BAPTISTA
Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio?
BIANCA
Cambio is changed into Lucentio.
LUCENTIO
Love wrought these miracles. Bianca's love
Made me exchange my state with Tranio,
While he did bear my countenance in the town, (5.1.125-129)
Change and disguise are central to the Bianca plot, as just about all of her suitors don disguises to win her love. Here, Bianca cleverly puns on the word cambio, meaning "change" in Italian. We're also interested in the way Lucentio blames his bad behavior (playing dress-up and lying to everyone) on "love." Sounds like a lame copout for sure, but he might be telling the truth. In his opening speech in Act 1, Lucentio seems hell-bent on studying and making his family proud of his "virtuousness." The moment he sees Bianca, however, he transforms into a man without scruples. Perhaps it's true that love really does change a man, but not necessarily for the better.
LUCENTIO, aside to Tranio
But in the other's silence do I see
Maid's mild behavior and sobriety.
Peace, Tranio. (1.1.71-73)
When Tranio sees Bianca for the very first time, he gives voice to the reason why men find Bianca so attractive and suitable for marriage – silence and obedience to her father make her an ideal woman and an attractive candidate for wifehood. Too bad for Lucentio that Bianca turns out to be none of these things.
Quote 3
LUCENTIO
Tranio, since for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy,
The pleasant garden of great Italy,
And by my father's love and leave am armed
With his good will and thy good company.
My trusty servant, well approved in all,
Here let us breathe and haply institute (1.1.1-8)
Lucentio arrives in Padua with good intentions – he believes his commitment to his studies will please his family. This plan is quickly abandoned, however, when Lucentio falls in love with Bianca and decides to dress up as a "tutor," an ironic twist. Bianca, however, is the one who teaches Lucentio a lesson when she turns out not to be the silent and obedient woman Lucentio expects her to be.