The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare Page B

emphasis on physical violence. Petruchio threatens to beat Peg with a stick in the second act, and once in his country house she is not only deprived of food and sleep but is threatened with being undressed by Sauny and forced to sit up, drink beer, and smoke tobacco. Margaretis not tamed by this treatment though, and when she and Petruchio return to her father’s, she counsels her sister to rebel against her new husband. When she refuses to speak to Petruchio a barber is brought in to extract a tooth. Petruchio pretends that Peg is dead and is going to have her buried, at which point Margaret capitulates. Her final speech is reduced to “Fy Ladys, for shame, How dare you infringe that Duty which you justly owe your Husbands, they are our Lords and we must pay ’em Service.” The writing and characterization are unsophisticated, with the comic emphasis divided between Sauny’s bawdy and Margaret’s humiliation.
    Charles Johnson’s
The Cobbler of Preston
(1716) is a dramatic response to contemporary political events—the first Jacobite rebellion of the previous year (Battle of Preston, 1715). Johnson was a lawyer turned playwright through his acquaintance with the actor Robert Wilks, joint manager of Drury Lane. He uses the induction from
The Shrew,
making Kit Sly a drunken cobbler from Preston whom Sir Charles Briton decides to teach a lesson. A rival version written and produced by Christopher Bullock at Lincoln’s Inn Fields proved more successful, however, and was regularly revived until 1759.
    James Worsdale’s
A Cure for a Scold
(1735) is an anglicized version of
Sauny the Scott,
which takes place in polite society and is brought into line with the dramatic unities. The text is stripped right down and filled out with twenty-three songs plus dancing. There is no induction or Sly frame. Baptista has become Sir William Worthy; Petruchio Mr. Manly, now an old friend of Sir William’s, and Grumio Archer (Manly’s friend rather than a servant); Lucentio is called Gainlove and there is no disguising subplot, although he does run off and marry Flora (Bianca); Katherina is Margaret/Peg as in
Sauny
. The Tranio role is omitted but some of his functions are taken over by Flora’s maid, Lucy. The language in this version has been cleaned up—there is none of the bawdy of the original or vulgarity of
Sauny,
and there are picturesque archaisms, but despite this and the expression of egalitarian sentiments, the violent potential of the original is exploited and Margaret’s physical humiliation relished.
    The most famous and popular adaptation was David Garrick’s
Catherine and Petruchio
(1756), frequently played in a double bill withhis similarly abridged version of
The Winter’s Tale, Florizel and Perdita
. Garrick cut the Sly frame and returned the play to Padua. Petruchio is a wealthy man come to Padua to woo Kate. There is no suggestion of any hostility toward her sister or indelicate suggestion that Bianca cannot marry because of Kate. In fact, Bianca is already newly married to Hortensio. Much of Petruchio and Katherina’s dialogue from
The Shrew
is retained but the bawdy innuendo is removed. Garrick’s Catherine keeps the line from
A Shrew
/
Sauny
/
Cure for a Scold
in which she decides to accept Petruchio as a husband. They are to be married the next day and Petruchio turns up unsuitably dressed, as in Shakespeare’s play. Petruchio comes out of the church singing before taking his bride away. Grumio has gone on ahead and describes events to the female Curtis, who strikes him. The scene in Petruchio’s house is much as in Shakespeare’s—the line “ ’Twas a fault unwilling” is one of very few to survive in all versions. With no disguised suitors or pretended fathers, it is her own father that Kate addresses as “Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet” when he, Bianca, and Hortensio come to visit. Kate’s speech is broken up with interjections from her father, sister, and husband. Petruchio