Act 4, Scene 3

What's Happening
[A room in Petruchio's house in Verona. Enter Katherina and Grumio (Petruchio’s servant) in the middle of a conversation.]

Grumio

No, no, forsooth, I dare not for my life.    

Katherina

The more my wrong, the more his spite appears.    
What, did he marry me to famish me?    
Beggars that come unto my father's door,
Upon entreaty, have a present alms;    
If not, elsewhere they meet with charity.
But I, who never knew how to entreat,    
Nor never needed that I should entreat,
Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep,
With oaths kept waking and with brawling fed;    
And that which spites me more than all these wants,
He does it under name of perfect love,    
As who should say if I should sleep or eat,    
'Twere deadly sickness or else present death.    
I prithee, go and get me some repast,     
I care not what, so it be wholesome food.    

Grumio

What say you to a neat's foot?    

Katherina

'Tis passing good. I prithee let me have it.    

Grumio

I fear it is too choleric a meat.    
How say you to a fat tripe finely broiled?    

Katherina

I like it well, Good Grumio, fetch it me.    

Grumio

I cannot tell, I fear 'tis choleric.
What say you to a piece of beef and mustard?

Katherina

A dish that I do love to feed upon.

Grumio

Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little.

Katherina

Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest.   

Grumio

Nay then, I will not. You shall have the mustard,
Or else you get no beef of Grumio.    

Katherina

Then both, or one, or anything thou wilt.

Grumio

Why then, the mustard without the beef.

Katherina

Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,    
That feed'st me with the very name of meat.    
[She beats him]
Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you
That triumph thus upon my misery!    
Go, get thee gone, I say.
[Enter Petruchio and Hortensio with meat. Hortensio is visiting his friend Petruchio to see how the taming of Katherina is progressing.]

Petruchio

How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort?    

Hortensio

Mistress, what cheer?    

Katherina

                                  Faith, as cold as can be.   

Petruchio

Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me.
Here, love, thou seest how diligent I am    
To dress thy meat myself and bring it thee.
I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks.
What, not a word? Nay, then thou lov’st it not,
And all my pains is sorted to no proof.    
Here, take away this dish.

Katherina

                                          I pray you, let it stand.     

Petruchio

The poorest service is repaid with thanks,
And so shall mine before you touch the meat.

Katherina

I thank you, sir.

Hortensio

Signor Petruchio, fie, you are to blame.
Come, mistress Kate, I'll bear you company.    

Petruchio

[Aside to Hortensio] Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou lovest me.
[To Katherina] Much good do it unto thy gentle heart!    
Kate, eat apace. And now, my honey love,    
Will we return unto thy father's house,    
And revel it as bravely as the best,    
With silken coats and caps and golden rings,
With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things;    
With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,    
With amber bracelets, beads and all this knavery.    
What, hast thou dined? The tailor stays thy leisure,    
To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure.
[Enter Tailor]
Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments.
Lay forth the gown.
[Enter Haberdasher (a hat maker)]
                               What news with you, sir?   

Haberdasher

Here is the cap your worship did bespeak.    

Petruchio

Why, this was moulded on a porringer,
A velvet dish. Fie, fie; 'tis lewd and filthy.    
Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell,    
A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap.    
Away with it! Come, let me have a bigger.

Katherina

I'll have no bigger. This doth fit the time,    
And gentlewomen wear such caps as these.

Petruchio

When you are gentle, you shall have one too,
And not till then.

Hortensio

                 [Aside] That will not be in haste.    

Katherina

Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak,
And speak I will. I am no child, no babe.
Your betters have endured me say my mind,    
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break;
And rather than it shall, I will be free —    
Even to the uttermost — as I please in words.

Petruchio

Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap,    
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie.    
I love thee well in that thou lik’st it not.

Katherina

Love me or love me not, I like the cap,
And it I will have, or I will have none.
[Exit Haberdasher]

Petruchio

Thy gown? Why, ay, come, tailor, let us see't.
O mercy, God, what masquing stuff is here?    
What's this, a sleeve? 'Tis like a demi-cannon.    
What, up and down carved like an apple tart?
Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash,
Like to a censer in a barber's shop.
Why, what a devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this?    

