The Taming of the Shrew - Reading Shakespeare Project

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592.

The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself. The nobleman then has the play performed for Sly's diversion.

The main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship; however, Petruchio "tames" her with various psychological torments, such as keeping her from eating and drinking, until she becomes a desirable, compliant, and obedient bride. The subplot features a competition between the suitors of Katherina's younger sister, Bianca, who is seen as the "ideal" woman. The question of whether the play is misogynistic has become the subject of considerable controversy, particularly among modern scholars, audiences, and readers.

The Taming of the Shrew has been adapted numerous times for stage, screen, opera, ballet, and musical theatre; perhaps the most famous adaptations being Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate; McLintock!, a 1963 American western and comedy film, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara and the 1967 film of the play, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The 1999 high school comedy film 10 Things I Hate About You is also loosely based on the play.

Characters

• Katherina (Kate) Minola – the "shrew" of the title
• Bianca Minola – sister of Katherina; the ingénue
• Baptista Minola – father of Katherina and Bianca
• Petruchio – suitor of Katherina
• Gremio – elderly suitor of Bianca
• Lucentio – suitor of Bianca
• Hortensio – suitor of Bianca and friend to Petruchio
• Grumio – Petruchio's manservant
• Tranio – Lucentio's manservant
• Biondello – servant of Lucentio
• Vincentio – father of Lucentio
• Widow – wooed by Hortensio
• Pedant – pretends to be Vincentio
• Haberdasher
• Tailor
• Curtis – servant of Petruchio
• Nathaniel – servant of Petruchio
• Joseph – servant of Petruchio
• Peter – servant of Petruchio
• Nicholas – servant of Petruchio
• Philip – servant of Petruchio
• Officer

Characters appearing in the Induction:

• Christopher Sly – a drunken tinker
• Hostess of an alehouse
• Lord – plays a prank on Sly
• Bartholomew – Lord's page boy
• Lord's Huntsman
• Players
• Servingmen
• Messenger

Synopsis

Prior to the first act, an induction frames the play as a "kind of history" played in front of a befuddled drunkard named Christopher Sly who is tricked into believing that he is a lord. The play is performed in order to distract Sly from his "wife," who is actually Bartholomew, a servant, dressed as a woman.

In the play performed for Sly, the "shrew" is Katherina, the eldest daughter of Baptista Minola, a lord in Padua. Numerous men, including Tranio, deem Katherina an unworthy option for marriage because of her notorious assertiveness and willfulness. On the other hand, men such as Hortensio and Gremio are eager to marry her younger sister Bianca. However, Baptista has sworn Bianca is not allowed to marry until Katherina is wed; this motivates Bianca's suitors to work together to find Katherina a husband so that they may compete for Bianca. The plot thickens when Lucentio, who has recently come to Padua to attend university, falls in love with Bianca. Overhearing Baptista say that he is on the lookout for tutors for his daughters, Lucentio devises a plan in which he disguises himself as a Latin tutor named Cambio in order to woo Bianca behind Baptista's back and meanwhile has his servant Tranio pretend to be him.

In the meantime, Petruchio, accompanied by his servant Grumio, arrives in Padua from Verona. He explains to Hortensio, an old friend of his, that since his father's death he has set out to enjoy life and wed. Hearing this, Hortensio recruits Petruchio as a suitor for Katherina. He also has Petruchio present himself to Baptista disguised as a music tutor named Litio. Thus, Lucentio and Hortensio attempt to woo Bianca while pretending to be the tutors Cambio and Litio.

To counter Katherina's shrewish nature, Petruchio pretends that any harsh things she says or does are actually kind and gentle. Katherina agrees to marry Petruchio after seeing that he is the only man willing to counter her quick remarks; however, at the ceremony, Petruchio makes an embarrassing scene when he strikes the priest and drinks the communion wine. After the wedding, Petruchio takes Katherina to his home against her will. Once they are gone, Gremio and Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) formally bid for Bianca, with Tranio easily outbidding Gremio. However, in his zeal to win he promises much more than Lucentio actually possesses. When Baptista determines that once Lucentio's father confirms the dowry, Bianca and Tranio (i.e. Lucentio) can marry, Tranio decides that they will need someone to pretend to be Vincentio, Lucentio's father. Meanwhile, Tranio persuades Hortensio that Bianca is not worthy of his attentions, thus removing Lucentio's remaining rival.

