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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 1Scene 2
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“She moves me not — or not removes, at least, affection's edge in me”
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 63-74

An explanation of Petruchio’s wordplay in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Petruchio

Signor Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we,
Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know
One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife —
As wealth is burden of my wooing dance —    
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse,
She moves me not — or not removes at least
Affection's edge in me — were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic seas.
I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
If wealthily, then happily, in Padua.

Petruchio claims that no matter how rough Katherina is, it won’t “move” him; well, at least it won’t “remove” his affections for her.