Hortensio

[Aside] I see she's like to have neither cap nor gown.    

Tailor

You bid me make it orderly and well,    
According to the fashion and the time.    

Petruchio

Marry, and did; but if you be remembered,    
I did not bid you mar it to the time.
Go, hop me over every kennel home,    
For you shall hop without my custom, sir;    
I'll none of it. Hence, make your best of it.    

Katherina

I never saw a better-fashioned gown,
More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable.
Belike you mean to make a puppet of me.    

Petruchio

Why, true, he means to make a puppet of thee.    

Tailor

She says your worship means to make a puppet of her.

Petruchio

O monstrous arrogance!
Thou liest, thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail;    
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?    
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant,
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marred her gown.

Tailor

Your worship is deceived. The gown is made
Just as my master had direction.
Grumio gave order how it should be done.

Grumio

I gave him no order, I gave him the stuff.    

Tailor

But how did you desire it should be made?

Grumio

Marry, sir, with needle and thread.

Tailor

But did you not request to have it cut?

Grumio

Thou hast faced many things.    

Tailor

I have.

Grumio

Face not me; thou hast braved many men, brave     
not me; I will neither be faced nor braved. I say unto thee,
I bid thy master cut out the gown, but I did not bid him
cut it to pieces. Ergo, thou liest.    

Tailor

Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify.    

Petruchio

Read it.

Grumio

The note lies in 's throat, if he say I said so.    

Tailor

[Reads] 'Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown:'    

Grumio

Master, if ever I said ‘loose-bodied gown,’ sew me
in the skirts of it and beat me to death with a bottom of     
brown thread. I said ‘a gown.’

Petruchio

[To the Tailor] Proceed.

Tailor

[Reads] 'With a small compassed cape:'  

Grumio

I confess the cape.

Tailor

[Reads] 'With a trunk sleeve:'    

Grumio

I confess two sleeves.

Tailor

[Reads] 'The sleeves curiously cut.'    

Petruchio

Ay, there's the villainy.

Grumio

Error i' th’ bill, sir; error i' th’ bill. I commanded
the sleeves should be cut out and sewed up again, and
that I'll prove upon thee, though thy little finger be     
armed in a thimble.

Tailor

This is true that I say, an I had thee in place where,     
thou shouldst know it.    

Grumio

I am for thee straight. Take thou the bill, give me     
thy mete-yard, and spare not me.    

Hortensio

[Laughing] God-a-mercy, Grumio! Then he shall have no odds.    

Petruchio

[To the Tailor] Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me.

Grumio

You are i' the right, sir, 'tis for my mistress.

Petruchio

[To Tailor] Go, take it up unto thy master's use.    

Grumio

[Pretending that Petruchio is addressing him]
Villain, not for thy life! Take up my mistress'    
gown for thy master's use!    

Petruchio

Why, sir, what's your conceit in that?    

Grumio

O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for.    
Take up my mistress' gown to his master's use! O, fie,     
fie, fie!

Petruchio

[Aside] Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid.    
[To the Tailor] Go take it hence; be gone, and say no more.

Hortensio

[Aside to the Tailor] Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown tomorrow.
Take no unkindness of his hasty words,
Away, I say — commend me to thy master.    
[Exit Tailor]

Petruchio

Well, come, my Kate, we will unto your father's,
Even in these honest mean habiliments.    
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,    
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,    
So honor peereth in the meanest habit.    
What, is the jay more precious than the lark    
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?    
O no, good Kate, neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.    
If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me,    
And therefore frolic. We will hence forthwith   
To feast and sport us at thy father's house.
[To Grumio] Go call my men, and let us straight to him,    
And bring our horses unto Long-lane end;
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.    
Let's see, I think 'tis now some seven o'clock,    
And well we may come there by dinner-time.    

Katherina

I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two,
And 'twill be supper-time ere you come there.    

Petruchio

It shall be seven ere I go to horse.    
Look, what I speak, or do, or think to do,   
You are still crossing it. Sirs, let't alone,    
I will not go today; and ere I do,    
It shall be what o'clock I say it is.
[Exit]

Hortensio

[Aside] Why, so this gallant will command the sun.
Character Interview: Kate, Grumio, and Petruchio
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