Page 1435 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

For those defects I have before rehears’d,
That ever Katherina will be woo’d.
Therefore this order hath Baptista ta’en, [125]
That none shall have access unto Bianca
Till Katherine the curst have got a husband.

GRUMIO

Katherine the curst,
A title for a maid of all titles the worst.

HORT ENSIO

Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace, [130]
And offer me disguis’d in sober robes
To old Baptista as a schoolmaster
Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca,
That so I may by this device at least
Have leave and leisure to make love to her, [135]
And unsuspected court her by herself.

GRUMIO

Here’s no knavery. See, to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay
their heads together. Master, master, look about you. Who goes there, ha?

Enter Gremio, and Lucentio disguised.

HORT ENSIO

Peace, Grumio. It is the rival of my love. [140]
Petruchio, stand by awhile.

GRUMIO

A proper stripling and an amorous.

GREMIO

O, very well; I have perus’d the note.
Hark you, sir, I’ll have them very fairly bound -
All books of love, see that at any hand - [145]
And see you read no other lectures to her.
You understand me. Over and beside
Signor Baptista’s liberality,
I’ll mend it with a largess. Take your paper too,