and obedience.
Enter Kate, Bianca, and Widow.
See where she comes, and brings your froward wives
As prisoners to her womanly persuasion.
Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not;
Off with that bable, throw it under-foot.
[Katherina throws down her cap.]
Wid.
Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh,
Till I be brought to such a silly pass!
Bian.
Fie, what a foolish duty call you this?
Luc.
I would your duty were as foolish too.
The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
Hath cost me [a] hundred crowns since supper-time.
Bian.
The more fool you for laying on my duty.
Pet.
Katherine, I charge thee tell these headstrong women
What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
Wid.
Come, come, you’re mocking; we will have no telling.
Pet.
Come on, I say, and first begin with her.
Wid.
She shall not.
Pet.
I say she shall, and first begin with her.
Kath.
Fie, fie, unknit that threat’ning unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
It blots thy beauty, as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman mov’d is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty,
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labor, both by sea and land;
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou li’st warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience—
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am asham’d that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions, and our hearts,
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband’s foot;
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready, may it do him ease.
Pet.
Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
Luc.
Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha’t.
Vin.
’Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
Luc.
But a harsh hearing when women are froward.
Pet.
Come, Kate, we’ll to bed.
We three are married, but you two are sped.
[To Lucentio.]
’Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white,
And being a winner, God give you good night!
