The Taming of the Shrew

Full title: The Taming of the Shrew
Written: between 1590 and 1594
First printing: 1623, First Folio
Word count: 22156 (this version)
Unique words: 3297

Some further reading:

• This page has a huge list of links related to the play, including YouTube videos of performances and interviews.
• RSC’s online Play Guide to Taming of the Shrew (specific to their 2003 production)
• The RSC’s page on Katharine in their Exploring Shakespeare – Shakespeare and Women section
• A Shrew and The Shrew – an introductory article on the relationship between the 1594 Quarto (authorship in dispute) entitled The Taming of A Shrew (A Shrew) and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
  • “The 1594 Quarto The Taming of A Shrew (A Shrew) is a bit like a 16th-century version of the musical Kiss Me, Kate. It clearly has a very close relationship with William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of The Shrew (The Shrew), it shares scenarios, characterisation, and language – and yet in some ways it is so distant from Shakespeare’s play that it should really be treated as an independent text….”
• Conall Morrison on directing The Taming of the Shrew for the Royal Shakespeare Company
  • “It [the taming of Kate] is so self-evidently repellent that I don’t believe for a second
    that Shakespeare is espousing this – especially within the framework. And I
    don’t believe for a second that the man who would be interested in Benedict
    and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet and all these strong lovers would have
    some misogynist aberration. Within that framework it’s very obviously a satire
    on this male behaviour and a cautionary tale.”

Frequent “interesting” words:

word / frequency

love 63
ill 62
father 54
man 41
house 38
old 37
son 34
daughter 34
wife 32
sly 32
pedant 32
mistress 32
sweet 29
call 26
world 25
name 25
leave 24
hear 24
fair 23
welcome 22
look 22
tailer 21
life 21
widow 20
marry 20
gentleman 20
knock 19
husband 19
speak 17
horse 17