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

| 1881, with the following title page
| which / transcribe from one of the
copies of the Boston public library:
"A Wittie and Pleasant Coincide
Called The Tanning of the Shrew.' AS
it was acted by His Majesties Servants
at the Blacke Friers and the Globe.
| Written by Will. Shakespeare, London.
Printed by w. S. for John Smethwicke,
and are to be sold at his Shop in Saint
Dunstones Churchyard, vnder the DIAL.
1881
A miunte comparison of this auarto
with the folio proves that the former
was printed from the latter. Mr.. j. p.
Collier Tin his second edition of Shakes
peare's works. maintained that the
quarto was printed before 162S-perhaps
as early as 1907 or 1609-and that rem
nant of the edition was brought out by
Smethwicke in 1851, with a new title
page, but it has been shown that the
title page forms part of the first sheet
of the book and that the paper on
which it is printed is identical with that
used for the rest of the play.
In the folio the play was evidently
printed from a manuscript copy which
had been used by the actors in learning
their parts. The name ''Sincklo" ap-
pears in the first scene of the introduce
ton as the prefix to a speech of one
of the players: Il think twas Soto that
your honour means" Sincklo, Sinklo
or Sinkler, as the name is varioHsly
spelled, was an actor of the time, who
played in other of Shakespeare's dra-
mas Again. in THE Shrew," iii, l,
the servant who enters is called "a
messenger in the folio. and the prefix
to his speech is "Nicke'' which prob
ably stands for Nicholas Tooley. one OF
the actors in Shakespeare's company,
a list of which is given in the intro
ductory pages of the folio.
The play is not mentioned in Francis
Mere's famous list of twelve plays of
Shakespeare in 1898. but those who be-
lieve that it was written several years
earlier lay stress on the fact that
Meres affects a pedantic paralellism
of numbers" and while giving just six
comedies and six tragedies, might not
include all the comedies then in exist
ence .raik and Hertzberg get over
the difficulty by assuming that The
Shrew' is the Loves Labor Won,
mentioned by Meres. but the critics
generally believe that play to have
been an early form of ''All's Well That
Ends Well"
Suffice it here to say that the critics
differ widely as to the date of THE
Shrew." Drake, Knight and Delius put
il in 1894. Malone latter first making it
16Oe) in 1896. Chalmers 1898. Collier
low 1913, Fleay 1882, Furnivall 1896
Z, and Dowden about 1897" The in
ternal evidence seems to me to favor a
date not later than 1897, and certainly
not more than year or so earlier
''The Tanning of the Shrew."
In 1854 a play was published annoy
mously under the title of "A Pleasant
Conceited Historic. Called the Tanning
of, Shrew." which had been ''sundry
times acted by the right honorable The
Earle of Pembroke his servants" 1t
was printed at London by Peter
Short and sold by CuthbeTt Burbie.
at his shop at the Royale Exchange"
A second edition was issued in 1896 and
a third in 1907.
OF the first G59D edition only one
copy is known TO be in existence. 1t is
in the library of the Duke of Devon
shire, who paid c97 for it in 1884. Of
the 1886 edition also but one copy is ex-
tant, in the library of Lord Francis Egg
erton. OF the third edition three copies
one of which belongs to the
was reprinted by Stevens in 1I16. and
again in 'Shakespeare's Library tsec-
ond edition. 1879: also in Halliwell's
great folio edition of Shakespeare QS53-
$50 and the 'Banksioe' edition QSeS)
Who wrote this play? A few critics
have thought that Shakespeare was the |
one of the authors, for it has |
some marks of mixed composition
but this seems to me very improbable. |
One writer says that the resemblance |
between portions of it and the latter |
play prove that the two must have |
come from the same hand: but they /
prove simply, that Shakespeare did not |
trouble himself to rewrite those parts |
Of the original, but left them pretty !
much as he found them.
The theory that Shakespeare wrote |