TAMING OF THE SHRFW.] We have hitherto fuppofed Shakspeare the authour of The Taming of the Shrew, but his property in it is extremely difputable. I will give my opinion, and the reafons on which it is founded. I fuppofe then the prefent play not originally the work of Shakspeare, but reftored by him to the ftage, with the whole Induction of the Tinker; and fome other occafional improvements; efpecially in the chara&er 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 fpurious; and without doubt, fuppofing it to have been written by Shakspeare, it must have been one of his earliest productions. Yet it is not mentioned in the lift of his works by Meres in 1598. I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596, (and poffibly there may be an earlier edition,) called The Metamorphofs of Ajax, where I fufpect an allufion to the old play: Read the Booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us fo perfect, that now every one can rule a fhrew in our countrey, fave he that hath hir." I am aware a modern linguist may object that the word book does not at present feem dramatick, but it was once technically fo: Goffon, in his Schoole of Abufe, containing a pleafaunt Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, feflers, and fuch like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth, 1579, mentions "twoo profe bookes played at the Bell Sauage:" and Hearne tells us, in a note at the end of William of Worcester, that he had feen a MS. in the nature of a Play or Interlude, intitled The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore. And in fact there is fuch an old anonymous play in Mr. Pope's lift: 66 A pleasant conceited hiftory, called, The Taming of a Shrew-fundry times acted by the earl of Pembroke his fervants." Which feems to have been republished by the remaius of that company in 1607, when Shakspeare's copy appeared at the BlackFriars or the Globe.--Nor let this feem derogatory from the chara&er 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 fome years after his death; but he merely revived it on his ftage as a manager. In fupport of what I have faid relative to this play, let me only obferve further at prefent, that the author of Hamlet fpeaks of Gonzago, and his wife Baptifta; but the author of The Taming of the Shrew knew Baptifta to be the name of a man. Mr. Capell indeed made me doubt, by declaring the authenticity of it to be confirmed by the teftimony of Sir Afton Cockayn. I knew Sir Afton was much acquainted with the writers immediately fubfequent to Shakspeare; and I was not inclined to difpute his autho tity: but how was I forprifed, when I found that Cockayn afcribes nothing more to shakspeare, than the Induction- Wincot-Ale and the Beggar! I hope this was only a flip of Mr. Capell's memory. The following is Sir Afton's Epigram: To MR. CLEMENT FISHER, OF WINCOT. "Shakspeare your Wincot-ale hath much renown'd, "To make him to believe he was a lord: And let us meet there (for a fie of glaonefs) FARMER. Sir 4. Cocains Poems, 1659, p. i24. In spite of the great deference which is due from every commentator to Dr. Farmer's Judgement, I own I cannot concur with him on the prefent occafion. I know not to whom I could impute this comedy, if Shakspeare was not its author. I think his hand is vifible in almoft every fcene, though perhaps not fo evidently as in thote which pafs between Katharine and Petruchio. or I once thought that the name of this play might have been taken from an old ftory entitled, The Waf lapped in Morells Skin, The Taming of a Shrew; but I have fince difcovered among the entries in the books of the Stationers Company the following: "Peter Shorte May 2, 1594, a pleafaunt concevted hyftorie, called, The Tayminge of a Shrowe. It is likewife entered 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 themielves of the titles of ancient performances. Thus, as Mr. Warton has obferved, Spenser sent out his Paflorals under the title of The Shepherd's Kalendar, a work which had been printed by Wynken de Worde, and reprinted about twenty years before thefe poems of Spenfer appeared, viz 1559. Dr. Percy, in the first volume of Kis Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, is of opinion, that The Frolickfome Duke, or the Tinker's Good Fortune, an ancient ballad in the Pepys' Collection, might have fuggefted to Shakspeare the Induction for this comedy. Chance, however, has at laft furnished me with the original to which Shakspeare was indebted for his fable; nor does this discovery at all difpofe me to retract my former opinion, which the reader may find at the conclufion of the play. Such parts of the dialogue as our author had immediately imitated, I have occa fionally pointed out at the bottom of the page; but muft refer the reader, who is defirous to examine the whole ftructure of the piece, to Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, at Charing-crofs, as a Supplement to our commentaries on Shakspeare. Beaumont and Fletcher. wrote what may be called a fequel to this comedy, viz. The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tam'd; in which Peruchio is fubdued by a fecond wife. STEEVENS. Among the books of my friend the late Mr. William Collins of Chichester, now difperfed, was a colle&ion of fhort comick ftories in profe, printed in the black letter under the year 1570, "fett forth by maifter Richard Edwards, mayfter of her Majefties revels. " Among these tales was that of the INDUCIION OF THE TINKER in Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew; and perhaps Edward's ftorybook was the immediate fource from which Shakspeare, or rather the author of the old Taming of a Shrew, drew that diverting apologue If I recolled right, the circumftances almoft tallied with an incident which Heuterus relates from an epiftle of Ludovicus Vives to have adually happened at the marriage of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, about the year 1440. That perfpicuous anualift, who flourished about the year 1580, fays, this story was told to Vives by an old officer of the Duke's court. T. WARTON. See the earliest English original of this ftory, &c. at the conclufion of the play. STEEVENS. Our author's Taming of the Shrew was written, I imagine, in 1594. See An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. MALONE. PERSONS represented. A Lord. Perfons in the Lucentio, fon to Vincentio, in love with Bianca. Tranio, Servants to Lucentio. Grumio, Servants to Petruchio. Pedant, an old fellow fet up to perfonate Vincentio. Katharina, the Shrew; Bianca, her fifter, Daughters to Baptista. Widow. Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Bap tifta and Petruchio. SCENE, fometimes in Padua; and fometimes in Petruchio's Houfe in the Country. Characters in the Induction to the Original Play of The Taming of a Shrew. entered on the Stationers' books in 1594, and printed in quarto in 1607. A Lord, &c. Sly. A Tapfer. Page, Players, Huntfmen, &c. PERSONS represented. Alphonfus, a merchant of Athens. Jerobel, Duke of Ceftus. Aurelius, his fon, Suitors to the daughters of Al Ferando, Polidor, phonfus. Valeria, fervant to Aurelius. Sander, fervant to Ferando. Phylotus, a merchant who perfonates the Duke. |