[In front of Baptista’s house. It’s the day of the scheduled wedding of Petruchio and Katherina. When we last saw her, Katherina said that she would see Petruchio hanged before she would marry him; nonetheless, she has shown up for the wedding along with everyone else. Enter Baptista, Gremio, Tranio-as-Lucentio, Lucentio-as-Cambio, Katherina, Bianca, and attendants.]
Baptista
[To Tranio-as-Lucentio] Signor Lucentio, this is the 'pointed day
That Katherine and Petruchio should be married,
And yet we hear not of our son-in-law.
What will be said? What mockery will it be,
To want the bridegroom when the priest attends
To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage?
What says Lucentio to this shame of ours?
Katherina
No shame but mine. I must, forsooth, be forced
To give my hand, opposed against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby full of spleen,
Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior;
And to be noted for a merry man,
He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make friends, invite, and proclaim the banns,
Yet never means to wed where he hath wooed.
Now must the world point at poor Katherine
And say, 'Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.’
