Start: TRANIO I pray, sir, tell me, i...

Start: TRANIO

I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible

That love should of a sudden take such hold?

LUCENTIO

O Tranio, till I found it to be true,

I never thought it possible or likely;

But see, while idly I stood looking on,

I found the effect of love in idleness:

And now in plainness do confess to thee,

That art to me as secret and as dear

As Anna to the queen of Carthage was,

Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,

If I achieve not this young modest girl.

Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst;

Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt.

TRANIO

Master, it is no time to chide you now;

Affection is not rated from the heart:

If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so,

'Redime te captum quam queas minimo.'

LUCENTIO

Gramercies, lad, go forward; this contents:

The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound.

TRANIO

Master, you look'd so longly on the maid,

Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.

LUCENTIO

O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,

Such as the daughter of Agenor had,

That made great Jove to humble him to her hand.

When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.

TRANIO

Saw you no more? mark'd you not how her sister

Began to scold and raise up such a storm

That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?

LUCENTIO

Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move

And with her breath she did perfume the air:

Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.

TRANIO

Nay, then, 'tis time to stir him from his trance.

I pray, awake, sir: if you love the maid,

Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands:

Her eldest sister is so curst and shrewd

That till the father rid his hands of her,

Master, your love must live a maid at home;

And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,

Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors.

LUCENTIO

Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he!

But art thou not advised, he took some care

To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her?

TRANIO

Ay, marry, am I, sir; and now 'tis plotted.

LUCENTIO

I have it, Tranio.

TRANIO

Master, for my hand,

Both our inventions meet and jump in one.

LUCENTIO

Tell me thine first.

TRANIO

You will be schoolmaster

And undertake the teaching of the maid:

That's your device.

LUCENTIO

It is: may it be done?

TRANIO

Not possible; for who shall bear your part,

And be in Padua here Vincentio's son,

Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends,

Visit his countrymen and banquet them?

LUCENTIO

Basta; content thee, for I have it full.

We have not yet been seen in any house,

Nor can we lie distinguish'd by our faces

For man or master; then it follows thus;

Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead,

Keep house and port and servants as I should:

I will some other be, some Florentine,

Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.

'Tis hatch'd and shall be so: Tranio, at once

Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak:

When Biondello comes, he waits on thee;

But I will charm him first to keep his tongue.

TRANIO

So had you need.

In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,

And I am tied to be obedient;

For so your father charged me at our parting,

'Be serviceable to my son,' quoth he,

Although I think 'twas in another sense;

I am content to be Lucentio,

Because so well I love Lucentio.

LUCENTIO

Tranio, be so, because Lucentio loves:

And let me be a slave, to achieve that maid

Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye.

Shakespeare, William, The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 1.