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 anything thou wilt.
Grumio. Why then, the mustard without the beef.
Katharina. Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,

[Beats him.]
That feedest 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.

Petruchio and Hortensio enter (L. 3) with food.
Petruchio. How fares my Kate?
Katharina. Faith, as cold as can be.
Petruchio. 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 are wasted.

[To Grumio.] 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.?

Through all this again runs the superstition that “hot” foods fed hot temper.

2 I'll bear you company: I'll eat with you.

1

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

me.

Much good may it do thy gentle heart! -
Kate, eat quickly. 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 farthingales' and things.
What, hast thou dined?
[A tailor appears at the door R. 2.]

The tailor stays thy leisure,
To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure.

The tailor enters.
Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments;
Lay forth the gown. —
A haberdasher appears in the doorway (R. 2].

What news with you, sir?
Haberdasher. Here is the cap your worship did bespeak.?

[The haberdasher enters. Petruchio seizes the cap.) Petruchio. Why, this was moulded on a porringer3;

A velvet dish. Fie, fie! a walnut-shell,
A toy, 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.4
Hortensio. (A side.] That will not be in haste.

1 farthingales (fär'thing-gālz): hooped skirts.
2 bespeak: order.
3 porringer: a mush dish, a dish for porridge.

4 In a very few places Petruchio speaks directly to Katharina, dropping the part he plays and letting her see him as himself; as much as to hint that he will drop the masquerade when he sees that she has conquered herself.

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

I love thee well, in that thou likest it not.
Katharina. Love me or love me not, I like the cap;
And I will have it, or I will have none.

But the haberdasher at a sign from Petruchio has already left the house (R. 1).

Petruchio. Thy gown? Why, ay.- Come, tailor, let us see't.

O mercy, what's this? A sleeve?
What, up and down, carved like an apple-tart1?

Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash,
Hortensio. (A side.] I see she's like to have neither cap nor

gown. Tailor. You bid me make it

According to the fashion and the time.
Petruchio. I did; but if you remember,

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-fashioned gown,

More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable.

Perhaps you mean to make a puppet2 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, inch!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou remnant.

I tell thee, I, that thou hast marred 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 bid thy master cut out the gown, but I did not

bid him cut it to pieces. Petruchio. Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me.

[The tailor prepares to leave.] Grumio. You are in the right, sir; 'tis for my mistress. Petruchio. (Aside.] Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor

paid. [To the Tailor.) Go take it hence; be gone, and say no more. Hortensio. (Aside.] Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown to

morrow; Take no unkindness of his hasty words. Away! I say; commend me to thy master.

(Exit Tailor R. 1.] 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 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 always crossing it.
I will not go today, and ere I do,

It shall be what o'clock I say it is. Hortensio. (A side.) Why, so Petruchio will command the sun.

[They go back L. 2 to another room.]

SETTING IV

The road

Episode 8 [Enter Petruchio, Katharina, Hortensio, and Grumio, L., dressed for the journey.) Petruchio. Come on, i’ God's name; once more toward our

father's.

[They leave the house.)
Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!
Katharina. The moon! the sun. It is not moonlight now.
Petruchio. I say it is the moon that shines so bright.
Katharina. I know it is the sun that shines so bright.
Petruchio. Now, by my mother's son, and that's myself,

It shall be moon, or star, or what I will,
Before I journey to your father's house.
Go on, and fetch our horses back again.

Evermore crossed and crossed: nothing but crossed!
Hortensio. Say as he says, or we shall never go.
Katharina. Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,

And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.
And if you please to call it a rush-candle,

Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.
Petruchio. I say it is the moon.