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• TAMING OF THE SHREW.] We have hitherto supposed Shakspeare the authour of The Taming of the Shrew, but his property in it is extremely difputable. I will give my opinion, and the reasons on which it is founded. I suppose then the present play not originally the work of Shakspeare, but restored by him to the stage, with the whole Induction of the Tinker; and fome other occafional improvements; especially in the character of Petruchio. It is very obvious that the Induction and the Play were either the works of different hands, or written at a great interval of time. The former is in our author's best manner, and a great part of the latter in his worst, or even below it. Dr. Warburton declares it to be certainly spurious; and without doubt, fuppofing it to have been written by Shakspeare, it must have been one of his earliest productions. Yet it is not mentioned in the lift of his works by Meres in 1598.

I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596, (and poffibly there may be an earlier edition,) called The Metamorphosis of Ajax, where I suspect an allufion to the old play: "Read the Booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that now every one can rule a shrew in our countrey, fave he that hath hir." I am aware a modern linguist may object that the word book does not at present feem dramatick, but it was once technically fo: Gofsson, in his Schoole of Abuse, containing a pleafaunt Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Fefters, and fuch like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth, 1579, mentions " twoo prose bookes played at the Bell-Sauage:" and Hearne tells us, in a note at the end of William of Worcester, that he had seen a MS. in the nature of a Play or Interlude, intitled The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore.

And in fact there is such an old anonymous play in Mr. Pope's lift: "A pleasant conceited history, called, The Taming of a Shrew-fundry times acted by the earl of Pembroke his servants." Which seems to have been republished by the remains of that company in 1607, when Shakspeare's copy appeared at the BlackFriars or the Globe. Nor let this seem derogatory from the character of our poet. There is no reason to believe that he wanted to claim the play as his own; for it was not even printed till some years after his death; but he merely revived it on his stage as a manager.

In fupport of what I have faid relative to this play, let me only observe further at present, that the author of Hamlet speaks of Gonzago, and his wife Baptifta; but the author of The Taming of the Shrew knew Baptifta to be the name of a man. Mr. Capell Mr indeed made me doubt, by declaring the authenticity of it to be confirmed by the teftimony of Sir Afton Cockayn. I knew Sir Afton was much acquainted with the writers immediately subsequent to Shakspeare; and I was not inclined to dispute his autho

rity: but how was I surprised, when I found that Cockayn afcribes nothing more to Shakspeare, than the Induction-Wincot-Ale and the Beggar! I hope this was only a flip of Mr. Capell's memory. FARMER.

The following is Sir Afton's Epigram:

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TO MR. CLEMENT FISHER, OF WINCOт.
Shakspeare your Wincot-ale hath much renown'd,
"That fox'd a beggar so (by chance was found
"Sleeping) that there needed not many a word
"To make him to believe he was a lord:
"But you affirm (and in it feem moft eager)
"'Twill make a lord as drunk as any beggar.
"Bid Norton brew such ale as Shakspeare fancies
" Did put Kit Sly into fuch lordly trances :
" And let us meet there (for a fit of gladness)
" And drink ourselves merry in sober fadness."

Sir A. Cockayn's Poems, 1659, p. 124. In spite of the great deference which is due from every commentator to Dr. Farmer's judgement, I own I cannot concur with him on the present occafion. I know not to whom I could impute this comedy, if Shakspeare was not its author. I think his hand is visible in almost every scene, though perhaps not so evidently as in those which pass between Katharine and Petruchio.

I once thought that the name of this play might have been taken from an old story, entitled, The Wyf lapped in Morells Skin, or The Taming of a Shrew; but I have fince discovered among the entries in the books of the Stationers' Company the following: "Peter Shorte] May 2, 1594, a pleasaunt conceyted hystorie, called, The Tayminge of a Shrowe." It is likewife entered to Nich. Ling, Jan. 22, 1606; and to John Smythwicke, Nov. 19, 1607.

It was no uncommon practice among the authors of the age of Shakspeare, to avail themselves of the titles of ancient performances. Thus, as Mr. Warton has observed, Spenser sent out his Paftorals under the title of The Shepherd's Kalendar, a work which had been printed by Wynken de Worde, and reprinted about twenty years before these poems of Spenser appeared, viz. 1559.

Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, is of opinion, that The Frolickfome Duke, or the Tinker's Good Fortune, an ancient ballad in the Pepys' Collection, might have suggested to Shakspeare the Induction for this comedy.

Chance, however, has at last furnished me with the original to which Shakspeare was indebted for his fable; nor does this difcovery at all dispose me to retract my former opinion, which the reader may find at the conclufion of the play. Such parts of the dialogue as our author had immediately imitated, I have occa

fionally pointed out at the bottom of the page; but must refer the reader, who is defirous to examine the whole structure of the piece, to Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, at Charing-cross, as a Supplement to our commentaries on Shakspeare.

Beaumont and Fletcher wrote what may be called a sequel to this comedy, viz. The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tam'd; in which Petruchio is fubdued by a fecond wife. STEEVENS.

"fett

Among the books of my friend the late Mr. William Collins of Chichester, now dispersed, was a collection of short comick stories in prose, printed in the black letter under the year 1570, forth by maifter Richard Edwards, mayster of her Majefties revels." Among these tales was that of the INDUCTION OF THE TINKER in Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew; and perhaps Edwards's storybook was the immediate source from which Shakspeare, or rather the author of the old Taming of a Shrew, drew that diverting apologue. If I recollect right, the circumstances almost tallied with an incident which Heuterus relates from an epistle of Ludovicus Vives to have actually happened at the marriage of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, about the year 1440. That perfpicuous annalist, who flourished about the year 1580, fays, this story was told to Vives by an old officer of the Duke's court. T. WARTON.

See the earliest English original of this story, &c. at the conclufion of the play. STEEVENS.

Our author's Taming of the Shrew was written, I imagine, in 1594. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. I. MALONE.