Shakespeare Stories Continued (Shortened Version)

Author: Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb
Translator: Wang Ting
Country: United Kingdom
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-11-01
Features: Indeed, there is no one more suitable for this task than Petruchio. His personality is as proud as Catherine's, and at the same time, he is a cheerful optimist. He is also very clever and good at judging, knowing how to pretend to be furious and fierce, while in reality, his heart is calm and he finds his own disguise amusing. He knows very well that as Catherine's husband, he must pretend to be rough and noisy all day, only then can he subdue his wife's uncontrolled anger. So, Petruchio came to ask the shrew Catherine for marriage.
First, Petruchio asked Baptista for permission to win the heart of the despondent Catherine (as he called her). He said he had heard she was humble and graceful, so he came from Verona to propose to Catherine. Although the father very much wanted to marry Catherine off quickly, he still had to admit that Catherine's character was not like that. As for how gentle Catherine's character was, it soon became clear: because Catherine's music teacher suddenly burst into the room, complaining about the gentle Catherine, his student, who had broken his head with an instrument because he dared to find fault with her playing. Hearing this, Petruchio said, "What an extraordinary lady, I love her even more now. I just want to talk to her." While getting Catherine's father's consent, he said, "Mr. Baptista, I am very busy with business and cannot come here every day to court Catherine. You know my father, he has passed away, leaving all the fields and property to me. Please tell me, if I win your daughter's love, what will you give her as a dowry?"
Baptista felt that as a suitor, Petruchio's attitude was quite abrupt and rude. However, because he was very happy to marry Catherine off, he replied that he would prepare 20,000 crowns as a dowry for Catherine and give her half of his property after his death. This strange marriage agreement was soon reached.
Baptista went into the room to tell the shrew-like daughter that there was a suitor outside, asking her to go to Petruchio and listen to his proposal. At this moment, Petruchio was also considering how to confess his love to her. He said, "If she gets angry with me, I will say she sings as sweetly as a bird; if she has a angry face, I will say she is as radiant as a rose freshly bathed in rain. If she says nothing, I will praise her for being pleasant and eloquent; if she asks me to leave, I will thank her as if she had invited me to stay here for a week."
Catherine now came into the room, and Petruchio said to her, "Good morning, Kate. I heard this is your name." Catherine did not like this name, and she said proudly, "People who speak to me call me Catherine."
"You lie," the suitor replied, "because you are called straightforward Kate, beautiful Kate, and sometimes others call you 'shrew Kate.' But Kate, you are the most beautiful Kate in the world. I have heard people praise you for being gentle and lovely in all the cities, so I have come here to marry you as my wife." The tailor then showed Catherine the dress he had made for her. Petruchio resolved to make sure Catherine did not get either the hat or the dress, so he deliberately found many faults with the dress, saying the material was inferior and the tailoring was poor. The tailor said, "It was your request that I follow the latest fashion in making it." Catherine thought she had never seen a better dress. For Petruchio, this was enough. Privately, he told the tailor and the hatmaker he would pay them their wages and apologized for his unreasonable behavior, then he drove them out of the room with harsh words and angry gestures. Then, Petruchio turned around and said to Catherine, "Come, my dear Kate, we will go to your father's house in these old clothes." He ordered the horses and said seriously that they would arrive at Baptista's house by lunchtime, because it was only seven o'clock now.
But Petruchio was not speaking in the morning; in fact, it was already noon. At this point, Catherine had almost been completely subdued by Petruchio's tough attitude, so she bravely and cautiously said to him, "But sir, I must tell you, it is actually two o'clock in the afternoon, and we will not arrive until dinner time." Petruchio's intention was to completely subdue Catherine before taking her back to her father's house, making her completely obedient to him. As if he were even the master of the sun, the hours belonged to his rule, and whatever time he said it was, it was. Otherwise, he would not leave.
