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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 1Scene 2
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“he’ll rail in his rope tricks”
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 105-113

An explanation of the wordplay on “he’ll rail in his rope tricks” in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Grumio

[To Hortensio] I pray you, sir, let him go while the
humor lasts. O' my word, an she knew him as well as
I do, she would think scolding would do little good
upon him. She may perhaps call him half a score     
knaves or so — why, that's nothing. An he begin once,     
he'll rail in his rope tricks. I'll tell you what, sir, an she    
stand him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face,     
and so disfigure her with it that she shall have no more
eyes to see withal than a cat. You know him not, sir.

Two possible interpretations:

  1. “Rope tricks” is Grumio’s pronunciation of “rhetoric,” which is the art of using figures of speech. Petruchio will rant at Katherina using the elaborate language of a nobleman.
  2. Petruchio’s behavior (tricks) will be so offensive, they’ll justify “the rope”, the hangman’s noose.