C.R. Leslie illustration of Act 4, Scene 3 (Petruchio upbraiding the tailor for making an ill-fitting dress). From the Illustrated London News, 3 November 1886; engraved by William Luson Thomas.

In Verona, Petruchio begins the "taming" of his new wife. She is refused food and clothing because nothing – according to Petruchio – is good enough for her; he claims that perfectly cooked meat is overcooked, a beautiful dress doesn't fit right, and a stylish hat is not fashionable. He also disagrees with everything that she says, forcing her to agree with everything that he says, no matter how absurd; on their way back to Padua to attend Bianca's wedding, she agrees with Petruchio that the sun is the moon, and proclaims "if you please to call it a rush-candle,/Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me" (4.5.14–15). Along the way, they meet Vincentio, who is also on his way to Padua, and Katherina agrees with Petruchio when he declares that Vincentio is a woman and then apologises to Vincentio when Petruchio tells her that he is a man.

Back in Padua, Lucentio and Tranio convince a passing pedant to pretend to be Vincentio and confirm the dowry for Bianca. The man does so, and Baptista is happy for Bianca to wed Lucentio (still Tranio in disguise). Bianca, aware of the deception, then secretly elopes with the real Lucentio to get married. However, when Vincentio reaches Padua, he encounters the pedant, who claims to be Lucentio's father. Tranio (still disguised as Lucentio) appears, and the pedant acknowledges him to be his son Lucentio. In all the confusion, the real Vincentio is set to be arrested, when the real Lucentio appears with his newly betrothed Bianca, revealing all to a bewildered Baptista and Vincentio. Lucentio explains everything, and all is forgiven by the two fathers.

Meanwhile, Hortensio has married a rich widow. In the final scene of the play there are three newly married couples; Bianca and Lucentio, the widow and Hortensio, and Katherina and Petruchio. Because of the general opinion that Petruchio is married to a shrew, a good-natured quarrel breaks out amongst the three men about whose wife is the most obedient. Petruchio proposes a wager whereby each will send a servant to call for their wives, and whichever comes most obediently will have won the wager for her husband. Katherina is the only one of the three who comes, winning the wager for Petruchio. She then hauls the other two wives into the room, giving a speech on why wives should always obey their husbands. The play ends with Baptista, Hortensio and Lucentio marvelling at how successfully Petruchio has tamed the shrew.

Sources

Although there is no direct literary source for the induction, the tale of a commoner being duped into believing he is a lord is one found in many literary traditions. Such a story is recorded in Arabian Nights where Harun al-Rashid plays the same trick on a man he finds sleeping in an alley. Another is found in De Rebus Burgundicis by the Dutch historian Pontus de Huyter, where Philip, Duke of Burgundy, after attending his sister's wedding in Portugal, finds a drunken "artisan" whom he entertains with a "pleasant Comedie." Arabian Nights was not translated into English until the mid 18th century, although Shakespeare may have known it by word of mouth. He could also have known the Duke of Burgundy story as, although De Rebus wasn't translated into French until 1600, and into English until 1607, there is evidence the story existed in English in a jest book (now lost) by Richard Edwardes, written in 1570.

Regarding the Petruchio/Katherina story, there are a variety of possible influences, but no one specific source. The basic elements of the narrative are present in tale 44 of the fourteenth-century Spanish book Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio by Don Juan Manuel, which tells of a young man who marries a "very strong and fiery woman." The text had been translated into English by the sixteenth century, but there is no evidence that Shakespeare drew on it. The story of a headstrong woman tamed by a man was well known, and found in numerous traditions. For example, according to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Noah's wife was such a woman ('"Hastow nought herd," quod Nicholas, "also/The sorwe of Noë with his felaschippe/That he had or he gat his wyf to schipe"'; The Miller's Tale, l. 352–354), and it was common for her to be depicted in this manner in mystery plays. Historically, another such woman was Xanthippe, Socrates' wife, who is mentioned by Petruchio himself (1.2.70). Such characters also occur throughout medieval literature, in popular farces both before and during Shakespeare's lifetime, and in folklore.

