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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 1Scene 1
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“fast it fairly out. Our cake’s dough on both sides”
Metaphor
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 106-111

An explanation of Gremio’s phrase, “our cake’s dough on both sides” in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Gremio

good, here's none will hold you. [To Hortensio] Their love is not so      
great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together,     
and fast it fairly out. Our cake's dough on both sides.    
Farewell. Yet for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can
by any means light on a fit man to teach her that wherein     
she delights, I will wish him to her father.    

To fast means to go without food. Gremio’s saying that women’s love is not so important that he and Hortensio can’t just go without it until the problem of Katherina gets resolved. He follows up the “fasting” metaphor with a food proverb. “My cake is dough” means your project has failed (your cake didn’t bake). Their cake is dough “on both sides” — that is, neither one of them has succeeded in being able to woo Bianca.