DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

A Lord.
CHRISTOPHER SLY, a tinker.
Hostess, Page, Players, Huntsmen, and

Servants.

Persons in the

Induction.

BAPTISTA, a rich gentleman of Padua.
VINCENTIO, an old gentleman of Pisa.
LUCENTIO, son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca.
PETRUCHIO, a gentleman of Verona, a suitor to Katharina.
GREMIO, โร

suitors to Bianca.
HORTENSIO,
TRANIO,

servants to Lucentio. BIONDELLO, S GRUMIO,

servants to Petruchio, Curtis, A Pedant.

KATHARINA, the shrew, }daughters to Baptista.

Widow.
Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Baptista

and Petruchio.

DURATION OF TIME • Time, in this play,' says Mr. Daniel, 'is a very slippery element, difficult to fix in any consistent scheme.' gests the following :

Day 1. I.

He sug

2. II.

Interval of a day or two.
3. III. 1., Saturday, the eve of the wedding.
4. III. 2., IV. 1., Sunday, the wedding-day.

Interval [?].
5. IV. 2.
6. IV. 3.-5., V. (the second Sunday ?].

UAVE

INTRODUCTION

RECIPES for the management of wives were the theme Early of a series of popular plays during the last decade of History

, Elizabeth's reign.

Dekker and Chettle's Patient Grissel was acted in 1600; Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness in 1603. But neither the longsuffering wife whom no harshness incenses, nor the guilty one whom kindness subdues, touched the vein of the rougher Elizabethan playgoer so effectively as the refractory virago or 'Shrew,' who is ‘tamed' by the sheer strong will of a masterful spouse.

The Taming of the Shrew was the one member of the Shrew-taming species which attained a lasting success; but it had vigorous precursors and rivals in its own time, and, alone among Shakespearean comedies, provoked a lively retort in the next generation.

The Taming of the Shrew was first published, so Early Texts. far as is known, in the Folio of 1623, where it appears as the eleventh in the series of Comedies. It is there divided into acts, but not into scenes.

A Quarto edition was printed, in 1631, from the Folio. Of Date of

Composition. early performances, as of early editions, we hear nothing; and only internal evidence is available for determining its date. This is here the more precarious, since the play, as a whole, cannot pass for Shakespeare's. Most critics now agree that Shakespeare's participation in The Taming of the Shrew