The Taming of the Shrew (1590-91) by William Shakespeare

S1E3 The Taming of the Shrew remains a controversial comedy over four hundred years after it first appeared, thanks to its apparent celebration of patriarchal oppression. Today on Ear Read This, Ash discusses the origin of Shrew-Taming narratives, the traditions of farce and cross-gender acting and what life was like for the real women in Shakespeare's time. 

Citations for Works Quoted:

 

The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentleman of Verona, and A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (Quotes taken from Penguin Shakespeare, 2005-06).

 

Kidnie, Margaret Jane, 'Introduction', 'The Play in Performance' from The Taming of the Shrew ed. G. R. Hibbard (Penguin 2006).

 

Tillyard, E. M. W., Shakespeare’s Early Comedies (1965).

 

Harbage, A., Conceptions of Shakespeare (1966).

 

Burgess, Anthony, Shakespeare (1970).

 

Kiernan, Victor, Shakespeare: Poet and Citizen (1993).

 

The majority of critical quotations for this episode are taken from The Taming of the Shrew: Critical Essays edited by Dana E. Aspinall (Routledge, 2002). The individual essays/extracts and their authors collected in the volume which I quote from are:

 

Aspinall, Dana E., 'The Play and the Critics' (2002)

 

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, from his Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew (1928)

 

Heilman, Robert B. 'The Taming Untamed, or, The Return of the Shrew' (Modern Language Quarterly, 1966)

 

Coghill, Neville, 'The Basis of Shakespearean Comedy' (1950)

 

Wilson, Edwin, Shaw on Shakespeare (1961) Roberts, Jean Addison, 'Horses and Hermaphrodites: Metamorphoses in Taming of the Shrew' (Shakespeare Quarterly, 1983)

 

Daniell, David, ‘The Good Marriage of Katherine and Petruchio’ (Shakespeare Survey, 1984)

 

Bradbrook, M.C., 'Dramatic Role as Social Image: A Study of The Taming of the Shrew' (1958)

 

Burns, Margie, 'The Ending of The Shrew' (1986)

 

Mikesell, Margaret Lael, '"Love Wrought These Miracles": Marriage and Genre in The Taming of the Shrew' (1989)

 

Boose, Lynda E. 'Scolding Brides and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman's Unruly Member' (1991)

 

Underdown, David, 'The Taming of the Scold: The Enforcement of Patriarchal Authority in Early Modern England' (1985)

 

Stallybrass, Peter, 'Reading the Body: The Revenger's Tragedy and the Jacobean Theater of Consumption' (1987)

 

Greer, Germaine, The Female Eunuch (1970)

 

Van Doren, Mark, Shakespeare (1939)

 

Mack, Maynard, 'Engagement and Detachment in Shakespeare's Plays' (1962)

 

Billington, Michael (The Guardian, 1987)

 

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Music: "Not Drunk" by The Joy Drops