The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-23

he very likely retained because it was
a Stratford Nance The scene of the
| old play is in Athens but in the later
, one it is changed to Padua. Shake
| speare was in the habit of making
these changes in names and localities
when dealing with the work of other
men tas, for instance, Lodges novel of
'Rosalynde'' in AS You Like ITO. ex-
! cept in historical or quasi-historical
plays; but there is no evidence that he
ever did it in revising or reconstructing
work of his own. No critic, so far as l
am aware, has referred to this whole
sale change of names in THE Shrew''
ship, but it seems to me to
have some weight at least
in connection with other argu-
ments on the same side. Even if
Shakespeare had wished to change the
scene of the earlier play. it was not
necessary TO change the names of the
characters. Fernando tthe original Of
Petruchio) was already Italian, and
Aurelius, Alphonsus, ETC., could have
been made Italian by changing the
ending-us to o. If all the old names
had been retained it would not have
been a worse medley than he has given
us in "A Midsummer Nights Dream"
Twelfth Night" and certain other
plays.
IO lily lHlllhltlS, lue IHlSilOT NeTSlH-
cation of the old play proves .conclus
lively that it was not written by Shake
speare. He was born metrist. His
verse in the earliest work that can be
ascribed to him is always faultless in
structure and generally smooth and
musical The earliest date that has
been conjecturaly assigned to the old
play is / believe, $780, or almost ex-
actly the same as that of Loves La
boris Lost" which Grant White makes
mot later than 1885, and the majority
of other critics 1891 or 1892, at latest.
If Shakespeare did not write the old
play he was nevertheless considerably
indebted to it. but it is not probable
that his play is a direct adaptation OF
more probable that he worked, not
upon the original Tanning of the
Shrew,'' but upon revised and en-
larged version of that comedy made by
some unknown writer and no longer
extant. This is the theory of Furni-
vail, Dowden and others. AS Furnivall
puts it. "An adapter. who used at least
ten bits of Marlowe in it. first recast
the old play, and then Shakespeare put
into the recast the scenes in which
Katherine, Petruchio and Grumio ap-
pear" Dowden remarks: In The
Tanning of the Shrew' we may distin-
guish three parts: "a The humorous
induction, in which sly. the drunken
tinker is the chief person: (2) a COM
edy of character. the Shrew and her
tanner Petruchio being the hero and
heroine; (3) a comedy of >intrigue-the
story of Blanca and her rival lovers.
Now the old play of "A Shrew contains,
in rude form. the scenes of the induc-
ton, and the chief scenes in which Pc
truchio and Katherine (named by the
original writer Fernando and Kate) ap-
hint nr h r1c in y, -c old N1~x
responds with the intrigues of Blanca 5
disguised lovers. 1t is. however, in the
scenes connected with these intrigues
that Shakespeare's hand is least appar-
ent''
Grant White also recognizes traces of
three writers in the play. The author of !
the old play is to be credited with 'ths |
structure of the plot and the incidents
and the dialogue of most of the minor !
scenes; the second writer with 1.-THE |
greater part Of the love business be- /
tween Blanca and her. two suitors'' |
while ito Shakespeare belong the |
clear Characterization, the de- |
lcious humor and the rich verbal col |
oring of the recast induction and all |
the scenes in which Katherine and |
Petruchlo and Grumio appear. togeth- |
er with the general effect produced by |
scattering lines and words and phrases
here and there and removing others
elsewhere throughout the play"
This last point seems to me an i'm
portant one, and it explains. l think
the difficulty that some of the critics
have. had in deciding Just how much |
had to do with certain
parts of the play. He rewrote consid-
cradle portions of it and retouched the
rest
The Sources Of the Plot.
The story of the induction is very an