This line, coming as it does in Act I scene 1, helps develop the
exposition of the plot. Tranio and Lucentio have just witnessed the exasperated Baptista's final
effort to marry off both of his daughters. He has decreed that Bianca, his youngest daughter who
is by fair the sweetest and most gentle, can only marry once the older sister, Katharina, who is
known as "the shrew" for her argumentative nature and her lack of patience with suitors, herself
is married.
Lucentio is struck at once with fervent and passionate
love for Bianca, and thus finds himself in a very difficult situation - how can he hope to woo
Bianca under such restrictions? Thus, talking with his manservant, Tranio, they devise a plan
that will enable him to court Bianca in secret - Lucentio will impersonate a schoolmaster. I
think there is some verbal irony in what Tranio says:
You will be a
schoolmaster,
And undertake the teaching of the
maid;
That's your
device.
Although overtly Lucentio will
play this role, he will be seeking to "teach" Bianca something apart from her lessons he will be
supposedly teaching.
Thus the quote you have selected contains
verbal irony and a possible innuendo concerning how Lucentio intends to court
Bianca.
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