The Taming of the Shrew. Уильям Шекспир

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СКАЧАТЬ well.

      I have forgot your name; but, sure, that part

Was aptly fitted and naturally perform’d.

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       Player

      I think ’twas Soto that your honour means.

       Lord

      ’Tis very true; thou didst it excellent.

      Well, you are come to me in a happy time,

      The rather for I have some sport in hand

Wherein your cunning can assist me much.

90

      There is a lord will hear you play to-night;

      But I am doubtful of your modesties,

      Lest, over-eying of his odd behaviour,

      For yet his honour never heard a play,

You break into some merry passion

95

      And so offend him; for I tell you, sirs,

      If you should smile, he grows impatient.

       Player

      Fear not, my lord; we can contain ourselves,

      Were he the veriest antic in the world.

       Lord

Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery,

100

      And give them friendly welcome every one;

      Let them want nothing that my house affords.

       [Exit one with the Players.]

      Sirrah, go you to Barthol’mew my page,

      And see him dress’d in all suits like a lady;

That done, conduct him to the drunkard’s chamber,

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      And call him ‘madam’, do him obeisance.

      Tell him from me – as he will win my love –

      He bear himself with honourable action,

      Such as he hath observ’d in noble ladies

Unto their lords, by them accomplished;

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      Such duty to the drunkard let him do,

      With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy,

      And say ‘What is’t your honour will command,

      Wherein your lady and your humble wife

May show her duty and make known her love?’

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      And then with kind embracements, tempting kisses,

      And with declining head into his bosom,

      Bid him shed tears, as being overjoyed

      To see her noble lord restor’d to health,

Who for this seven years hath esteemed him

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      No better than a poor and loathsome beggar.

      And if the boy have not a woman’s gift

      To rain a shower of commanded tears,

      An onion will do well for such a shift,

Which, in a napkin being close convey’d

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      Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.

      See this dispatch’d with all the haste thou canst;

      Anon I’ll give thee more instructions.

       [Exit a Servant.]

      I know the boy will well usurp the grace,

Voice, gait, and action, of a gentlewoman;

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      I long to hear him call the drunkard ‘husband’;

      And how my men will stay themselves from laughter

      When they do homage to this simple peasant.

      I’ll in to counsel them; haply my presence

May well abate the over-merry spleen,

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      Which otherwise would grow into extremes.

       [Exeunt.]

      Scene II

       A bedchamber in the Lord’s house.

      [Enter aloft SLY, with Attendants; some with apparel, basin and ewer, and other appurtenances; and Lord.]

       Sly

      For God’s sake, a pot of small ale.

       1 Servant

      Will’t please your lordship drink a cup of sack?

       2 Servant

      Will’t please your honour taste of these conserves?

       3 Servant

      What raiment will your honour wear to-day?

       Sly

I am Christophero Sly; call not me ‘honour’ nor ‘lordship’. I ne’er drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of beef. Ne’er ask me what raiment I’ll wear, for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet – nay, sometime more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather.

510

       Lord

      Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour!

      O, that a mighty man of such descent,

      Of such possessions, and so high esteem,

Should be infused with so foul a spirit!

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