The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-27

vein as in the story of the wife Tapped
in Morel's skin. though not carried to
the same extreme Of brutality.
1t is passing strange that so many
critics have failed to see that Shake
speare s Kate is not the vulgar vixen
that the earlier playwright makes her.
henry Giles, for example. says in his
III uman Life in Shakespeare"
Katharine is the shrew proper; she
is not sportive. she is only sulky; not
sarcastic, but scurrilous: the shrew of
blood and not of brain; the shrew of
VIII and not of fancy; of will without
reason: obstinate without purpose;
whimsical without playfulness: quar-
relsome without aim-that mixture of
fool and fighter Which makes the per-
feet she-tormentor; talking terma-
CANT. She has no sport in herself; she
serves only to make sport for others,
and this merely in a play; elsewhere
she could simply be a misery; only in
play was such a tigreSs ever tanned;
only in play, | trust. such an incar-
nate virulence ever had existence"
Schlegel calls Katharine "a young
and untamed girl. possessed of none of
the attractions of her sex; and yet
Hortensio tells us. early in the play,
that she is young and beauteous,
brought up as best becomes a gentle
woman
Petruchio, too, has suffered at the
hands of certain critics. who make him
coarse, brutal and sordid, thinking only
OF money in the. match, and tanning
the wife whom he does not love as he
would break a vicious horse.
All this is most superficial and most
unjust. and Shakespeare has carefully
guarded against giving us any such
idea of the shrew and her conqueror.
While he has retained most of the in
cidents of the old play, he has re-
created the actors. The coarse vixen
becomes true woman, who owes her
shrewishness to her bringing UP. and
is capable of being tanned and re-
formed by the man who understands
and loves her; and Petruchio, though
he prefers fortune with his wife, and
is frank in saying so. after the manner
OF the time. is no brutal and clustering
tyrant, like Fernando, but good
natured with all his rough whimsical
ity. and heartily enamored of the will
full girl whom he courts and carries off
in such unconventional fashion.
We must not suppose that Kate is
merely bullied into marrying Petruchio.
or that the tanning" is accomplished
by sheer persistence in the homeopathic
treatment which the husband adopts.
The ATTEMPT to cure like with like"
would not have been so promptly sue
cessful if the lady had not been a half
willing "Datient"l from the very first
She wants to be married, as she frank
ly admits in her talk with Blanca, and
the desire is not primarily due to her
dislike to see her sister get husband
first, though that feeling has it's infiu-
ence in her matrimonial aspirations.
Like Beatrice whom she resembles in
many ways. though inferior to that
spirited and witty lady, she has a low
ing nature beneath her sarcastic and
shrewish outside. and will make a good
wife for the man who can win her
heart At the same time she knows
that her chances are not so good as her
sisters. as her father also sees. and
therefore refuses to let Blanca be mar
ried until Kate is off his hands. Unde~
these circumstances it is natural that
she should take liking TO Petruchio at
the outset. in spite of-perhaps we
should say, on account of-his bluff
free-and-easy wooing. She sees that
he is a genuine man and in some re-
spects a kindred spirit She cannot
help recognizing his superiority to the
rival suitors for her sisters hand. She
resents his advances at first as too
confident and presumptuous. but she is
not insensible to his praises of her
beauty. When he says it is reported
that she limps. and asks her to let him
see her walk, she instinctiyely desires
to Snow MN that she does not imp,
and obeys him before it occurs to her
to refuse. 1t is a most significant little
touch mot found. in the old play). and
Petruchio sees at once that his suit is
half won already
When her father comes in, she af
fects TO hold off from the match. but it
is only FOR the moment. and the formal
betrothal is promptly contaminated in
the Italian fashion. She and Petruchio
join hands. with her fathers approval.
and Gremio and Tranio are the wit
nesses to the ceremony.
1t is important that the formal char
acter of this betrothal should be noted.
as showing that Kate here accepts Pc
truehio as her future husband. The
contract could not afterward be abro-
gated without the consent Of both the
parties. II Kate seriously intended TO
resist or decline the match. this was
the time TO do 1T. or ever after to hold
her peace. 1t may be said that she
yields to her fathers authority. but this
is not the case In the preceding scene
he has discouraged the suit of Petru-
chic rather than urged it on. When
asked ii he has not daughter called
Katharina fair and virtuous." he re-
plies. II have daughter called Kath-
srirs.' and in the next speech he says:
you're welcome. sir: