La bisbetica domata by William Shakespeare

Author:William Shakespeare
Language: ita
Format: epub
Publisher: Newton Compton editori

Act III

SCENE I

Enter Lucentio as Cambio, Hortensio as Licio, and Bianca

LUCENTIO

Fiddler, forbear, you grow too forward, sir.

Have you so soon forgot the entertainment

Her sister Katherine welcomed you withal?

HORTENSIO

But, wrangling pedant, this is

The patroness of heavenly harmony.

Then give me leave to have prerogative,

And when in music we have spent an hour,

Your lecture shall have leisure for as much.

LUCENTIO

Preposterous ass, that never read so far

To know the cause why music was ordained! 10

Was it not to refresh the mind of man

After his studies or his usual pain?

Then give me leave to read philosophy,

And while I pause serve in your harmony.

HORTENSIO

Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine.

BIANCA

Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong

To strive for that which resteth in my choice.

I am no breeching scholar in the schools,

I’ll not be tied to hours nor ’pointed times,

But learn my lessons as I please myself. 20

And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down.

Take you your instrument, play you the whiles –

His lecture will be done ere you have tuned.

HORTENSIO

You’ll leave his lecture when I am in tune?

LUCENTIO

That will be never. Tune your instrument.

BIANCA Where left we last? /p>

LUCENTIO Here, madam.

(He reads)

‘Hic ibat Simois, hic est Sigeia tellus,

Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis’.

BIANCA Construe them. 30

LUCENTIO ‘Hic ibat’, as I told you before – ‘Simois’, I am

Lucentio – ‘hic est’, son unto Vincentio of Pisa – ‘Sigeia

Tellus’, disguised thus to get your love – ‘Hic steterat’,

and that Lucentio that comes a-wooing – ‘Priami’, is my

man Tranio – ‘regia’, bearing my port – ‘celsa senis’, that

we might beguile the old pantaloon.

HORTENSIO Madam, my instrument’s in tune.

BIANCA Let’s hear.

(He plays) O fie! The treble jars.

LUCENTIO Spit in the hole, man, and tune again.

BIANCA Now let me see if I can construe it. ‘Hic ibat 40

Simois’, I know you not – ‘hic est Sigeia tellus’, I trust you

not – ‘Hic steterat Priami’, take heed he hear us not – ‘re-

gia’, presume not – ‘celsa senis’, despair not.

HORTENSIO

Madam, ’tis now in tune.

LUCENTIO All but the bass.

HORTENSIO

The bass is right, ’tis the base knave that jars.

(Aside) How fiery and forward our pedant is.

Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love.

Pedascule, I’ll watch you better yet.

BIANCA

In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.

LUCENTIO

Mistrust it not – for, sure, Aeacides 50

Was Ajax, called so from his grandfather.

BIANCA

I must believe my master, else, I promise you,

I should be arguing still upon that doubt.

But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you.

Good master, take it not unkindly, pray,

That I have been thus pleasant with you both.

HORTENSIO

(to Lucentio)

You may go walk, and give me leave awhile.

My lessons make no music in three parts.

LUCENTIO

Are you so formal, sir? Well, I must wait –

(Aside) And watch withal, for, but I be deceived, 60

Our fine musician groweth amorous.

HORTENSIO

Madam, before you touch the instrument

To learn the order of my fingering,

I must begin with rudiments of art,

To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,

More pleasant, pithy, and effectual,

Than hath been taught by any of my trade.

And there it is in writing fairly drawn.

BIANCA

Why, I am past my gamut long ago.

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