In 1890, Alfred Tolman conjectured a possible literary source for the wager scene may have been William Caxton's 1484 translation of Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry's Livre pour l'enseignement de ses filles du Chevalier de La Tour Landry (1372). Written for his daughters as a guide on how to behave appropriately, de la Tour Landry includes "a treatise on the domestic education of women" which features an anecdote in which three merchants make a wager as to which of their wives will prove the most obedient when called upon to jump into a basin of water. The episode sees the first two wives refuse to obey (as in the play), it ends at a banquet (as does the play) and it features a speech regarding the "correct" way for a husband to discipline his wife.In 1959, John W. Shroeder conjectured that Chevalier de La Tour Landry's depiction of the Queen Vastis story may also have been an influence on Shakespeare.

In 1964, Richard Hosley suggested the main source for the play may have been the anonymous ballad "A merry jeste of a shrewde and curst Wyfe, lapped in Morrelles Skin, for her good behauyour". The ballad tells the story of a marriage in which the husband must tame his headstrong wife. Like Shrew, the story features a family with two sisters, the younger of whom is seen as mild and desirable. However, in "Merry Jest", the older sister is obdurate not because it is simply her nature, but because she has been raised by her shrewish mother to seek mastery over men. Ultimately, the couple return to the family house, where the now tamed woman lectures her sister on the merits of being an obedient wife. The taming in this version is much more physical than in Shakespeare; the shrew is beaten with birch rods until she bleeds, and is then wrapped in the salted flesh of a plough horse (the Morrelle of the title). "Merry Jest" was not unknown to earlier editors of the play, and had been dismissed as a source by A.R. Frey, W.C. Hazlitt, R. Warwick Bond and Frederick S. Boas. Modern editors also express doubt as to Hosley's argument.

In 1966, Jan Harold Brunvand argued that the main source for the play was not literary, but the oral folktale tradition. He argued the Petruchio/Katherina story represents an example of Type 901 ('Shrew-taming Complex') in the Aarne–Thompson classification system. Brunvand discovered 383 oral examples of Type 901 spread over thirty European countries, but he could find only 35 literary examples, leading him to conclude "Shakespeare's taming plot, which has not been traced successfully in its entirety to any known printed version, must have come ultimately from oral tradition."^[16][17] Most contemporary critics accept Brunvand's findings.

A source for Shakespeare's sub-plot was first identified by Alfred Tolman in 1890 as Ludovico Ariosto's I Suppositi, which was published in 1551. George Gascoigne's English prose translation Supposes was performed in 1566 and printed in 1573. In I Suppositi, Erostrato (the equivalent of Lucentio) falls in love with Polynesta (Bianca), daughter of Damon (Baptista). Erostrato disguises himself as Dulipo (Tranio), a servant, whilst the real Dulipo pretends to be Erostrato. Having done this, Erostrato is hired as a tutor for Polynesta. Meanwhile, Dulipo pretends to formally woo Polynesta so as to frustrate the wooing of the aged Cleander (Gremio). Dulipo outbids Cleander, but he promises far more than he can deliver, so he and Erostrato dupe a travelling gentleman from Siena into pretending to be Erostrato's father, Philogano (Vincentio). However, when Polynesta is found to be pregnant, Damon has Dulipo imprisoned (the real father is Erostrato). Soon thereafter, the real Philogano arrives, and all comes to a head. Erostrato reveals himself, and begs clemency for Dulipo. Damon realises that Polynesta is truly in love with Erostrato, and so forgives the subterfuge. Having been released from jail, Dulipo then discovers he is Cleander's son. An additional minor source is Mostellaria by Plautus, from which Shakespeare probably took the names of Tranio and Grumio.

Date and text

Date

Efforts to establish the play's date of composition are complicated by its uncertain relationship with another Elizabethan play with an almost identical plot but different wording and character names, A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called the taming of a Shrew. The Shrew's exact relationship with A Shrew is unknown. Different theories suggest A Shrew could be a reported text of a performance of The Shrew, a source for The Shrew, an early draft (possibly reported) of The Shrew, or an adaptation of The Shrew. A Shrew was entered in the Stationers' Register on 2 May 1594, suggesting that whatever the relationship between the two plays, The Shrew was most likely written somewhere between 1590 (roughly when Shakespeare arrived in London) and 1594 (registration of A Shrew).

