Introduction to the play
Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio’s marriage to Bianca is prompted by his idealized love of an apparently ideal woman. Petruchio’s wooing of Katherine, however, is free of idealism. Petruchio takes money from Bianca’s suitors to woo her, since Katherine must marry before her sister by her father’s decree; he also arranges the dowry with her father. Petruchio is then ready to marry Katherine, even against her will.
Katherine, the shrew of the play’s title, certainly acts much changed. But have she and Petruchio learned to love each other? Or is the marriage based on terror and deception?
The Folger Shakespeare
Our bestselling editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems
I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;
If wealthily, then happily in Padua.
—Petruchio
Act 1, scene 2, lines 76–77
If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
—Katherine
Act 2, scene 1, line 223
The Taming of the Shrew in our collection
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Essays and resources from The Folger Shakespeare
The Taming of the Shrew
Learn more about the play, its language, and its history from the experts behind our edition.
About Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
An introduction to the plot, themes, and characters in the play
Reading Shakespeare’s Language
A guide for understanding Shakespeare’s words, sentences, and wordplay
An Introduction to This Text
A description of the publishing history of the play and our editors’ approach to this edition
Textual Notes
A record of the variants in the early printings of this text
A Modern Perspective
An essay by Karen Newman
Appendix: Framing Dialogue in The Taming of a Shrew (1594)
Further Reading
Suggestions from our experts on where to learn more
Shakespeare and his world
Learn more about Shakespeare, his theater, and his plays from the experts behind our editions.
Shakespeare’s Life
An essay about Shakespeare and the time in which he lived
Shakespeare’s Theater
An essay about what theaters were like during Shakespeare’s career
The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays
An essay about how Shakespeare’s plays were published
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Teaching The Taming of the Shrew
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Early printed texts
The Taming of the Shrew was first published in the 1623 First Folio, and that text is generally the source for subsequent editions. The only complication is a 1594 quarto titled The Taming of A Shrew that is not ascribed to Shakespeare and which has an uncertain relationship to The Shrew. While there are plot similarities, much of A Shrew is different from The Shrew, including character relationships, names, and much of the language. But since the framing story of Sly is continued throughout A Shrew, instead of being dropped after the initial scenes as in The Shrew, editors sometimes wish to include those Sly scenes in their edition. The Folger edition, like all modern editions, is based on F1, and does not include any additions from A Shrew.
