ALL	Amen.

SLY	I thank thee: thou shalt not lose by it.

	[Enter the Page as a lady, with attendants]

Page	How fares my noble lord?

SLY	Marry, I fare well for here is cheer enough.
	Where is my wife?

Page	Here, noble lord: what is thy will with her?

SLY	Are you my wife and will not call me husband?
	My men should call me 'lord:' I am your goodman.

Page	My husband and my lord, my lord and husband;
	I am your wife in all obedience.

SLY	I know it well. What must I call her?

Lord	Madam.

SLY	Al'ce madam, or Joan madam?

Lord	'Madam,' and nothing else: so lords
	call ladies.

SLY	Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd
	And slept above some fifteen year or more.

Page	Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me,
	Being all this time abandon'd from your bed.

SLY	'Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone.
	Madam, undress you and come now to bed.

Page	Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you
	To pardon me yet for a night or two,
	Or, if not so, until the sun be set:
	For your physicians have expressly charged,
	In peril to incur your former malady,
	That I should yet absent me from your bed:
	I hope this reason stands for my excuse.

SLY	Ay, it stands so that I may hardly
	tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into
	my dreams again: I will therefore tarry in
	despite of the flesh and the blood.

	[Enter a Messenger]

Messenger	Your honour's players, heating your amendment,
	Are come to play a pleasant comedy;
	For so your doctors hold it very meet,
	Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood,
	And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:
	Therefore they thought it good you hear a play
	And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
	Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.

SLY	Marry, I will, let them play it. Is not a
	comondy a Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?

Page	No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.

SLY	What, household stuff?

Page	It is a kind of history.

SLY	Well, well see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side
	and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger.

	[Flourish]

	THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

ACT I

SCENE I	Padua. A public place.

	[Enter LUCENTIO and his man TRANIO]

LUCENTIO	Tranio, since for the great desire I had
	To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
	I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy,
	The pleasant garden of great Italy;
	And by my father's love and leave am arm'd
	With his good will and thy good company,
	My trusty servant, well approved in all,
	Here let us breathe and haply institute
	A course of learning and ingenious studies.
	Pisa renown'd for grave citizens
	Gave me my being and my father first,
	A merchant of great traffic through the world,
	Vincetino come of Bentivolii.
	Vincetino's son brought up in Florence
	It shall become to serve all hopes conceived,
	To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
	And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,