Page 1429 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

‘Be serviceable to my son’ quoth he,
Although I think ’twas in another sense - [215]
I am content to be Lucentio,
Because so well I love Lucentio.

LUCENT IO

Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves;
And let me be a slave, t’achieve that maid
Whose sudden sight hath thrall’d my wounded eye. [220]

Enter Biondello.
Here comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been?

BIONDELLO

Where have I been? Nay, how now, where are you?
Master, has my fellow Tranio stol’n your clothes,
Or you stol’n his, or both? Pray, what’s the news?

LUCENT IO

Sirrah, come hither. ’Tis no time to jest, [225]
And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his.
For in a quarrel since I came ashore [230]
I kill’d a man, and fear I was descried.
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life.
You understand me?

BIONDELLO

I, sir? Ne’er a whit.

LUCENT IO

And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth. [235]
Tranio is chang’d into Lucentio.

BIONDELLO

The better for him. Would I were so too.

T RANIO