| ACT III SCENE I | Padua. BAPTISTA'S house. | |
| [Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA] |
| LUCENTIO | Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir: |
| Have you so soon forgot the entertainment |
| Her sister Katharina welcomed you withal? |
| HORTENSIO | But, wrangling pedant, this is |
| The patroness of heavenly harmony: | 5 |
| Then give me leave to have prerogative; |
| And when in music we have spent an hour, |
| Your lecture shall have leisure for as much. |
| LUCENTIO | Preposterous ass, that never read so far |
| To know the cause why music was ordain'd! | 10 |
| Was it not to refresh the mind of man |
| After his studies or his usual pain? |
| Then give me leave to read philosophy, |
| And while I pause, serve in your harmony. |
| HORTENSIO | Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. | 15 |
| BIANCA | Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong, |
| To strive for that which resteth in my choice: |
| I am no breeching scholar in the schools; |
| I'll not be tied to hours nor 'pointed times, |
| But learn my lessons as I please myself. | 20 |
| And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down: |
| Take you your instrument, play you the whiles; |
| His lecture will be done ere you have tuned. |
| HORTENSIO | You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? |
| LUCENTIO | That will be never: tune your instrument. | 25 |
| BIANCA | Where left we last? |
| LUCENTIO | Here, madam: |
| 'Hic ibat Simois; hic est Sigeia tellus; |
| Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.' |
| BIANCA | Construe them. | 30 |
| LUCENTIO | 'Hic ibat,' as I told you before, 'Simois,' I am |
| Lucentio, 'hic est,' son unto Vincentio of Pisa, |
| 'Sigeia tellus,' disguised thus to get your love; |
| 'Hic steterat,' and that Lucentio that comes |
| a-wooing, 'Priami,' is my man Tranio, 'regia,' | 35 |
| bearing my port, 'celsa senis,' that we might |
| beguile the old pantaloon. |
| HORTENSIO | Madam, my instrument's in tune. |
| BIANCA | Let's hear. O fie! the treble jars. |
| LUCENTIO | Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. | 40 |
| BIANCA | Now let me see if I can construe it: 'Hic ibat |
| Simois,' I know you not, 'hic est Sigeia tellus,' I |
| trust you not; 'Hic steterat Priami,' take heed |
| he hear us not, 'regia,' presume not, 'celsa senis,' |
| despair not. | 45 |
| HORTENSIO | Madam, 'tis now in tune. |
| LUCENTIO | All but the base. |
| HORTENSIO | The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars.
|
[Aside] |
| How fiery and forward our pedant is! |
| Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love: | 50 |
| Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet. |
| BIANCA | In time I may believe, yet I mistrust. |
| LUCENTIO | Mistrust it not: for, sure, AEacides |
| Was Ajax, call'd so from his grandfather. |
| BIANCA | I must believe my master; else, I promise you, | 55 |
| I should be arguing still upon that doubt: |
| But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you: |
| Good masters, take it not unkindly, pray, |
| That I have been thus pleasant with you both. |
| HORTENSIO | You may go walk, and give me leave a while: | 60 |
| My lessons make no music in three parts. |
| LUCENTIO | Are you so formal, sir? well, I must wait, |
[Aside] |
| And watch withal; for, but I be deceived, |
| Our fine musician groweth amorous. |
| HORTENSIO | Madam, before you touch the instrument, | 65 |
| To learn the order of my fingering, |
| I must begin with rudiments of art; |
| To teach you gamut in a briefer sort, |
| More pleasant, pithy and effectual, |
| Than hath been taught by any of my trade: | 70 |
| And there it is in writing, fairly drawn. |
| BIANCA | Why, I am past my gamut long ago. |
| HORTENSIO | Yet read the gamut of Hortensio. |
| BIANCA | [Reads] ''Gamut' I am, the ground of all accord,
|
| 'A re,' to Plead Hortensio's passion; | 75 |
| 'B mi,' Bianca, take him for thy lord, |
| 'C fa ut,' that loves with all affection: |
| 'D sol re,' one clef, two notes have I: |
| 'E la mi,' show pity, or I die.' |
| Call you this gamut? tut, I like it not: | 80 |
| Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice, |
| To change true rules for old inventions. |
| [Enter a Servant] |
| Servant | Mistress, your father prays you leave your books |
| And help to dress your sister's chamber up: |
| You know to-morrow is the wedding-day. | 85 |
| BIANCA | Farewell, sweet masters both; I must be gone. |
| [Exeunt BIANCA and Servant] |
| LUCENTIO | Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. |
| [Exit] |
| HORTENSIO | But I have cause to pry into this pedant: |
| Methinks he looks as though he were in love: |
| Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble | 90 |
| To cast thy wandering eyes on every stale, |
| Seize thee that list: if once I find thee ranging, |
| Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing. |
| [Exit] |
The Taming of the Shrew: The Complete Play