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Gremio and Lucentio, Lines 140-155
Performance Videos
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 140-155

Gremio and Lucentio perform lines 140-155 of Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

myShakespeare | Taming of the Shrew 1.2 Performance: Gremio and Lucentio, Lines 140-155

Grumio (servant)

[Referring to the elderly Gremio] A proper stripling and an amorous!    
[Hortensio, Petruchio, and his servant Grumio stand aside and eavesdrop on Gremio and Lucentio, who is posing as a tutor to gain access to Bianca. Gremio, unaware of Lucentio's real identity, intends to present him to Signor Baptista in the hope of scoring points with Bianca's father. Gremio and Lucentio are discussing a list of books that Gremio has ordered for Bianca's lessons.]

Gremio (suitor)

O, very well, I have perused the note.    
Hark you, sir, I'll have them very fairly bound,    
All books of love. See that at any hand;     
And see you read no other lectures to her.    
You understand me? Over and beside
Signor Baptista's liberality,    
I'll mend it with a largess. Take your ​paper too,        
And let me have them very well perfumed,
For she is sweeter than perfume itself
To whom they go to. What will you read to her?

Lucentio-as-Cambio

Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you    
As for my patron, stand you so assured,
As firmly as yourself were still in place —     
Yea, and perhaps with more successful words
Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir.