The Taming of the Shrew :: The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the shrewShrew--1Free, Mary. Hortensios parting in Closing The Taming of the Shrews Induction, RenaissancePapers 1999 (1999) 43-53.1Laurie E. Maguire, Cultural Control in The Taming of the Shrew,Renaissance Drama 26 (1995) 83.2Larry S. Champion, The growing of Shakespeares Comedy A Study inDramatic Perspective, (Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1970), 38. 3David Bevington, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, updated 4thed. (NewYork Longman 1997), 110.Hortensios Role in Closing The Taming of the Shrews InductionThe minor characters in The Taming of the Shrew receive little critical attention and to anextent rightly so. As Laurie E. Maguire points out, To say that Shakespeares play is. . .abouttaming is to state the obvious the wooing of Katherine by Petruchio, perhaps more than anyother of import(prenominal) plot in Shakespeare, dominates performance and criticism.1The minor charactersserve primarily, according to Larry S. Champion, as comic pointers to the main pl ots action oras dupes to the more clever.2To relegate Hortensio to either of these categories, however,ignores his centrality as motivator of the main plot, and although David Bevington findsHortensio laughably inept3--he blends, in fact, as the main plots lynchpin. Hortensio isthe first to draw our attention to the shrewish Katherine, and it is he who seizes the opportunity Shrew--2Free, Mary. Hortensios Role in Closing The Taming of the Shrews Induction, RenaissancePapers 1999 (1999) 43-53.4See Martha Andrensen-Thom, Shrew-Taming and Other Rituals of AggressionBaiting and Bonding on the Stage and in the Wild, Womens Studies 9, no. 2(1982) 121-143 Ann Barton, Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew, in TheRiverside Shakespeare, 2d ed., gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston Houghton,1997),138-41 Emily Detmer, Civilizing Subordination Domestic Violence inThe Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Quarterly 48, no. 3 (fall 1997) 273-294 Jean E. Howard, Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew , in The NortonShakespeare, gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt (New York Norton, 1997), 133-141Natasha Korda, Household Kates Domesticating Commodities in The Taming of theShrew, Shakespeare Quarterly 47, no. 2 (summer 1996) 110-131 and Murray J.Levith, Shakespeares Italian Settings and Plays (New York St. Martins,1989), 46-53.5See Richard A. Burt, Charisma, Coercion, and Comic Form in The Taming ofthe Shrew, Criticism 26, no.4 (fall 1984) 295-311 and Jeanne Addison Roberts,Horses and Hermaphrodites Metamorphoses in The Taming of the Shrew,Shakespeare Quarterly 34, no.2 (summer 1983) 159-171.to suggest Katherine as a wife for Petruchio. More important to my purpose, however, isHortensios function in the plays final two acts. While several criticsMartha Andrensen-Thom,Ann Barton, Emily Detmer, Jean E.