The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-30

two understand each other perfectly,
and can afford to laugh over the little
game by which the result has been
reached. But in the old play this scene
is treated with all seriousness, and the
shrew soberly calls the sun the moon.
lust as she has yielded other disputed
points to her arbitrary mate. Shake
speare knew better than TO compel
Kate to contradict the evidence OF her
own senses, except in a sort of merry
irony. This is the fashion in which
the earlier dramatist does it;
Feran-Come. Kate. the income shines
cleare tonight, Methinkes;
Kate-Yhe income? Why. husband, you
are deceiued. 1t is the sun.
Feran-Yet againe come backe agalnc 1t
shall be
The income ere we come at your fa-
KateNWhy lie say as you say it is the
Feran-Iesus saue the glorious income.
Kate-Iesus saue the glorious income.
Feran-I am glad Kate your stomach is
I know it well thou knowest it, is the
But / did trse to see if thou wouldst.
And crosse me now as thou hast dome
before
And trust me. Kate. hadst thou not
named the income,
We had gone back again as sure as
death.
The encounter with old Vincentio. and
treating him as young woman, is in
the same playful vein; and this should
be suggested in acting or reading the
scene l have somewhere read that a
certain actress, in giving the speech
beginning
Pardon old father my mistaking eyes
That have been so bedaZZed by the sun.
hesitating way. with a sly look at Pc
truchio. as if to ask whether she should
call it sun or moon. Such little touches
really elucidate and illuminate the
poets meaning. and show what might
be made of the comedy if it were rem
dered Alright instead of being degraded,
obscured and caricatured. as it gener-
ally has been on the stage. The per-
Torrance of the play by Mr.. Days
company was a marked improvement
on the usual misrepresentation, though
the personation of the hero and hero
inc did not seem to me to bring out
certain of the more subtle features of.
Shakespeares Characterization.
The last scene, where Kate wins the
wager for her husband by her PROMPT
and 1lnouestioning obedience. must be
interpreted in the light of what has
preceded: and when Lucentio and Hor-
tensio express their surprise 9pd Won
der what this "bodes,'' note Petruchio's
reply:
Marry. peace it bodies, and love and
quiet life.
And awful rule and right supremacy;
And. to be short. what not that's sweet
and happy
The peace and love and all that rs
sweet and happy are put first and last.
and the obedience is mentioned only in
a secondary and subordinate way, as
if TO suggest that it was based upon
the love and not upon masculine lord
ship.
treads If underfoot it is because she
understands her husbands purpose-as
in the case of the sun and the moon.
When she is sent out to fetch the other
wives she is bright enough TO suspect
that some trial of their conJugal ODE
dience is going on. and she at once
enters into it with hearty enjoyment.
In the long speech that follows Shake
speare has avoided all the absurdity
of the corresponding part of the old
nIay. which is a pedantic homily on tbs
creation of the world and of man. |
Give II here as another specimen of the
material which Shakespeare worked
upon and which some critics strangely
assume to be from his own pen at an
earlier PERIOD Ill HIS I'll diiAdtiS SdtSci
Feran-Now loueiy Kate before there
husbands here.
/ prethe tell vnto these 'hedstrong wo-
men
What Quite wines doc owe vnto their
husbands.
Kate-Then you that liue thus by your
pompered wills
Now list to me and marke what shall
say
The 'ternail power that with his only
breath.
Shall cause this end and this beginning
frame
Not in time. nor before time, but with
time. confusd.
For ali the course of yeares, of ages.
monetns
OF seasons temperate, of dayes and
houres.
Are tund and stopt by measures of his
hand.
The first world was a forme without a
fnrmc.
A heape confusd. mixture all deforInd,-
A gu,fe Of gulfes. body bodies
Where all the elements were orderles.
Before the great commander of the
world