Shakespeare Important Quotes- The Taming Of The Shrew

Front 1

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.......
...
He bear himself with honourable action,
Such as he hath observed in noble ladies
Unto their lords, by them accomplished...
With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy,
And say "What is't your honour will command
Wherin your lady and your humble wife
May show her duty and make known her love?

Back 1

In the Induction, the Lord to a servant.
-This passage calls attention to Gender relations
-Shakespeare is alluding to the "all the world is a stage" and we are all playing roles. He is showing how a wife should behave in this passage.

Front 2

Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,
Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds,
And at that sight shall sad Antonio weep,
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

Back 2

Sly will be shown many stories about Metamorphisis such as this, and with heavy sexual undertones

Front 3

Of all thy suitors here I charge tell
Whom though lov'st best;
see though dissemble not.
....
Minion, thou liest. Is't not Hortensio?
...
O, then belike you fancy riches more:
You will have Gremio to keep you fair.
...
Her silence flouts me, and I'll be revenged.

Back 3

-In his exchange between Katherina and Bianca, she is speaking her mind, and is therefore considered a shrew. --She is asserting her dignity, but not her power
-Katherina does not see herself as a shrew, but everyone else does: her identity is how society sees her, not how she wants to be

Front 4

One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife-
As wealth is burden of my wooing dance-
Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shred as Socrates' Xanthippe.....
..
I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.

Back 4

Petruchio to Hortensio and Grumio. He is blatantly stating that he is marrying for money. (Actual woman is meaningless- just a commodity)

Front 5

I pray you, sir. Let him go while the humour lasts. O' my word, an she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding would do little good upon him. She may perhaps call him half a score knaves or so: why, that's nothing: an he begin once, he'll rail in his rope tricks.

Back 5

Grumio to Hortensio- they are discussing Petruchio's wooing of Katherina.
Rope tricks= Rhetorics= highly artificial speech that binds the listener= has the power to lure minds
-The relationship between Petruchio and Katherina is highly language based. This might be part of a new humanist learning at the time in which the husband does not use violence against his wife.

Front 6

Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing:
They call me Katherine that do talk of me.
...
You lie, in faith, for you are called plain Kate,
And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst.
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate

Back 6

First speaker: Katherina
Second: Petruchio
In this scene, Petruchio is trying to woo Katherina. This is an example of the rhetorics he employs to tame her.
-He is constantly renaming her- undermining her wishes and importance of her voice
-He is renaming her "Kate" which sounds like "cate", a word used at the time to mean "things bought, ie goods." He controls what type of "cates" she has access to.

Front 7

Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray,
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured.
Balk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise rhetoric in your common talk

Back 7

Tranio is telling Lucentio, his master, and he is telling him about the importance of rhetoric

Front 8

Is it for him you do envy me so?
Nay then you jest, and now I well perceive
You have but jested with me all this while.
I prithee, sister Kate untie my hands.

(Striking)
If that be jest, then all the rest was so.

Back 8

First speaker: Bianca
Second: Katherina
Katherina is trying to get Bianca to tell her which suitor she likes best. Katherina unleashes her frustration in the form of acting out physically.

Front 9

Marry, so I mean, sweet Katherine, in thy bed.
And therefore, setting all this chat aside,
Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented
That you shall be my wife; your dowry 'greed on;
.....
For by this whereby I see thy beauty,
Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well,
Thou must be married to no man but me

Back 9

Petruchio is trying to convince Katherina to marry him.
-He is praising her, which is a way which Katherina has not been spoken to. While taming- he is treating her differently from how she is normally treated.
-a small part of her might be looking for this
-is Kate really tamed in the end or just hiding behind the protection of the marriage, and knows how this is how she must act in public?

Front 10

Fie, fie, unknit that threatening 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...
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper.....
Our strength as weak, our weaknesses past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place you hands below your husband's foot

Back 10

-Katherina is making a speech to the widow and Bianca who have ignored their husband's request to come into the room
-she is saying that a women's attrativeness is diminished if they do not behave as the weaker sex, as they are supposed to

-putting the hand under the husbands foot was an outdated tradition at the time- maybe giving the audience a certain satisfaction that they do not do such things any more

Front 11

But hast thou not crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse, thou shoudst have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoiled, how he left her with the horse upon her, how he beat me because her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore, how she prayed, that never prayed before; how I cried, how the horses ran away, how her bridle was burst;

Back 11

Grumio (servant of Petruchio) to Curtis (another servant of Petruchio) is telling of their travel from Padua to Petruchio's estate.

-Petruchio shows Kate how he treats his servants- he is physically and verbally abusive.
-This is a way of being violent so she can be vitness to his explosive nature without it being directed at her
-showing her how to looks like for other people to see someone lashing out in such a manner (how she normally does)

Front 12

I pray you husband, be not so disquiet.
The meat was well, if you were so contented.
....
I tell thee, Kate, 'twas burnt and dried away,
And I expressly am forbid to touch it,
For it engenders choler, planteth aner,
And better 'twere both of us did fast

Back 12

Petruchio to Katherina: his point is that she needs to see things his way- even though the meat was probably as she said

Front 13

Why sir, I trust I may have leave to speak,
And speak I will. I am no child, no babe;
Your betters have endured ,e say my mind,
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart concealing it will break,
And rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words.
....
Why, thou say'st true, it is a paltry cap

Back 13

-Katherina begins by talking about the cap but its more about her right to speak her mind
-he does not entertain or argue with her and simply ignores her speech because it is not part of who he is taming her to be

Front 14

Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me.
Here love, thou seest how diligent I am,
To dress thy meat myself, and bring it thee.

Back 14

Petruchio to Katherina- he is aware of her inward dissent

He threatens her vicariously
Dress and hat are “Kates”

-finer, dainty things, investment in social life

-Petruchio denies them (desires)