Graham Holderness, Bryan Loughrey Taming of the Shrew

Annotation

First Published in 1992. This series puts into circulation single annotated editions of early modern play-texts whose literary and theatrical histories have been overshadowed by editorial practices dominant since the eighteenth century. The text contained in this volume is not what we know as Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, modern editions of which play are all derived from the text printed in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's works. The present text is an edition of the play published in 1594 under the title The Taming of a Shrew, which has always been denied the authorising signature of 'Shakespeare', and regarded as an earlier version by another dramatist or as a pirated and corrupt 'memorial reconstruction' of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.