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Petruchio and Katherina, Lines 179-219
Performance Videos
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 179-219

Petruchio and Katherina perform lines 179-219 of Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. 

myShakespeare | Taming of the Shrew 2.1 Performance: Petruchio and Katherina, Lines 179-219

Petruchio

Good morrow, Kate, for that's your name, I hear.

Katherina

Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing.    
They call me Katherine that do talk of me.

Petruchio

You lie, in faith, for you are called plain Kate,
And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst,    
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,    
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate
For dainties are all Kates, and therefore — Kate.    
Take this of me, Kate, of my consolation:    
Hearing thy mildness praised in every town,
Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded —   
Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs —    
Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.

Katherina

‘Moved,’ in good time! Let him that moved you hither    
Remove you hence. I knew you at the first;    
You were a moveable.    

Petruchio

Why, what's a moveable?

Katherina

A joined stool.

Petruchio

Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.    

Katherina

Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

Petruchio

Women are made to bear, and so are you.

Katherina

No such jade as you, if me you mean.    

Petruchio

Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee,
For knowing thee to be but young and light —

Katherina

Too light for such a swain as you to catch,
And yet as heavy as my weight should be.

Petruchio

‘Should be’? Should buzz!

Katherina

                                            Well ta'en, and like a buzzard.

Petruchio

O slow-winged turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?    

Katherina

Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.

Petruchio

Come, come, you wasp, i' faith, you are too angry.

Katherina

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.    

Petruchio

My remedy is then to pluck it out.    

Katherina

Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.    

Petruchio

Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting —
In his tail.    

Katherina

In his tongue.    

Petruchio

Whose tongue?

Katherina

Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.    

Petruchio

What, with my tongue in your tail! Nay, come again,
Good Kate, I am a gentleman.

Katherina

That, I'll try.