At the beginning of The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio announces "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If wealthily, then happily in Padua (I, ii, 75-76).  He is quickly persuaded by his good friend Hortensio, who promises to back Petruchio financially, to woo "Katherine the curst," who is wealthy but the nemesis of eligible bachelors in Padua. Why should Petruchio alone be indifferent to Katherine's "curst" quality? Is his motivation great greed--or great need?

To be sure, Petruchio tells Hortensio at the outset "Crowns in my purse I have and goods at home" (I, ii , 57), but what follows in the play is far more ambiguous than Petruchio's bold claim (the first, incidentally, of many such claims). When Petruchio negotiates the marriage bargain with Baptista, Katherine's father, Baptista is quite specific about Katherine's portion: "After my death the one half of my lands, / And in possession twenty thousand crowns" (II, i, 119-20).

Petruchio, although he sounds generous, is far less specific: "I'll assure / Her of her widowhood, be it that she survive me, / In all my lands and leases whatsoever" (II, i, 121-25). Baptista does not ask what that "whatsoever" might really mean, although he elicits far more specific pledges from Gremio and the supposed Lucentio in his later bargaining over Bianca's hand (II, i, 342-398). Perhaps Baptista is reassured by Petruchio's naming of his father, Antonio, "a man well known throughout all Italy" and well known, too, to Baptista. And undoubtedly Baptista is eager to find a new home for his unhappy eider daughter. Nonetheless, one senses that Baptista's haste and Petruchio's vagueness in the marriage bargain may combine to conceal the fact that Petruchio is offering more family reputation than substance.

Petruchio leaves after clapping up his wedding bargain, perhaps on some unspecified business (I, ii, 114-115)--Petruchio is never specific about business--and also "to buy apparel 'gainst the wedding day" in the notoriously rich and sophisticated city of Venice (II, i, 314-315). His return on an outrageously ugly, unsound old nag with outworn, mis-matched tack, and wearing himself equally outworn, mismatched clothing--except for a new hat (III, ii, 43-73)--is Certainly explainable in terms of the humiliation he intends to visit on his new wife; it is also consistent with what might be done by a man with little or no ready cash. The poor appearance of his servants at home (IV, i, 132-138) is likewise to be explained as part of his scheme to tame his shrewish wife--but once again it is also consistent with financial embarrassment.

Subsequently--and interestingly--Petruchio gets his friend Hortensio to promise the tailor payment for the gown that Petruchio has ordered for Katherine and then destroyed in apparent dissatisfaction. Petruchio doesn't make it clear whether he will later repay Hortensio, and the play in fact never shows Petruchio paying anyone for anything. The play's text does not make clear, either, whether when Petruchio and Katherine finally return to Padua, they do so in

silken coats and caps and golden rings, With ruffs and cuffs and fardingales and things, With scarfs and fans, and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery (IV, iii, 55-58), he first promises, or in honest mean habiliments, with purses proud and garments poor, as he later threatens (IV, iii, 170-171). Assuming for the sake of argument (and stage spectacle) that they do end the play in gorgeous array, one may wonder whether Kate's twenty thousand crowns in possession have not provided for the display--and given Petruchio a stake to wager on his wife's obedience, to boot.

At the end of the play, Kate lectures her sister and the widow on a wife's debt to her lord, to whom, says Kate, the wife owes her maintenance (V, ii, 146-156). The questions that the play raises about Petruchio's financial competence give this last lecture of Kate's a particular piquancy.