This newly revised Signet classic includes an extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, a unique introduction to the play, a comprehensive stage history of notable actors, and historical and contemporary dramatic criticism.
One of the most controversial and problematic of all of Shakespeare's plays, The Taming of the Shrew is a typical Elizabethan domestic comedy written around 1592. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, arrives in Padua and announces to his friends that "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If wealthily, then happily in Padua". He soon finds that a gr...more
This newly revised Signet classic includes an extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, a unique introduction to the play, a comprehensive stage history of notable actors, and historical and contemporary dramatic criticism.
How did marriage, considered a religious duty in medieval Europe, become a venue for personal fulfillment in contemporary America? How did the notion of romantic love, a novelty in the Middle Ages, become a prerequisite for marriage today? And, if the original purpose of marriage was procreation, what exactly is the purpose of marriage for women no...more
One of the most controversial and problematic of all of Shakespeare's plays, The Taming of the Shrew is a typical Elizabethan domestic comedy written around 1592. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, arrives in Padua and announces to his friends that "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If wealthily, then happily in Padua". He soon finds that a gr...more
One of the most controversial and problematic of all of Shakespeare's plays, The Taming of the Shrew is a typical Elizabethan domestic comedy written around 1592. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, arrives in Padua and announces to his friends that "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If wealthily, then happily in Padua". He soon finds that a gr...more
Audiences have always delighted in the robust comedy and verbal inventiveness of The Taming of the Shrew. The rapid-fire volley of insults and slurs that Kate and Petruchio hurl at each other throughout the opening scenes are as entertaining as anything Shakespeare ever wrote. And yet they also reveal the abiding tensions between men and women and ...more
Studies the evolution of English attitudes regarding marriage and sexuality in relation to the accompanying social, political, religious, and economic trends.
Unique features include an extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater by the general editor of Signet Classic Shakespeare series, plus a special introduction to the play by the editor Sylvan Barnet, Tufts University. It also contains text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest most readable type. Special introduction by ...more