Petruchio and Katharina — The Taming of the Shrew II.i

Production Notes

Highlighted spans mark optional cuts.

The wooing scene. Try it with high stakes and no eye contact for the first run-through. Then try it with constant eye contact, almost aggressive intimacy. The Players will discover which version honors the text.

Script

PETRUCHIO:

Good morrow, Kate; for that’s your name, I hear.

KATHARINA:

Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing: They call me Katharine that do talk of me.

PETRUCHIO:

You lie, in faith; for you are call’d plain Kate, And bonny Kate and sometimes Kate the curst; But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom, Kate of Padua.

KATHARINA:

Patience, I pray you; ‘twas a fault unwilling.

PETRUCHIO:

Nay, hear you, Kate: in sooth you scape not so.

KATHARINA:

I chafe you, if I tarry: let me go.

PETRUCHIO:

No, not a whit: I find you passing gentle. ‘Twas told me you were rough and coy and sullen, And now I find report a very liar; For thou art pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous, But slow in speech, yet sweet as spring-time flowers: Thou canst not frown, thou canst not look askance, Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will, Nor hast thou colour’d passion like to thine.

But thou with mildness entertain’st thy wooers, With gentle conference, soft and affable. Why, does the world report that Kate doth limp? Is it a lie that reports so?

KATHARINA:

I pray you, sir, is it your will To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

PETRUCHIO:

Why, here’s no crab; and therefore welcome.

KATHARINA:

Nay, good sign, though you hit not me; yet, as the manner is, I cry a match.

PETRUCHIO:

Why, thou hast hit it: I am sure, sweet Kate, This is a very venerable cover for thy head; An ‘twere of gold or silver, sure ‘twould make Thee look exceeding proper in thy new attire.

KATHARINA:

Thy head! thy head!

PETRUCHIO:

Ay, upon my life I swear it. See, where comes your father.

Enter BAPTISTA with GREMIO and TRANIO.

BAPTISTA:

Now, Signior Petruchio, how speed you with my daughter?

PETRUCHIO:

How but well, sir? how but well? It were impossible I should speed amiss.

BAPTISTA:

Why, how now, daughter Katharina!

KATHARINA:

Call you me daughter? now, I promise you, You have show’d a tender fatherly regard, To wish me wed to one half mad; But yet I never said I wished for you: Nay, God’s my judge, you came not into the list Of my affections at the first; Nor can I now repent me of my choice.

PETRUCHIO:

Why, and I told you before, Katharina, 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.

KATHARINA:

Mates, I’ll cuff you, if you strike again.

PETRUCHIO:

So come to me and be merry.

GREMIO:

I knew a woman in Florence, Signior Petruchio, that had a scold’s bridle for her tongue, longer than a great man’s beard; and yet she sent word, she died a shrew. But I think he ‘scaped with wearing out her tongue.

PETRUCHIO:

Ay, ‘twere a kind punishment, for he began first to scold and rail at me; therefore fairly, good Katharina, we will unto your father’s even in the night-time, and there will I, in the tongueless grove, make love to you so pleasant and so merrily as no man ever made before.

KATHARINA:

I will not to your father’s.

PETRUCHIO:

Nay; but you shall come, sweet Katharina; for we will have rings and things and fine array; and kiss me, Kate, we will be married o’ Sunday.

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Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHARINA separately.

Facilitator Notes

The possible-cut spans in yellow are optional. Players choose whether to include or drop each one. Compare two complete performances: one with all cuts included, one with none. How does the rhythm change? The comedy? The emotional stakes? This scene rewards Players who find the balance between Petruchio’s aggressive confidence and Katharina’s sharp intelligence — they are equals trading wit.