The Taming of the Shrew 10

⁴PedantAy, what else? and but I be deceived
Signior Baptista may remember me,
Near twenty years ago, in Genoa,
Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.

⁸But, sir, here comes your boy;
’Twere good he were school’d.

¹²BiondelloI told him that your father was at Venice,
And that you look’d for him this day in Padua.

¹⁶PedantSoft, son!
Sir, by your leave: having come to Padua
To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
Of love between your daughter and himself:
And, for the good report I hear of you
And for the love he beareth to your daughter
And she to him, to stay him not too long,
I am content, in a good father’s care,
To have him match’d; and if you please to like
No worse than I, upon some agreement
Me shall you find ready and willing
With one consent to have her so bestow’d;
For curious I cannot be with you,
Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.

²⁰TranioThen at my lodging, an it like you:
There doth my father lie; and there, this night,
We’ll pass the business privately and well.
Send for your daughter by your servant here;
My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
The worst is this, that, at so slender warning,
You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.

²⁴BaptistaI follow you. Exeunt Tranio, Pedant, and Baptista.

²⁸BiondelloYou saw my master wink and laugh upon you?

³²BiondelloThen thus. Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a deceitful son.

³⁶BiondelloThe old priest of Saint Luke’s church is at your command at all hours.