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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 2Scene 1
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“Frets, call you these”
Wordplay
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 144-156

An explanation of the wordplay on “frets” and “fume” in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

 

Baptista

Why then, thou canst not break her to the lute?    

Hortensio

Why, no, for she hath broke the lute to me.
I did but tell her she mistook her frets,
And bowed her hand to teach her fingering,
When, with a most impatient devilish spirit,
'Frets, call you these?' quoth she, 'I'll fume with them.'
And with that word she struck me on the head,
And through the instrument my pate made way;    
And there I stood amazèd for a while,
As on a pillory looking through the lute,    
While she did call me ‘rascal fiddler’
And ‘twangling Jack’ with twenty such vile terms,    
As had she studied to misuse me so.    

Katherina is playing with the expression “to fret and fume,” which means to give in to your anger.