TAMING

OF

THE SHRE W.*

VOL. MI.

Cc

* TAMING OF THE SHREW.] We have hitherto supposed Shakspeare the author of The Taming of the Shrew, but his property in it is extremely disputable. I will give my opinion, and the reasons on which it is founded. I suppose then the present play not originally the work of Shakspeare, but restored by him to the stage, with the whole Induction of the Tinker; and some other occasional improvements; especially in the character of Petruchio. It is very obvious that the Induction and the Play were either the works of different hands, or written at a great interval of time. The former is in our author's best manner, and a great part of the latter in his worst, or even below it. Dr. Warburton declares it to be certainly spurious; and without doubt, supposing it to have been written by Shakspeare, it must have been one of his earliest productions. Yet it is not mentioned in the list

of his works by Meres in 1598.

I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596, (and possibly there may be an earlier edition,) called The Metamorphosis of Ajax, where I suspect an allusion to the old play: "Read the Booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that now every one can rule a shrew in our countrey, save he that hath hir."-I am aware a modern linguist may object that the word book does not at present seem dramatick, but it was once technically so: Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, containing a pleasaunt Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jesters, and such like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth, 1579, mentions "twoo prose bookes played at the BellSauage;" and Hearne tells us, in a note at the end of William of Worcester, that he had seen a MS. in the nature of a Play or Interlude, intitled The Booke of Sir Thomas More.

And in fact there is such an old anonymous play in Mr. Pope's list: "A pleasant conceited history, called, The Taming of a Shrew-sundry times acted by the Earl of Pembroke his servants." Which seems to have been republished by the remains of that company in 1607, when Shakspeare's copy appeared at the Black-Friars or the Globe.-Nor let this seem derogatory from the character of our poet. There is no reason to believe that he wanted to claim the play as his own; for it was not even printed till some years after his death; but he merely revived it on his stage as a manager.

In support of what I have said relative to this play, let me only observe further at present, that the author of Hamlet speaks of Gonzago, and his wife Baptista; but the author of The Taming of the Shrew knew Baptista to be the name of a man. Mr. Capell indeed made me doubt, by declaring the authenticity of it to be confirmed by the testimony of Sir Aston Cockayn. I knew Sir Aston was much acquainted with the writers immediately subsequent to Shakspeare; and I was not inclined to dispute his

authority: but how was I surprised, when I found that Cockayn
ascribes nothing more to Shakspeare, than the Induction-Wincot-
Ale and the Beggar! I hope this was only a slip of Mr. Capell's
memory. FARMER.

In spite of the great deference which is due from every com-
mentator to Dr. Farmer's judgment, I own I cannot concur with
him on the present occasion. I know not to whom I could im-
pute this comedy, if Shakspeare was not its author. I think his
hand is visible in almost every scene, though perhaps not so evi-
dently as in those which pass between Katharine and Petruchio.

I once thought that the name of this play might have been taken
from an old story, entitled, The Wyflapped in Morell's Skin, or
The Taming of a Shrew; but I have since discovered among
the entries in the books of the Stationers' Company the following:
" Peter Shorte] May 2, 1591, a pleasaunt conceyted historie,
called, The Taminge of a Shrowe." It is likewise entered to
Nich. Ling, Jan. 22, 1606; and to John Smythwicke, Nov. 19,
1607.

It was no uncommon practice among the authors of the age
of Shakspeare, to avail themselves of the titles of ancient per-
formances. Thus, as Mr. Warton has observed, Spenser sent
out his Pastorals under the title of The Shepherd's Kalendar, a
work which had been printed by Wynken de Worde, and re-
printed about twenty years before these poems of Spenser ap-
peared, viz. 1559.

Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient Eng.
lish Poetry, is of opinion, that The Frolicksome Duke, or the
Tinker's good Fortune, an ancient ballad in the Pepys' Collection,
might have suggested to Shakspeare the Induction for this co-
medy.

The following story, however, which might have been the
parent of all the rest, is related by Burton in his Anatomy of
Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 649: “ A Tartar Prince, saith Marcus
Polus, Lib. II. cap. 28, called Senex de Montibus, the better to
establish his government amongst his subjects, and to keepe them
in awe, found a convenient place in a pleasant valley environed
with hills, in which he made a delitious parke full of odoriffcrous
flowers and fruits, and a palace full of all worldly contents that
could possibly be devised, musicke, pictures, variety of meats,
&c. and chose out a certaine young man whom with a soporiferous
potion he so benummed, that he perceived nothing: and so, fast
asleepe as he was, caused him to be conveied into this faire garden.
Where, after he had lived a while in all such pleasures as sensuall
man could desire, he cast him into a sleepe againe, and brought
him forth, that when he waked he might tell others he had beene in
Paradise."-Marco Paolo, quoted by Burton, was a traveller of
the 13th century,