The Bill / Shakespeare Project

Unlike a play like The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew deals not with unintentional mistaken identity, but rather very intentional mistaken identity.
Continue reading “Disguises”

Last month, we discussed the use of references to the Roman poet Ovid (and mostly to his Metamorphosis) in Titus Andronicus… we also mentioned near the end of the month that Shakespeare would be using more Ovid later in his career.  I mentioned a couple of plays where the references were obvious, but didn’t know at the time that The Taming of the Shrew would have its share of Ovid-ian (not a word I’m sure) focal points.
Continue reading “Ovid: Bowm-Chicka-BowWah”

A couple of days back, when we were discussing the Induction of The Taming of the Shrew, I used the term Bard-olaters, saying it was someone who was such a Bard-ophile that he cannot believe that Shakespeare can do wrong (or poorly).
Continue reading “Poetry/Verse (I’m not so sure about this play, Part Three — The Not-So Thrilling Conclusion)”

OK, here’s a preview… later this month, we’re going to talk in depth about the most popular scene in The Taming of the Shrew, the wooing scene (and probably one of the two most important, neck and neck with the last speech by Kate).
Continue reading “Nay, come again, good Kate, I am a gentleman: Scansion for Performance”

OK, readers (and I am assuming you’ve all read the play, nudge nudge wink wink), what do we make of the first 277 lines of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew?
Continue reading “Induction”

Like Titus Andronicus last month, there is no obvious direct source for The Taming of the Shrew‘s main plot, or for its framing device (the Christopher Sly plotline) for that matter.  The shrewish woman is an archetype in literature: when Petruchio references both Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale and Gower’s Cofessio Amantis, as well as “Socrates’ Xanthippe” (I.ii.68 and I.ii.70, respectively), we see how the concept of the “curst and shrewd” (I.ii.69) wife has come down through the ages in literature.  The framing device, a simple story-within-a-story, is a time-honored trope, dating back to ancient Sanskrit texts (Panchatantra) and the Arabian Nights… though the first dramatic usage is from The Spanish Tragedy (see last month’s discussion of the sources for Titus).  The concept of the audience for that nested story being a man fooled into thinking he’s a lord . . . well, that too is a well-worn tradition (again, used in Arabian Nights [though that, interestingly, is a work that wasn’t available to Shakespeare, as it wouldn’t be translated into English until nearly a century and a half later]).  So while both elements are not original, there’s no direct lineage for these particular usages by Shakespeare.
Continue reading “Source of Confusion, Source of Controversy”

Act Five, Scene One of The Taming of the Shrew depicts much wackiness ensuing.
Continue reading “Act Five: Graduation Day”