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Lord, Lines 102-127
Performance Videos
Act Introduction,
Scene 1
Lines 102-127

Lord performs lines 102-127 of Introduction 1 of myShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Lord

Sirrah, go you to Barthol'mew, my page,    
And see him dressed in all suits like a lady.
That done, conduct him to the drunkard's chamber
And call him 'madam'; do him obeisance.    
Tell him from me — as he will win my love —
He bear himself with honorable action   
Such as he hath observed in noble ladies
Unto their lords by them accomplishèd.    
Such duty to the drunkard let him do,
With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy,
And say 'What is't your honor will command
Wherein your lady and your humble wife
May show her duty and make known her love?'
And then with kind embracements, tempting kisses,
And with declining head into his bosom,
Bid him shed tears, as being overjoyed    
To see her noble lord restored to health,
Who for this seven years hath esteemed him    
No better than a poor and loathsome beggar.
And if the boy have not a woman's gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,    
An onion will do well for such a shift,    
Which, in a napkin, being close conveyed,    
Shall, in despite, enforce a watery eye.    
See this dispatched with all the haste thou canst.    
Anon I'll give thee more instructions.