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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 1Scene 1
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“He that runs fastest gets the ring”
Proverb
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 133-138

An explanation of Hortensio’s jousting reference in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Hortensio

apples. But come, since this bar in law makes us friends,
it shall be so far forth friendly maintained till by helping     
Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest
free for a husband, and then have to't afresh. Sweet     
Bianca! Happy man be his dole. He that runs fastest gets     
the ring. How say you, Signor Gremio?    

Here, this proverb has a metaphorical meaning. In one of the events at a jousting tournament, the riders would race through a course, spearing rings with their lances. In their battle for Bianca, the fastest of the two suitors will get to marry her. Gremio continues the horse metaphor in the following passage.