we can arrive at a tolerably satisfactory decision. Malone first believed that "The Taming of the Shrew" was written in 1606, and subsequently gave 1596 as its probable date. It appears to me, that nobody has sufficiently attended to the apparently unimportant fact that in "Hamlet" Shakespeare mistakenly introduces the name of Baptista as that of a woman, while in "The Taming of the Shrew" Baptista is the father of Katharine and Bianca. Had he been aware when he wrote "Hamlet" that Baptista was the name of a man, he would hardly have used it for that of a woman: but before he produced "The Taming of the Shrew" he had detected his own error. The great probability is, that "Hamlet written at the earliest in 1601, and "The Taming of the Shrew" perhaps came from the pen of its author not very long afterwards. was The recent reprint of "The Pleasant Comedy of Patient Grissill," by Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, from the edition of 1603, tends to throw light on this point. Henslowe's Diary establishes, that the three dramatists above named were writing it in the winter of 1599. It contains various allusions to the taming of shrews; and it is to be recollected that the old "Taming of a Shrew" was acted by Henslowe's company, and is mentioned by him under the date of 11th June, 1594. One of the passages in "Patient Grissill," which seems to connect the two, occurs in Act v. sc. 2, where Sir Owen producing his wands, says to the marquess, "I will learn your medicines to tame shrews." This expression is remarkable, because we find by Henslowe's Diary that, in July, 1602, Dekker received a payment from the old manager, on account of a comedy he was writing under the title of "A Medicine for a curst Wife." My conjecture is, that Shakespeare (in coalition, possibly, with some other dramatist, who wrote the portions which are admitted not to be in Shakespeare's manner) produced his "Taming of the Shrew" soon after "Patient Grissill" had been brought upon the stage, and as a sort of counterpart to it; and that Dekker followed up the subject in the summer of 1602 by his "Medicine for a curst Wife," having been incited by the success of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" at a rival theatre. At this time the old "Taming of a Shrew" had been laid by as a public performance, and Shakespeare having very nearly adopted its title, Dekker took a different one, in accordance with the expression he had used two or three years before in "Patient Grissill2." The silence of Meres in 1598 regarding any such play by Shakespeare is also important: had it then been written, he could scarcely have failed to mention it; so that we have strong negative evidence of its non-existence before the appearance of Palladis Tamia. When Sir John Harington, in his "Metamorphosis of Ajax," 1596, says, "Read the booke 2 If we suppose Shakespeare, in Act iv. sc. 1, to allude to T. Heywood's play, A Woman Killed with Kindness," it would show that "The Taming of the Shrew" was written after Feb. 1602-3; but the expression was probably proverbial, and for this reason Heywood took it as the title of his tragedy. of 'Taming a Shrew,' which hath made a number of us so perfect that now every one can rule a shrew in our country, save he that hath her," he meant the old "Taming of a Shrew," reprinted in the same year. In that play we have not only the comedy in which Petruchio and Katharine are chiefly engaged, but the Induction, which is carried out to the close; for Sly and the Tapster conclude the piece, as they had begun it. As it is evident that Shakespeare made great use of the old comedy, both in his Induction and in the body of his play, it is not necessary to inquire particularly to what originals the writer of "The Taming of a Shrew" resorted. As regards the Induction, Douce was of opinion that the story of "The Sleeper awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments," was the source of the many imitations which have, from time to time, been referred to. Warton (Hist. Engl. Poetry, iv. 117. Edit. 1824) tells us, that among the books of Collins was a collection of tales by Richard Edwards, dated in 1570, and including "the Induction of the Tinker in Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew.'" This might be the original employed by the author of the old "Taming of a Shrew." For the play itself he, perhaps, availed himself of some now unknown translation of Nott. viii. fab. 2, of the Piacevoli Nott of Straparola. The Suppositi of Ariosto, freely translated by Gascoyne, (before 1566, when it was acted at Grey's Inn) under the title of "The Supposes," seems to have afforded Shakespeare part of his plot: relates to the manner in which Lucentio and Tranio pass off the Pedant as Vincentio, which is not found in the old "Taming of a Shrew." In the list of persons preceding Gascoyne's "Supposes " Shakespeare found the name of Petrucio, (a character not so called by Ariosto,) and hence, perhaps, he adopted it. It affords another slight link of connexion between "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The Supposes;" but there exists a third, still slighter, of which no notice has been taken. It consists of the use of the word "supposes," in A. v. sc. 1, exactly in the substantive sense in which it is employed by Gascoyne, and in reference to that part of the story which had been derived from his translation. How little Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" was known in the beginning of the eighteenth century, may be judged from the fact, that "The Tatler," No. 231, contains the story of it, told as of a gentleman's family then residing in Lincolnshire. A Lord. DRAMATIS PERSONE. Persons CHRISTOPHERO SLY, a Tinker. Hostess, in the Page, Players, Huntsmen, and Ser-Inducvants, BAPTISTA, a rich gentleman of Padua. VINCENTIO, an old Gentleman of Pisa. LUCENTIO, Son to Vincentio. PETRUCHIO, a Gentleman of Verona. tion. Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Baptista and Petruchio. SCENE, sometimes in Padua; and sometimes in Petruchio's House in the Country. TAMING OF THE SHREW. INDUCTION. SCENE I-Before an Alehouse on a Heath. Enter HOSTESS and CHRISTOPHERO SLY. Sly. I'll pheese1 you, in faith. Host. A pair of stocks, you rogue! Sly. Y' are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; look in the chronicles, we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide. Sessa!? Host. You will not pay for the glasses you have burst? Sly. No, not a denier. Go by, Jeronimy; go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.* Host. I know my remedy; I must go fetch_the headborough.5 [Exit. Sly. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer him by law; I'll not budge an inch, boy: let him come, and kindly. [Lies down, and falls asleep. Wind horns. Enter a Lord from hunting, with Huntsmen and Servants. Lord. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds: Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss'd," I would not lose the dog for twenty pound. 1 Hun. Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord; He cried upon it at the merest loss, And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent: 1 A common word in the west of England, where it means to chastise, humble.-Gifford. 2 Cessa. cease. 3 f. e. says Jeronimy. Go, by Jeronimy-from Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, often quoted in derision, and as a cant phrase, by the writers of the day. This is also a quotation from the same play. 5 Constable; it is usually altered to thirdborough. A hound. 7 Foams at the mouth from fatigue. Lord. Thou art a fool: if Echo were as fleet, I would esteem him worth a dozen such. But sup them well, and look unto them all: 1 Hun. I will, my lord. Lord. What's here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe? 2 Hun. He breathes, my lord. Were he not warm'd with ale, This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly. Lord. O, monstrous beast! how like a swine he lies. Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image! Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man. What think you, if he were convey'd to bed, And brave attendants near him when he wakes, 1 Hun. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot choose. Lord. Even as a flattering dream, or worthless fancy. Full of rose-water, and bestrew'd with flowers; And say,-will 't please your lordship cool your hands? And ask him what apparel he will wear; 8 And when he says he is: in f. e. |
