Page 1428 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

T RANIO

Master, for my hand,
Both our inventions meet and jump in one. [190]

LUCENT IO

Tell me thine first.

T RANIO

You will be schoolmaster,
And undertake the teaching of the maid.
That’s your device.

LUCENT IO

It is. May it be done?

T RANIO

Not possible. For who shall bear your part
And be in Padua here Vincentio’s son, [195]
Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,
Visit his countrymen and banquet them?

LUCENT IO

Basta, content thee, for I have it full.
We have not yet been seen in any house,
Nor can we be distinguish’d by our faces [200]
For man or master. Then it follows thus:
Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,
Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should;
I will some other be, some Florentine,
Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa. [205]
’Tis hatch’d, and shall be so. Tranio, at once
Uncase thee, take my colour’d hat and cloak.
When Biondello comes, he waits on thee,
But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.

T RANIO

So had you need. [210]
In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,
And I am tied to be obedient -
For so your father charg’d me at our parting,