oped to take it up, this
mad-brained bridegroom gave him such a cuff, that down fell the priest
and his book again. And all the while they were being married he stamped
and swore so, that the high-spirited Katharine trembled and shook with
fear. After the ceremony was over, while they were yet in the church, he
called for wine, and drank a loud health to the company, and threw a sop
which was at the bottom of the glass full in the sexton's face, giving
no other reason for this strange act, than that the sexton's beard grew
thin and hungerly, and seemed to ask the sop as he was drinking. Never
sure was there such a mad marriage; but Petruchio did but put this
wildness on, the better to succeed in the plot he had formed to tame his
shrewish wife.

Baptista had provided a sumptuous marriage feast, but when they returned
from church, Petruchio, taking hold of Katharine, declared his
intention of carrying his wife home instantly: and no remonstrance of
his father-in-law, or angry words of the enraged Katharine, could make
him change his purpose. He claimed a husband's right to dispose of his
wife as he pleased, and away he hurried Katharine off: he seeming so
daring and resolute that no one dared attempt to stop him.

Petruchio mounted his wife upon a miserable horse, lean and lank, which
he had picked out for the purpose, and himself and his servant no better
mounted; they journeyed on through rough and miry ways, and ever when
this horse of Katharine's stumbled, he would storm and swear at the poor
jaded beast, who could scarce crawl under his burthen, as if he had been
the most passionate man alive.

At length, after a weary journey, during which Katharine had heard
nothing but the wild ravings of Petruchio at the servant and the horses,
they arrived at his house. Petruchio welcomed her kindly to her home,
but he resolved she should have neither rest nor food that night. The
tables were spread, and supper soon served; but Petruchio, pretending to
find fault with every dish, threw the meat about the floor, and ordered
the servants to remove it away; and all this he did, as he said, in love
for his Katharine, that she might not eat meat that was not well
dressed. And when Katharine, weary and supperless, retired to rest, he
found the same fault with the bed, throwing the pillows and bed-clothes
about the room, so that she was forced to sit down in a chair, where if
she chanced to drop asleep, she was presently awakened by