Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

KATE

in The Taming of a Shrew — Anonymous

Metadata

PlayThe Taming of a Shrew
AuthorAnonymous
Year (catalogued)1594
First performance1592
Decade1590s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyUnknown
Speech prefix(es)Kate. | Kate
Words1009
Characters4937
Typicality0.21 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA13358
BritDrama no.955
ClusterCluster 10 — Mourners, mothers & doleful voices

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

You jest I am sure, is she yours already? The devil you do, who told you so? Was ever seen so grose and ass as this? Hands off I say, and get you from this place; Or I will set my ten commandments in your face. Let go my hand, for fear it reach your ear. In faith sir no the woodcock wants his tail. 'Tis for your skin then, but not to be your wife. Why father, what do you mean to do with me, To give me thus unto this brainsick man, That in his mood cares not to murder me? She turns aside and speaks. But yet I will consent and marry him, For I methinks have lived too long a maid, And match him to, or else his manhoods good. It is no matter whither I do or no, For trust me I take no great delight in it. In you with a pestilence, are you so kind? Then make a night cap of your fiddles case, To warm your head, and hide your filthy face. Your so kind it pity you should be hanged, And yet methinks the fool doth look asquint. No, but I mean to move thee. I, give me the Lute. Then mend it thou, thou filthy ass. How now Jack sauce, your a jolly mate, Your best be still least I cross your pate, And make your music fly about your ears, I'll make it and your foolish coxcomb meet. She offers to strike him with the lute. I on thy head, and if thou speak to me, There take it up and fiddle somewhere else, She throws it down. And see you come no more into this place, Least that I clap your fiddle on your face. Not I with one so mad, so basely tirde, To marry such a filthy slavish groom, That as it seems sometime is from his wits, Or else he would not thus have come to us. Let him go or tarry I am resolu'de to stay, And not to travel on my wedding day. But not for me, for here I mean to dine. I'll have my will in this as well as you, Though you in madding mood would leave your friends Despite of you I'll tarry with them still. Sander I prethe help me to some meat, I am so faint that I can scarcely stand. Why man thy Master needs never know it. Why I say 'tis excellent meat, canst thou help me to some? Why any thing, I care not what it be. Thats meat for a King sweet Sander help Me to some of it. I tell thee villain I'll tear the flesh of Thy face and eat it and thou prates to me thus. Nay nay I pray you let him take it hence, And keep it for your own diet for I'll none, I'll never be beholding to you for your Meat, I tell thee flatly here unto the thy teeth Thou shalt not keep me nor feed me as thou list, For I will home again unto my father's house. What if I did, come hither sirrah, give me The cap, I'll see if it will fit me. Come come I Like the fashion of it well enough, Heres more a do then needs I'll have it, And if you do not Like it hide your eyes, I think I shall have nothing by your will. Nine a clock, why 'tis already passed two In the after noon by all the clocks in the town. I say 'tis tow a clock in the after noon. The moon? why husband you are deceived It is the sun. Why I'll say as you say it is the moon. Jesus save the glorious moon. Fair lovely lady, bright and Christalline, Bewteous and stately as the eie-traind bird, As glorious as the morning washed with Due, Within whose eyes she takes her dawning beams, And golden summer sleeps upon thy cheeks, Wrap up thy radiations in some cloud, Least that thy beauty make this stately town, Inhabitable Like the burning Zone, With sweet reflections of thy lovely face. Sweet husband did you send for me? Nothing husband but my cap I think. They be sitting in the bridal chamber. I will. Then you that live thus by your pompered wills, Now list to me and mark what I shall say, Theternall power that with his only breath, Shall cause this end and this beginning frame, Not in time, nor before time, but with time, confused, For all the course of years, of ages, months, Of seasons temperate, of days and hours, Are tuned and stopped, by measure of his hand, The first world was, a form, without a form, A heap confused a mixture all deformed, A gulf of gulfs, a body bodiles, Where all the elements were orderles, Before the great commander of the world The King of Kings the glorious God of heaven Who in six days did frame his heavenly work, And made all things to stand in perfect course. Then to his image he did make a man. Old Adam and from his side a sleep, A rib was taken, of which the Lord did make, The woe of man so termed by Adam then, Woman for that, by her came sin to us, And for her sin was Adam doomed to die, As Saram to her husband, so should we, Obey them, love them, keep, and nourish them, If they by any means do want our helps, Laying our hands under their feet to tread, If that by that we, might procure there ease, And for a president I'll first begin, And lay my hand under my husbands feet Not for me: for I'll not go. Out villain dost thou mock me, Take that for thy sawsinesse. Why I thank you for it. The fashion is good enough: belike you, Mean to make a fool of me. See husband I have brought them both.

Plot summary

Plot — The Taming of a Shrew
Forcibly ejected from an alehouse, Sly is sleeping off his drunkenness when he is found by a lord, who brings him home and tricks him into thinking himself a nobleman. A play is performed for him: The Taming of a Shrew. In the play, Aurelius of Sestos, newly arrived in Athens, falls in love with Philema; his friend Polidor already loves her sister, Emelia. To pursue his love, Aurelius pretends to be a wealthy merchant’s son and has his man Valeria assume his aristocratic identity. However, the girls’ father Alfonso has decreed that his eldest daughter Kate, a shrewish scold, must be married before them. The two wooers decide to persuade Ferando to marry Kate, but Alfonso has already promised him six thousand crowns to undertake the same task He and Kate meet unchaperoned, and they wrangle, but the marriage is arranged for the following Sunday; Kate seems outwardly unwilling but consents in an aside. Ferando goes to prepare his country house. Valeria is sent to teach Kate the lute, but she behaves aggressively. On the wedding day Ferando arrives in base clothes and forces Kate to leave with him immediately after the ceremony. When they arrive in the country, he claims that the dinner is burnt, and beats his servants. She is kept hungry, and denied her choice of clothing. Aurelius has Philotus pose as his father to persuade Alfonso that he is wealthy enough to marry Philema. He and Polidor are married to Kate’s younger sisters. Kate and Ferando visit them, after Kate submits to Ferando’s will. On the way, they meet the Duke of Sestos (who has come to Athens in disguise to spy on his son), and mock him. The Duke exposes Aurelio’s pretence and proposes to have those involved sent to prison, but Sly intervenes in the performance to prevent this. The three new husbands bet on whose wife will come when called. Ferando wins, and Kate explains to her sisters their duty as wives. Sly falls asleep during the performance. The lord puts him back where he was found. He returns home intending to tame his own wife.