The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Scene 4

William Shakespeare

The story so far

Earlier in the play

Lucentio courts Bianca disguised as her tutor, while Tranio impersonates him. Baptista requires his father’s guarantee before approving their marriage. Tranio persuades a visiting Pedant to impersonate Vincentio by claiming that men from Mantua face death in Padua. Hortensio abandons Bianca and plans to marry a wealthy widow.

In the last scene: Act 4, Scene 3

Grumio refuses Katherina food; Petruchio brings meat but demands thanks before she eats. He rejects a cap and gown she likes, then proposes visiting her father in their existing clothes. When she corrects his claim that it is seven o’clock, he cancels their departure, insisting that the time must be what he says.

SCENE IV. Padua. Before Baptista’s house.

Enter Tranio and the Pedant dressed like Vincentio

TRANIO

Sir, this is the house; please it you that I call?

PEDANT

Ay, what else? and, but I be deceived,Signior Baptista may remember me,Near twenty years ago in Genoa,Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.

TRANIO

’Tis well; and hold your own, in any case,With such austerity as ’longeth to a father.

PEDANT

I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy;’Twere good he were school’d.

Enter Biondello.

TRANIO

Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello,Now do your duty throughly, I advise you.Imagine ’twere the right Vincentio.

BIONDELLO

Tut! fear not me.

TRANIO

But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?

BIONDELLO

I told him that your father was at Venice,And that you look’d for him this day in Padua.

TRANIO

Th’art a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink.Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir.

Enter Baptista and Lucentio.

TRANIO

Signior Baptista, you are happily met.Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of;I pray you stand good father to me now;Give me Bianca for my patrimony.

PEDANT

Soft, son!Sir, by your leave: having come to PaduaTo gather in some debts, my son LucentioMade me acquainted with a weighty causeOf love between your daughter and himself:And,—for the good report I hear of you,And for the love he beareth to your daughter,And she to him,—to stay him not too long,I am content, in a good father’s care,To have him match’d; and, if you please to likeNo worse than I, upon some agreementMe shall you find ready and willingWith one consent to have her so bestow’d;For curious I cannot be with you,Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.

BAPTISTA

Sir, pardon me in what I have to say.Your plainness and your shortness please me well.Right true it is your son Lucentio hereDoth love my daughter, and she loveth him,Or both dissemble deeply their affections;And therefore, if you say no more than this,That like a father you will deal with him,And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,The match is made, and all is done:Your son shall have my daughter with consent.

TRANIO

I thank you, sir. Where then do you know bestWe be affied, and such assurance ta’enAs shall with either part’s agreement stand?

BAPTISTA

Not in my house, Lucentio, for you knowPitchers have ears, and I have many servants;Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still,And happily we might be interrupted.

TRANIO

Then at my lodging, and it like you:There doth my father lie; and there this nightWe’ll pass the business privately and well.Send for your daughter by your servant here;My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.The worst is this, that at so slender warningYou are like to have a thin and slender pittance.

BAPTISTA

It likes me well. Cambio, hie you home,And bid Bianca make her ready straight;And, if you will, tell what hath happened:Lucentio’s father is arriv’d in Padua,And how she’s like to be Lucentio’s wife.

LUCENTIO

I pray the gods she may, with all my heart!

TRANIO

Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way?Welcome! One mess is like to be your cheer;Come, sir; we will better it in Pisa.

BAPTISTA

I follow you.

Exeunt Tranio, Pedant and Baptista.

BIONDELLO

Cambio!

LUCENTIO

What say’st thou, Biondello?

BIONDELLO

You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?

LUCENTIO

Biondello, what of that?

BIONDELLO

Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.

LUCENTIO

I pray thee moralize them.

BIONDELLO

Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a deceitful son.

LUCENTIO

And what of him?

BIONDELLO

His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.

LUCENTIO

And then?

BIONDELLO

The old priest at Saint Luke’s church is at your command at all hours.

LUCENTIO

And what of all this?

BIONDELLO

I cannot tell, except they are busied about a counterfeit assurance. Take your assurance of her, cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum; to the church! take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest witnesses.If this be not that you look for, I have more to say,But bid Bianca farewell for ever and a day.

Going.

LUCENTIO

Hear’st thou, Biondello?

BIONDELLO

I cannot tarry: I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit; and so may you, sir; and so adieu, sir. My master hath appointed me to go to Saint Luke’s to bid the priest be ready to come against you come with your appendix.

Exit.

LUCENTIO

I may, and will, if she be so contented.She will be pleas’d; then wherefore should I doubt?Hap what hap may, I’ll roundly go about her;It shall go hard if Cambio go without her:

Exit.

Characters

Speaking

10 speeches
9 speeches
9 speeches
Baptista4 speeches
3 speeches

Mentioned

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Themes

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Questions on this scene

Reading
Whom does the Pedant impersonate?
Reading
Reading