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Petruchio: Why, there's a wench! Come on and kiss me, Kate.
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Tranio: The wench is stark mad or wonderful forward.
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Petruchio: Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat!
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Katherina: Asses are made to bear, and so are you!
Petruchio: Women are made to bear, and so are you!
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Katherina: I knew you at the first. You were a moveable!
Petruchio: Why, what's a moveable?
Katherina: A stool like this!
[she kicks out the stool he was sitting on, and he falls on the floor]
Petruchio: Then sit on me!
[he pulls her down on his lap]
Katherina: [hitting at Petruchio] Our asses are made to bear and so are you!
Petruchio: Women are made to bear and so are you!
Katherina: Not such a load as yours if me you mean!
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Katherina: Of all things living, a man's the worst!
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Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp! In faith you are too angry!
Katherina: If I be waspish, best beware my sting!
Petruchio: My remedy then is to pluck it out!
Katherina: Hah! Aye, if the fool could find where it lies!
Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp doth wear his sting? In his tail!
Katherina: In his tongue!
Petruchio: Whose tongue?
Katherina: Yours! If you talk of tales, and so farewell!
Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail?
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Petruchio: Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.
Katherina: Moved? In good time. Let him that moved you hither RE-move you hence!
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Petruchio: Will you, nill you, I will marry you.
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Petruchio: I've come to wive it wealthily in Padua. If wealthily, then happily, in Padua.
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The Priest: [for the umpteenth time, rapid-fire] Petruchio, wilt thou take Katarina to be thy lawful wedded wife?
Petruchio: [drunk] Ah, Marry, I will!
-
The Priest: [all smiles] Katarina...
[she gives him a look; he draws back]
The Priest: Katarina, wilt thou take Petruchio to be thy lawful wedded husband?
Katherina: [she throws back her veil, gives a huge smile that turns into a huge angry look] I... Will...
[Petruchio kisses her passionately before she can say, "Not!" and the crowd cheers]
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Petruchio: [on the morning after the disastrous wedding night] How fares my Kate?
Katherina: [gives him a very long look, then] Ill.
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Petruchio: [to his servants] This is the way to kill a wife with kindness.
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Petruchio: Mistress, what cheer?
Katherina: [deliberately] Faith, as cold as can be.
-
Baptista: [Petruchio is chasing Katherina across a tiled rooftop] Signior Petruchio?
[Petruchio stops with one foot in the air and laughs]
Baptista: How speed you with your wooing?
Petruchio: How but well, sir, how but well? It were impossible I should speed amiss!
-
Katherina: [Petruchio has addressed Vincentio as a young woman and indicated Katherina should do likewise] Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet, wither away or where is thy abode? Oh, happy the parents of so fair a child... happier the man whom favorable stars will allot for his lovely bedfellow.
[she turns to go]
Petruchio: Why, how now, Kate,I hope thou art not mad. This a man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered and not a maiden as thou sayest he is.
Katherina: [turns back, still in the spirit of the game] Oh, pardon, old father, for my mistaking eyes that have been so bedazzled by the...
[she looks at Petruchio for confirmation]
Katherina: sun?
[he nods yes]
Katherina: that everything I see is green and young.
-
Tranio: No profit grows where there is no pleasure taken. Huh?
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Katherina: I pray you, father! Is it your will to make a whore of me among these - mates!
-
Katherina: In faith, sir, you shall have not need to fear. Such - mating - is not half way to my heart! But, if it were, doubt not my care should be to paint your face and use you like a fool!
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Bianca: Oh, sir, to your pleasure, humbly I subscribe, my books and instruments shall be my company.
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Petruchio: Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me: Antonio, my father, is deceased. And I have - thrust myself into this maze, happily, as best I may, to - thrive and wive.
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Petruchio: [singing] And when I came, at last, to wive; With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; By swaggering could I never thrive; For the rain, it raineth every day.
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Hortensio: There is a favor I would ask of thee, to help me woo her younger sister, Bianca?
