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Tranio and Lucentio, Lines 162-194
Performance Videos
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 162-194

Tranio and Lucentio perform lines 162-194 of Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

myShakespeare | Taming of the Shrew 1.1 Performance: Tranio and Lucentio, Lines 162-194

Tranio

Master, you look'd so longly on the maid,    
Perhaps you marked not what's the pith of all.    

Lucentio

O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
That made great Jove to humble him to her hand    
When, with his knees, he kissed the Cretan strand.    

Tranio

Saw you no more? Marked you not how her sister
Began to scold and raise up such a storm
That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?

Lucentio

Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,    
And with her breath she did perfume the air.
Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.

Tranio

[Aside] Nay, then, 'tis time to stir him from his trance.
I pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid,
Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:    
Her eldest sister is so curst and shrewd    
That till the father rid his hands of her,
Master, your love must live a maid at home;    
And therefore has he closely mewed her up,   
Because she will not be annoyed with suitors.    

Lucentio

Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!
But art thou not advised he took some care    
To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?    

Tranio

Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 'tis plotted.    

Lucentio

I have it, Tranio.

Tranio

                            Master, for my hand,    
Both our inventions meet and jump in one.    

Lucentio

Tell me thine first.

Tranio

                               You will be schoolmaster        
And undertake the teaching of the maid.    
That's your device.    

Lucentio

                               It is. May it be done?

Tranio

Not possible; for who shall bear your part,    
And be in Padua here Vincentio's son,
Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,    
Visit his countrymen and banquet them?