with you, To part so slightly with your wife's first gift; You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief. 176 Bass. [Aside.] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off And swear I lost the ring defending it. Gra. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away Unto the judge that begg'd it, and indeed Deserv'd it too; and then the boy, his clerk, That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine; And neither man nor master would take aught But the two rings. Por. What ring gave you, my lord? Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me. 18 Bass. If I could add a lie unto a fault, I would deny it; but you see my finger Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone. Por. Even so void is your false heart of truth. By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed Ner. Nor I in yours Sweet Portia, 180 If you did know to whom I gave the ring, When nought would be accepted but the ring, You would abate the strength of your displeasure. Por. If you had known the virtue of the ring, Or half her worthiness that gave the ring, me 210 my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady? I was enforc'd to send it after him; 218 I was beset with shame and courtesy; The ring of me to give the worthy doctor. 220 Por. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house. Since he hath got the jewel that I lov'd, I'll not deny him any thing I have, Lie not a night from home. Watch me like If you do not, if I be left alone, Now, by mine honour, which is yet mine own, I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow. THE Taming of the Shrew was first printed, so far as is known, in the First Folio. On this all subsequent texts have been based. Evidence for the date of composition is purely internal; and this is exceptionally weak on account of the doubt as to the extent of Shakespeare's part in the authorship. Metrical tests are inconclusive. Similarities to other plays, such as The Comedy of Errors in the treatment of the servants, and to Hamlet in the prince's reception of the players, suggest any date from 1590 to 1602. The wit-contest between Katherine and Petruchio in II. i. associates it with plays like Much Ado and As You Like It; while the occurrence of lines in the dancing measure of the speeches of the Dromios would lead us to place it before these plays. Perhaps 1596-97 is a fair guess. The immediate source was an earlier play of unknown authorship called The Taming of A Shrew, published in 1594. The story of the taming of a wife is found in German, Spanish, Italian, and, in a version considerably closer to that in the play, in Danish. In English it appears in the old verse tale of A Shrewd and Curst Wife Lapped in Morel's Skin. But no direct connection can be shown between any of these and the play. In the transforming of the earlier into the present play, phrases and occasionally whole lines are retained, and the incidents in the KatherinePetruchio plot are essentially the same; but the dialogue is greatly polished and invigorated, and the details of the stage-craft bettered throughout. Greater changes are made in the Bianca plot. The older play gives Katherine two sisters, each of whom has a lover; and their wooing, hindered only by the necessity of getting Katherine married first, and lacking the interest of rival suitors, is flat and stupid. The device of inducing a casual stranger to personate a suitor's father had been borrowed by the author of A Shrew from George Gascoigne's Supposes, a translation of Ariosto's I Suppositi. This source was used in the revision also for most of the incident in the Bianca plot. In Supposes we have no shrew, but a plot turning on the wooing of a lady by two lovers; and from it were taken direct the aged suitor and the device by which Lucentio and his servant exchange characters. Hortensio and his widow occur in neither of the earlier plays. The trick of the feigned instructors is elaborated from a scene in A Shrew in which Tranio's prototype attempts to give Kate a music lesson in order to afford his master and his friend an opportunity to court her sisters. The Latin lesson may have been suggested by a somewhat similar scene in Robert Wilson's Three Lords and Three Ladies of London, printed in 1590. The Induction is taken from A Shrew. A story similar to that of the tinker is found in The Arabian Nights, and the trick played on him by the lord is said by Heuterus (De Rebus Burgundicis, ca. 1580) to have been actually perpetrated by Philip the Good about 1440. But none of the several English versions of the narrative of Heuterus appeared before 1598. Warton mentions a similar tale as told by Richard Edwardes in 1570, and some have thought that this version has survived in The Waking Man's Dream, an undated fragment of a lost book. A ballad in Percy's Reliques is based on a version later than the play. In A Shrew the characters of the Induction appear from time to time throughout the play, and at the close Sly again falls asleep and is restored to his former state. A reason for dropping the Induction at the end of 1. i. of the Shakespearean play may perhaps be found in the necessity of clearing the gallery, from which Sly is viewing the play, for the appearance of the Pedant from a window in v. i. It is generally agreed that in the working over of A Shrew into the present play another hand than Shakespeare's is evident. The revised Induction and the scenes between Kate and Petruchio are usually assigned to Shakespeare, while the lines in the Bianca plot are thought not to show his style. This points either to an intermediate play, or to revision in collaboration. It has been tacitly assumed that the part of each author was confined to the scenes in which his style appears in the verse and diction. But it is clearly possible that a joint author might have a large share in planning the action of scenes which his partner wrote, and vice versa. Thus no one knows, or is ever likely to know, that Shakespeare is not entitled to credit for the remarkable ingenuity exhibited in the remodelling of the minor plot. I have forgot your name; but, sure, that part 90 Lord. 'Tis very true; thou didst it excellent. Well, you are come to me in happy time, The rather for I have some sport in hand Wherein your coming can assist me much. There is a lord will hear you play to-night; But I am doubtful of your modesties, Lest, over-eyeing of his odd behaviour, For yet his honour never heard a play, You break into some merry passion And so offend him; for I tell you, sirs, you should smile he grows impatient. A Player. Fear not, my lord; we can contain ourselves, If Were he the veriest antic in the world. 95 100 Anon I'll give thee more instructions. laughter 138 When they do homage to this simple peasant. [SCENE II. A bedchamber in the Lord's house. Enter aloft the drunkard [SLY, richly dressed.] with ATTENDANTS; some with apparel, basin and ewer, and other appurtenances; and LORD [like a servant]. Sly. For God's sake, a pot of small ale. 1. Serv. Will 't please your lordship drink a cup of sack? 2. Serv. Will 't please your honour taste of these conserves? 3. Serv. What raiment will your honour we to-day? wear Sly. I am Christophero Sly; call not me [s honour nor lordship. I ne'er drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of beef. Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay, sometime more feet to than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather. Lord. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! O, that a mighty man of such descent, 15 Sly. What, would you make me mad? Am |