Petruchio: Ask it and so it be not gold, is granted.
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Hortensio: Shall my friend Petruchio do me grace and offer me disguised in sober robes to old Baptista as a schoolmaster. As a schoolmaster? Well versed in music, to instruct Bianca; that so I may, by this device, at least have leave and leisure to make love to her and unsuspected woo her by herself.
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Grumio: Oh sir! Such a life, with such a wife, was strange! But if you have a stomach to it, a God's name, you shall have me assisting you in all! But will you woo this wild-cat?
Petruchio: Will I live?
-
Petruchio: Pray, have you not a daughter, called Katharina, fair and virtuous?
Baptista: I have - a daughter, sir, called - Katharine.
-
Petruchio: Signior Baptista, my business asks of haste. And every day I cannot come to woo. I am a gentleman of Verona, sir, that, hearing of her beauty and her wit, her affability and gentle modesty, her wondrous qualities and mild behavior, am bold to show myself a forward guest within your house, to make mine eye the witness of that report I have so often heard. Petruchio is my name, Antonio's son, a man well known throughout all Italy.
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Petruchio: I am as peremptory as she proud-minded. And where two raging fires meet together, they do consume the thing that feeds their fury. Though little fire grows great with little wind, yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all. So I to her and so she yields to me, for I am rough and woo not like a babe.
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Petruchio: Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench. Oh, how I long to have some chat with her!
-
Petruchio: Am I not wise?
Katherina: Enough to keep you - warm!
Petruchio: Marry, so I mean, to warm me, in thy bed. Oh, and will you, nill you, I will marry you.
-
Petruchio: Oh, my sweet Katherina. Oh, the kindest Kate! She hung about my neck and kiss on kiss, she vied so fast, protesting oath on oath, that in a twink she won me to her love. Oh, you are novices! 'Tis a world to see, when she and I are both alone. How tame, a milk-soft wretch can make the curstest shrew.
-
Katherina: Nay, then, do what thou canst, I will not go today. No, nor tomorrow, till I please myself. The door is open, sir; there lies your way. You may be jogging whiles your boots are green; For me, I'll not be gone till I please myself!
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Katherina: I see a woman may be made a fool, if she had not the spirit to resist!
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Petruchio: My bonny Kate, she must with me. Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret; I will be master of what is mine own. She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, my household stuff, my field, my barn, my horse, my ox, my ass, my anything; And here she stands, touch her whoever dare. I'll bring mine action on the proudest he, that stops my way in Padua.
-
Tranio: Of all mad matches, never was the like.
Lucentio: Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister?
Bianca: That, being mad herself, she's madly mated.
Gremio: I warrant you, Petruchio is Kated!
-
Petruchio: Hortensio fears his widow.
The Widow: I am not afeard.
Petruchio: I mean, Hortensio is afeard of you.
The Widow: Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, measures my husband's trouble by his own. And now you know my meaning.
Katherina: A very mean meaning.
The Widow: Right! I mean you!
Petruchio: To her, Kate!
Hortensio: To her, widow.
Petruchio: A hundred crowns, my Kate will lay her flat!
-
Katherina: Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee! And for thy maintenance commits his body to painful labor both by sea and land, to watch the night in storms, the day in cold, while thou liest warm at home, secure and safe. He craves no other tribute at thy hands, but love, fair looks and true obedience. Too little payment for so great a debt.
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Katherina: Such duty as the subject owes the prince, even such a woman oweth to her husband.
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Katherina: When she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, and not obedient to his honest will, what is she but a foul contending rebel and graceless traitor to her loving lord? I am ashamed that women are so simple to offer war when they should kneel for peace. Or, seek for rule, supremacy and sway, when they are bound to serve, love - and obey.
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Katherina: Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, unapt to toil and trouble in the world, but that our soft conditions and our hearts should well agree with our external parts?
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Katherina: Place your hands below your husband's foot, in token of which duty, if he please. My hand is ready, may it do him ease.
The Taming of The Shrew Quotes
Extended Reading
