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LUCENTIO. Tranio, since, for the great desire I had | |
| To see fair Padua, nursery of arts, | |
| I am arriv’d for fruitful Lombardy, | |
| The pleasant garden of great Italy; | |
| And, by my father’s love and leave, am arm’d | 5 |
| With his good will, and thy good company, | |
| My trusty servant, well approv’d in all; | |
| Here let us breathe, and haply institute | |
| A course of learning, and ingenious studies.— | |
| Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, | 10 |
| Gave me my being; and my father first, | |
| A merchant of great traffic through the world, | |
| Vincentio come of the Bentivolii. | |
| Lucentio his son, brought up in Florence, | |
| It shall become, to serve all hopes conceiv’d, | 15 |
| To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds. | |
| And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study, | |
| Virtue and that part of philosophy | |
| Will I apply, that treats of happiness | |
| By virtue ’specially to be achiev’d. | 20 |
| Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left, | |
| And am to Padua come: as he that leaves | |
| A shallow plash, to plunge him in the deep, | |
| And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst. | |
| TRANIO. Mi perdonate, gentle master mine, | 25 |
| I am in all affected as yourself. | |
| Glad that you thus continue your resolve, | |
| To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy. | |
| Only, good master, while we do admire | |
| This virtue, and this moral discipline, | 30 |
| Let ’s be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray; | |
| Or so devote to Aristotle’s Ethics, | |
| As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur’d. | |
| Balke logic with acquaintance that you have, | |
| And practise rhetoric in your common talk; | 35 |
| Music and poesy use to quicken you; | |
| The mathematics, and the metaphysics, | |
| Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you; | |
| No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en.— | |
| In brief, sir, study what you most affect. | 40 |
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