Act 3

Grumio arrives at Petruchio’s country house and complains about how he had to come before the others to make sure the slaves prepare for Petruchio and Kate. Grumio tells a servant named Citrus about the journey, and how Kate fell into some mud, Petruchio got angry, and the horses ran away. Kate and Petruchio arrive. Petruchio became furious and thinks that the servants have not attended him properly, even though the servants are doing their best. When the dinner that Petruchio demanded arrives, he yells that the meat is burnt and he pushed the whole meal off of the table. Kate pleads for him to be more patient with the servants. He tells her that he does it all out of love for her, and that all he wants is perfection for her. Then he whisks her away without feeding her a meal. He returns to the stage afterward and says that he does this purposefully to try and “tame” Katie. He speaks that he is going to prevent her from sleeping by complaining about how the bed is made.

Back in Padua, Tranio,who is still disguised as Lucentio, and Lucentio, who is still disguised as the schoolmaster, are trying to finish their scheme to get Bianca to be with Lucentio. Hortensio,  depressed because he lost Bianca to his rival, tells Lucentio that he too is out of luck in his pursuit of Bianca. Tranio plays along, surprised once he sees the real Lucentio and Bianca “hooking up” during a “lesson.” He pretends angry and foreswear Bianca’s charms, and he convinces Hortensio to also- so then there is no competition.

After Hortensio leaves Tranio tells Bianca and Lucentio what happened. Hortensio decided to marry a wealthy widow instead of Bianca and is now leaving to go to Petruchio’s to go to “taming-school.” He wants to see what Petruchio does with Kate so that he can do the same thing to his own marriage. As Tranio finishes telling Bianca and Lucentio about the events, Biondello runs into the scene with good news: he has just seen a man entering Padua who could pass as Lucentio’s father

Tranio learns that the newcomer is a pedant schoolmaster from Mantua. He then comes up with a story to put the old man in his debt: he says the dukes of Mantua and Padua are “at odds” with each other, and the duke of Padua demanded that any person from Mantua found in Padua will be exicuted. The then frightened pedant, promises a favor to Tranio as long as he protects him. Tranio says that he needs someone to pretend to be his father (meaning Lucentio’s father, Vincentio), and so they make an agreement.