Too little payment for so great a debt (5.2).

The Taming of the Shrew begins with an “induction” in which a nobleman plays a trick on a beggar, Christopher Sly, treating Sly as if he is a nobleman who has lost his memory. A play is staged for Sly—the play that we know as The Taming of the Shrew.

In the play, set in Padua, Lucentio and other suitors pursue Bianca, but are told by her father, Baptista, that her bad-tempered older sister, Katherine (or Katerina), must marry first. They encourage Petruchio, who has come to Padua to find a wealthy wife, to court Katherine and free Bianca to marry.

Petruchio negotiates marriage terms with Baptista, then has a stormy meeting with Katherine, after which he assures Baptista that the two have agreed to marry. Petruchio arrives late to their wedding dressed in strange clothes; he behaves rudely and carries Katherine away before the wedding dinner. At his home, he embarks on a plan to “tame” Katherine as one would tame a wild hawk. Starved and kept without sleep, Katherine eventually agrees with everything Petruchio says, however absurd. He takes her back to Padua, where they attend Bianca’s wedding. There, Katherine proves more obedient to her husband than the other wives, whom she chastises before she and Petruchio go off to consummate their marriage (reproduced with permission from Folger).

Postcards of The Taming of the Shrew:

Productions of The Taming of the Shrew:

Between 1893 and 1914, The Taming of the Shrew was produced fourteen times in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford. Between 1893 and 1978, it was performed all told forty-four times in Stratford. Between 1890 and 1914, the play was produced fourteen times in London and between 1904 and 1914, eleven times in New York City.

1890 Henry Irving leased the theater and Richard Dorney as acting manager presented six performances of The Taming of the Shrew at London’s Lyceum Theatre (July 8 through July 14). The players were John Drew as Petruchio, Ada Rehan as Katherine, Charles Fisher as Baptista, Charles Wheatleigh as Christopher Sly, and Edith Crane as Bianca (Wearing, I: 52).

1893 To open his new theater Daly’s (London), Augustin Daly selected The Taming of the Shrew as the first play produced. George Clarke played Petruchio, Ada Rehan played Katherine, William Gilbert played Christopher Sly, Henry Loraine played Baptista, and Frances Ross played Bianca. The play opened on June 27 and ran for fourteen performances until July 14 (Wearing, I: 329).

1897 Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced Katherine and Petruchio, David Garrick’s adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. The play opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre (London) on November 1 and ran for twenty-two performances. Tree played Petruchio and his wife played Katherine; the parts of Bianca and Baptista were played by Margaret Halstan and Charles G. Allan (Wearing, II: 700).

1901 Frank Benson‘s company presented ten performances (January 1-14) of The Taming of the Shrew at the Comedy Theatre (London). Benson played Petruchio opposite his wife Constance Benson as Katherine (Wearing, I: 71).

1904 On January 18 Ada Rehan opened at the Lyric Theatre in New York City for a three-week engagement in The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice. The production then moved to the Liberty Theatre where The Taming of the Shrew ran for another week (Loney, I: 22).

At the Adelphi Theatre, London, on November 29 Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton opened in The Taming of the Shrew (Loney, I: 23).

1908 Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton opened a revival of The Taming of the Shrew at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on June 8 (Loney, I: 45).

1910 Starting on February 7, E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe play for six weeks at the Academy of Music, New York City. Included in the repertory are Hamlet, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night (Loney, I: 53).

Beginning on March 28, several companies presented a London Shakespeare Festival at His Majesty’s Theatre. Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s company played The Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. Norman Mckinnel presented King Lear and The Merchant of Venice; Arthur Bourchier and his company came next with The Merchant of Venice. H. B. Irving played Hamlet, and Frank Benson’s “Bensonians” followed with the Taming of the Shrew and Coriolanus. Poel’s Elizabethan Stage Society gave a performance–in the “original” sixteenth-century style–of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Lewis Waller revived his Henry V, and Tree returned to close the Festival with The Merchant of Venice and Richard II (Loney, I: 54).

The Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare Festival opened on April 22 this year. The Festival began with Tree’s Hamlet;Benson’s company then performed The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Richard III with Genevieve Ward and The Merchant of Venice with Ellen Terry. The season was cut short and ended when Edward VII died on May 6 (Loney, I, 54).

1911 The London Shakespeare Festival opened on May 22 at His Majesty’s Theatre with Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s Julius Caesar, followed by Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton’s As You Like It. Next came The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night. Frank Benson presented The Taming of the Shrew, Tree revived his Henry VIII, and the Festival closed with Benson’s Richard III and on July 3, the final night, the Merry Wives of Windsor (Loney, I: 158).

E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe opened their season at the Broadway Theatre, New York City. In the repertory were Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night. They returned on November 20 and added As You Like it to the list (Loney, I: 158).

On July 22, Stratford’s second summer season began; this is the year that Baliol Holloway debuted with the Bensonians. The plays performed are A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, Richard II, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and the Tempest (Loney, I: 159).

1912 The annual Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare Festival opened this year on April 22 with The Merchant of Venice; Frank Benson’s company also performed Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Coriolanus, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and Richard III (Loney, I: 63).

1913 On May 10, Martin Harvey played Petruchio in a production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, London (Loney, I: 68).

Frank Benson’s summer season of Shakespeare’s plays opened on August 2 with The Merchant of Venice; other plays performed that season were As You Like It, Hamlet, King John, Richard II, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and Henry IV, Part 2 (Loney, I: 68).

1914 On March 16 at the Hudson Theatre, New York City, Margaret Anglin began a run of Shakespeare plays; she directed and played in As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and The Taming of the Shrew (Loney, I: 72).

Frank Benson returned from the United States to direct the Stratford Summer Festival. He opened the four-week festival with Much Ado About Nothing. The company also presented Hamlet, Richard II, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet (Loney, I: 73).

On October 5, the Old Vic Theatre, London, under the management of Lilian Baylis, mounted a production of The Taming of the Shrew. Additionally, the following plays were performed for the first time in 1914 at the Old Vic: Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Baylis will by 1923 have produced the entire Shakespeare canon of thirty-seven plays (Loney, I: 73).