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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct 5Scene 2
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“and there an end”
Double Meaning
Act 5,
Scene 2
Lines 96-99

An explanation of the phrase "and there an end" in Act 5, Scene 2 of myShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. 

Petruchio

Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress;
Say I command her to come to me.
[Exit Grumio]

Hortensio

I know her answer.

Petruchio

                               What?   

Hortensio

                                           She will not.  

Petruchio

The fouler fortune mine, and there an end.    
  1. If Kate does not come then that would certainly be the end of the bet, with no one winning since all three wives will have failed to come when summoned.
  2. But perhaps Petruchio has a broader meaning in mind: Kate’s failure to obey his command would represent a failed ending to his project of rehabilitating her.