s and caps
and golden rings, with ruffs and scarfs and fans and double change of
finery;" and to make her believe he really intended to give her these
gay things, he called in a taylor and a haberdasher, who brought some
new clothes he had ordered for her, and then giving her plate to the
servant to take away, before she had half satisfied her hunger, he
said, "What? have you dined?" The haberdasher presented a cap, saying,
"Here is the cap your worship bespoke;" on which Petruchio began to
storm afresh, saying, the cap was moulded in a porringer, and that
it was no bigger than a cockle or a walnut shell, desiring the
haberdasher to take it away and make a bigger. Katherine said, "I will
have this; all gentlewomen wear such caps as these." "When you are
gentle," replied Petruchio, "you shall have one too, and not till
then." The meat Katherine had eaten had a little revived her fallen
spirits, and she said, "Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak,
and speak I will. I am no child, no babe; your betters have endured
to hear me say my mind; and if you cannot, you had better stop you
ears." Petruchio would not hear these angry words, for he had happily
discovered a better way of managing his wife than keeping up a
jangling argument with her; therefore his answer was, "Why, you say
true, it is a paltry cap, and I love you for not liking it." "Love me,
or love me not," said Katherine, "I like the cap, and I will have this
cap or none." "You say you wish to see the gown," said Petruchio,
still affecting to misunderstand her. The taylor then came forward,
and shewed her a fine gown he had made for her. Petruchio, whose
intent was that she should have neither cap nor gown, found as much
fault with that. "O mercy, Heaven!" said he, "what stuff is here!
What, do you call this a sleeve? it is like a demy-cannon, carved up
and down like an apple-tart." The taylor said, "You bid me make it
according to the fashion of the times;" and Katherine said she never
saw a better fashioned gown. This was enough for Petruchio, and
privately desiring these people might be paid for their goods, and
excuses made to them for the seemingly strange treatment he bestowed
upon them, he with fierce words and furious gestures drove the taylor
and the haberdasher out of the room: and then, turning to Katherine,
he said, "Well, come, my Kate, we will go to your father's even in
these mean garments we now wear." And then he ordered his horses,
affirmin