Page 1433 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.

HORT ENSIO

Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee,
And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour’d wife?
Thou’dst thank me but a little for my counsel, [60]
And yet I’ll promise thee she shall be rich,
And very rich. But th’art too much my friend,
And I’ll not wish thee to her.

PET RUCHIO

Signor Hortensio, ’twixt such friends as we
Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know [65]
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 shrewd
As Socrates’ Xanthippe, or a worse, [70]
She moves me not, or not removes at least
Affection’s edge in me, were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic seas.
I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua. [75]

GRUMIO

Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is. Why, give him gold
enough and marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby, or an old trot with
ne’er a tooth in her head, though she have as many diseases as two and
fifty horses. Why, nothing comes amiss, so money [80] comes withal.

HORT ENSIO

Petruchio, since we are stepp’d thus far in,
I will continue that I broach’d in jest.
I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife
With wealth enough, and young and beauteous, [85]
Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman.
Her only fault, and that is faults enough,
Is that she is intolerable curst,
And shrewd, and froward, so beyond all measure