Taming of the Shrew, The

Taming of the Shrew, The, comedy of character by English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. The Taming of the Shrew was probably written in 1593 during Shakespeare’s first or early period (up to 1594). This lively comedy shows Shakespeare engaged in rewriting an old play that had come into the hands of his company some years earlier. In the main he follows the scenario of his source, but he writes new and vigorous dialogue to bring out the characters of the heroine and hero, Katherine and Petruchio. Katherine, a violent, hot-tempered girl, is given in marriage to an adventurous stranger, Petruchio. In a long and comic struggle between them, her self-will is broken by an outrageous but good-humored exhibition of the same quality on his part. The “shrew' is tamed and becomes a loving, obedient wife. The underplot, drawn from The Supposes (1566) by George Gascoigne, deals with the courtship of Katherine's gentle sister, Bianca.