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AcTIvITy 4.13
continued
previewing the play
Introducing the Conflict
5. Read the following scene from Act I of The Taming of the Shrew. As you read, look at the underlined words and their meaning in modern English.
Hortensio: (a young man who wants to marry
Bianca) . . . Signior Gremio; but a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us both (that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress and be happy rivals in Bianca’s love) to labor and effect one thing specially.
I pray = please; may I ask
quarrel = reason for hostility
brooked parle = allowed for discussion advice = careful consideration toucheth = concerns
labor and effect = strive for and achieve
Gremio: (a rich old man who wants to marry Bianca) What’s that, I pray?
Hortensio: Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
Marry = listen, I agree, well, indeed
Gremio: A husband? a devil!
Hortensio: I say “a husband.”
Gremio: I say “a devil.” Think’st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?
Think’st thou = do you imagine
Hortensio: Tush, Gremio. Though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.
Tush = an exclamation of disapproval alarums = noises; disturbances
light on = find
and = if (there were)
Gremio: I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition: to be whipped at the high cross every morning.
had as lief = would just as soon
dowry = the money, goods, or estate that a wife brings to her husband at marriage
whipped at the high cross = an allusion (reference) to a cruel mode of punishment
Hortensio: Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in
rotten apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained till by helping Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to’t afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, Signior Gremio?
Faith = an emphatic expression used to confirm an idea
bar in law = legal barrier (Baptista’s “law”)
have to’t afresh = compete (become rivals) again
Happy man be his dole! = may the man find happiness
Gremio: I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in Padua to begin his wooing that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and rid the house of her! Come on.
Gremio and Hortensio exit
would I had = I wish I had
wooing = trying to win a woman to marriage
310 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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