
Help, masters, help! my master is mad.
PETRUCHIO.
Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!
Enter Hortensio.
HORTENSIO.
How now! what’s the matter? My old friend Grumio! and my good friend
Petruchio! How do you all at Verona?
PETRUCHIO.
Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray?
_Con tutto il cuore ben trovato_, may I say.
HORTENSIO.
_Alla nostra casa ben venuto; molto honorato signor mio Petruchio._
Rise, Grumio, rise: we will compound this quarrel.
GRUMIO.
Nay, ’tis no matter, sir, what he ’leges in Latin. If this be not a
lawful cause for me to leave his service, look you, sir, he bid me
knock him and rap him soundly, sir: well, was it fit for a servant to
use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I see, two-and-thirty, a
pip out? Whom would to God I had well knock’d at first, then had not
Grumio come by the worst.
PETRUCHIO.
A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
And could not get him for my heart to do it.
GRUMIO.
Knock at the gate! O heavens! Spake you not these words plain: ‘Sirrah
knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly’? And
come you now with ‘knocking at the gate’?
PETRUCHIO.
Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you.
HORTENSIO.
Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio’s pledge;
Why, this’s a heavy chance ’twixt him and you,
Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio.
And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale
Blows you to Padua here from old Verona?
PETRUCHIO.
Such wind as scatters young men through the world
To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
Where small experience grows. But in a few,
Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me:
Antonio, my father, is deceas’d,
And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive and thrive as best I may;
Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.
HORTENSIO.
Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee
And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour’d wife?
Thou’dst thank me but a little for my counsel;
And yet I’ll promise thee she shall be rich,
And very rich: but th’art too much my friend,
And I’ll not wish thee to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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