However, it is possible to narrow the date further. A terminus ante quem for A Shrew seems to be August 1592, as a stage direction at 3.21 mentions "Simon," which probably refers to the actor Simon Jewell, who was buried on 21 August 1592. Furthermore, The Shrew must have been written earlier than 1593, as Anthony Chute's Beauty Dishonoured, written under the title of Shore's wife (published in June 1593) contains the line "He calls his Kate, and she must come and kiss him." This must refer to The Shrew, as there is no corresponding "kissing scene" in A Shrew. There are also verbal similarities between both Shrew plays and the anonymous play A Knack To Know A Knave (first performed at The Rose on 10 June 1592). Knack features several passages common to both A Shrew and The Shrew, but it also borrows several passages unique to The Shrew. This suggests The Shrew was on stage prior to June 1592.

In his 1982 edition of the play for The Oxford Shakespeare, H.J. Oliver suggests the play was composed no later than 1592. He bases this on the title page of A Shrew, which mentions the play had been performed "sundry times" by Pembroke's Men. When the London theatres were closed on 23 June 1592 due to an outbreak of plague, Pembroke's Men went on a regional tour to Bath and Ludlow. The tour was a financial failure, and the company returned to London on 28 September, financially ruined. Over the course of the next three years, four plays with their name on the title page were published; Christopher Marlowe's Edward II (published in quarto in July 1593), and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (published in quarto in 1594), The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (published in octavo in 1595) and The Taming of a Shrew (published in quarto in May 1594). Oliver says it is a "natural assumption" that these publications were sold by members of Pembroke's Men who were broke after the failed tour. Oliver assumes that A Shrew is a reported version of The Shrew, which means The Shrew must have been in their possession when they began their tour in June, as they didn't perform it upon returning to London in September, nor would they have taken possession of any new material at that time.

Ann Thompson considers A Shrew to be a reported text in her 1984 and 2003 editions of the play for the New Cambridge Shakespeare. She focuses on the closure of the theatres on 23 June 1592, arguing that the play must have been written prior to June 1592 for it to have given rise to A Shrew. She cites the reference to "Simon" in A Shrew, Anthony Chute's allusion to The Shrew in Beauty Dishonoured and the verbal similarities between The Shrew and A Knack to Know a Knave as supporting a date of composition prior to June 1592. Stephen Roy Miller, in his 1998 edition of A Shrew for the New Cambridge Shakespeare, agrees with the date of late 1591/early 1592, as he believes The Shrew preceded A Shrew (although he rejects the reported text theory in favour of an adaptation/rewrite theory).

Keir Elam, however, has argued for a terminus post quem of 1591 for The Shrew, based on Shakespeare's probable use of two sources published that year; Abraham Ortelius' map of Italy in the fourth edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, and John Florio's Second Fruits. Firstly, Shakespeare errs in putting Padua in Lombardy instead of Veneto, probably because he used Ortelius' map of Italy as a source, which has "Lombardy" written across the entirety of northern Italy. Secondly, Elam suggests that Shakespeare derived his Italian idioms and some of the dialogue from Florio's Second Fruits, a bilingual introduction to Italian language and culture. Elam argues that Lucentio's opening dialogue,

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.
(1.1.1–4)

is an example of Shakespeare's borrowing from Florio's dialogue between Peter and Stephan, who have just arrived in the north:

PETER
I purpose to stay a while, to view the fair Cities of Lombardy.

STEPHAN
Lombardy is the garden of the world.

Elam's arguments suggest The Shrew must have been written by 1591, which places the date of composition around 1590–1591.

Text

The 1594 quarto of A Shrew was printed by Peter Short for Cuthbert Burbie.^[36] It was republished in 1596 (again by Short for Burbie), and 1607 by Valentine Simmes for Nicholas Ling. The Shrew was not published until the First Folio in 1623. The only quarto version of The Shrew was printed by William Stansby for John Smethwick in 1631 as A Wittie and Pleasant comedie called The Taming of the Shrew, based on the 1623 folio text. W.W. Greg has demonstrated that A Shrew and The Shrew were treated as the same text for the purposes of copyright, i.e. ownership of one constituted ownership of the other, and when Smethwick purchased the rights from Ling in 1609 to print the play in the First Folio, Ling actually transferred the rights for A Shrew, not The Shrew.