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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 1Scene 2
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“he will throw a figure in her face, and so disfigure her”
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 105-113

An explanation of “disfigure” 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.

Besides the obvious meaning of hitting Katherine in the face with an object, a second meaning is that Petruchio will use figures of speech that will “disfigure” her, or leave her speechless.

As for the part about leaving her with no more eyes than a cat, although this must have meant something to Shakespeare’s audience, no scholar today has a clue to its meaning.