"Very well," he said, "whatever I say, you will always oppose it. We will not leave today. When we leave, whatever time I say it is, it will be." Catherine had to practice the obedience she had just learned for another day, because Petruchio had decided that he would not take her back to her father's house until she was completely obedient to him. Even when they had already started on the journey, she might still be sent back home, just because he declared at noon that the moon was shining brightly on the earth, and she occasionally reminded him that it was not the moon but the sun.
The news of this quarrel spread quickly, and a large crowd of people from Verona came to the scene, including Lord Capulet, Lord Montague, and their wives. Soon, the Prince of Verona also arrived at the scene. The young man who was killed by Tybalt was his relative. Because the two families often quarreled, causing unrest in his jurisdiction, he resolved to severely punish those responsible. Throughout the process, Benvolio was present, and the prince ordered him to explain the circumstances of the incident. Benvolio spoke, speaking as closely to the facts as possible while trying not to hurt Romeo, and did his best to defend Romeo. The death of his nephew Tybalt made Lady Capulet so grief-stricken that she thought of revenge and asked the prince to severely punish the murderer, not to listen to what Benvolio said, because he was both from the Montague family and a friend of Romeo, so his words were naturally biased in favor of the Montagues. Thus, she pointed the finger directly at her new husband, though so far, she did not know that Romeo was her new husband, the husband of her daughter Juliet.
On the other hand, Lady Montague pleaded for her son Romeo. She said that Romeo had no fault, and what he had done was only to punish Tybalt, because Tybalt had killed Mercutio first. The prince was somewhat moved by the dispute between the two women. After a careful and thorough investigation of the facts, he made his judgment. According to his judgment, Romeo must leave Verona. For Juliet, this was no less than a terrible news. She had only been Romeo's new bride for a few hours, and now, according to the prince's order, it meant she would be forever separated from her beloved husband!
When the news first arrived, she first got angry with Romeo for killing her dear cousin, cursing him and calling him "a handsome man who is an unjust ruler," "a sheep with a wolf's nature," and "a flower-like face hiding a viper's heart." These words showed that her mind was filled with a struggle between love and hate, but in the end, love prevailed. Juliet first cried tears of sorrow because Romeo had killed her cousin, but these sorrowful tears turned into tears of joy when she learned that the Tybalt who wanted to kill her husband Romeo was still alive. But when she thought of Romeo being banished from the city and far away from her, she again shed tears of sadness. This punishment was even more terrible than Tybalt's death.
After the brawl, Romeo hid in Friar Laurence's secret chamber. Here, he heard of the prince's judgment on him, which he thought was worse than a death sentence. He felt that there was no world outside the walls of Verona, and he could not live without seeing Juliet. The place where Juliet lived was heaven, and everything else was a kind of pain, punishment, or death. The kind-hearted priest tried to comfort the young man, but Romeo did not want to listen to anything. He tore his hair like a madman, threw himself to the ground, and said that he wanted to measure the size of his own grave.
His dear wife brought him a message, and only then did he regain a little of his senses. The priest began to blame him for being weak and lacking manliness. The priest said, "You have killed Tybalt, and now you want to kill yourself and the wife who lives for you?" A man who lacks courage, even if he has a noble appearance, is nothing more than a wax figure with no substance. The law did not sentence him to death but only exiled him, which was already very lenient to him. Tybalt had wanted to kill him, but he killed Tybalt instead, so there was also a happy side to the matter. Juliet was still alive and had become his wife, and he should be extremely happy. The priest asked Romeo to take care of himself and to despair, for only those who abandon themselves will die in sorrow.
When Romeo's mind calmed down, the priest persuaded him to secretly visit Juliet that night to bid her farewell. Then he should go to Mantua immediately and stay there until the priest found a suitable opportunity to announce their marriage, which might bring the two families back together and make everyone happy. The priest also assured him that the prince would pardon him, and that he would return to the city with twenty times the joy he had when he left, not with the sorrow he had when he left.