As a servant to Petruchio, Grumio isn’t well-educated enough to speak in poetry, though he does attempt in doing so. For example, from time to time, he is able to stick a couple of lines of poetry into his speech. He manages to say, “Whom, would to God, I had well knocked at first,/ Then had not Grumio come by the worst,” (I. ii. 36-37). While Grumio is able to speak a couple of line of poetry, he speaks majorly in prose and as a result only understands prose. Thus, he is often taken advantage of by his master. For instance, when Petruchio commands Grumio to “knock me here soundly,” (I. ii. 8) the master uses very poetic language to instruct Grumio to knock at the gate. However, Grumio, unable to comprehend, takes this as a meaning of having permission to hit Petruchio and refuses, since he foreshadows the devastating consequence of that action. As a result, the only thing that Grumio gets out of when he uses prose is being pushed and punched
As a servant to Petruchio, Grumio isn’t well-educated enough to speak in poetry, though he does attempt in doing so. For example, from time to time, he is able to stick a couple of lines of poetry into his speech. He manages to say, “Whom, would to God, I had well knocked at first,/ Then had not Grumio come by the worst,” (I. ii. 36-37). While Grumio is able to speak a couple of line of poetry, he speaks majorly in prose and as a result only understands prose. Thus, he is often taken advantage of by his master. For instance, when Petruchio commands Grumio to “knock me here soundly,” (I. ii. 8) the master uses very poetic language to instruct Grumio to knock at the gate. However, Grumio, unable to comprehend, takes this as a meaning of having permission to hit Petruchio and refuses, since he foreshadows the devastating consequence of that action. As a result, the only thing that Grumio gets out of when he uses prose is being pushed and punched