The Taming of the Shrew. Уильям Шекспир

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       THE ALEXANDER SHAKESPEARE

      General Editor

      R.B. Kennedy

      Additional notes and editing

      Mike Gould

      THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

      William Shakespeare

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

       Prefatory Note

       The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day

       Shakespeare: A Timeline

       Life & Times

       Money in Shakespeare’s Day

       Introduction

       List of Characters

       Induction

       Scene I

       Scene II

       Act One

       Scene I

       Scene II

       Act Two

       Scene I

       Act Three

       Scene I

       Scene II

       Act Four

       Scene I

       Scene II

       Scene III

       Scene IV

       Scene V

       Act Five

       Scene I

       Scene II

       Shakespeare: Words and Phrases

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

      Prefatory Note

      This Shakespeare play uses the full Alexander text. By keeping in mind the fact that the language has changed considerably in four hundred years, as have customs, jokes, and stage conventions, the editors have aimed at helping the modern reader – whether English is their mother tongue or not – to grasp the full significance of the play. The Notes, intended primarily for examination candidates, are presented in a simple, direct style. The needs of those unfamiliar with British culture have been specially considered.

      Since quiet study of the printed word is unlikely to bring fully to life plays that were written directly for the public theatre, attention has been drawn to dramatic effects which are important in performance. The editors see Shakespeare’s plays as living works of art which can be enjoyed today on stage, film and television in many parts of the world.

      An Elizabethan playhouse. Note the apron stage protruding into the auditorium, the space below it, the inner room at the rear of the stage, the gallery above the inner stage, the canopy over the main stage, and the absence of a roof over the audience.

      The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day

      On the face of it, the conditions in the Elizabethan theatre were not such as to encourage great writers. The public playhouse itself was not very different from an ordinary inn-yard; it was open to the weather; among the spectators were often louts, pickpockets and prostitutes; some of the actors played up to the rowdy elements in the audience by inserting their own jokes into the authors’ lines, while others spoke their words loudly but unfeelingly; the presentation was often rough and noisy, with fireworks to represent storms and battles, and a table and a few chairs to represent a tavern; there were no actresses, so boys took the parts of women, even such subtle and mature ones as Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth; there was rarely any scenery at all in the modern sense. In fact, a quick inspection of the English theatre in the reign of Elizabeth I by a time-traveller from the twentieth century might well produce only one positive reaction: the costumes were often elaborate and beautiful.

      Shakespeare himself makes frequent comments in his plays about the limitations of the playhouse and the actors of his time, often apologizing for them. At the beginning of Henry V the Prologue refers to the stage as ‘this unworthy scaffold’ and to the theatre building (the Globe, probably) as ‘this wooden O’, and emphasizes the urgent need for imagination in making up for all the deficiencies of presentation. In introducing Act IV the Chorus goes so far as to say:

      … we shall much disgrace

      With four or five most vile and ragged foils,

      Right ill-dispos’d in brawl ridiculous,

      The

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