The text is given by Steevens, Variorum (1803), iii. 414; Boswell, Variorum (1821), iii. 356; Greg, Henslowe Papers, 144. The actors' names point to a performance by the Admiral's, near 2 Oct. 1602, when they bought the book from Alleyn (cf. ch. xiii). The play was produced as 'n. e.' by the same company on 6 May 1596, but probably Henslowe's 'n. e.' in this case only indicates a substantial revision, as the letters are also attached to the notice of a performance of Part ii on 11 June 1596, and Part ii had already been played as 'n. e.' by Strange's on 28 April 1592. Obviously a Part i must already have existed (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 155). The Taming of A Shrew c. 1589
S. R. 1594, May 2. 'A booke intituled A plesant Conceyted historie called "the Tayminge of a Shrowe".' Peter Short (Arber, ii. 648). 1594. A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called The taming of a Shrew. As it was sundry times acted by the Right honorable the Earle of Pembrook his seruants. Peter Short, sold by Cuthbert Burby. [Induction.] 1596. Peter Short, sold by Cuthbert Burby.
1607. V. S. for Nicholas Ling.
Editions by J. Nicholls (1779, Six Old Plays, i), T. Amyot (1844, Sh. Soc.), W. C. Hazlitt (1875, Sh. Libr. vi), E. W. Ashbee (1876, facs.), F. J. Furnivall (1886, Sh. Q), F. S. Boas (1908, Sh. Classics), and J. S. Farmer (S. F. T.).
The Admiral's and Chamberlain's revived 'the tamynge of A shrowe' for Henslowe on 11 June 1594, shortly after the entry in S. R. (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 164). Presumably it belonged to the Chamberlain's, who had acquired it from Pembroke's, and the 1594 performance may have been either of the original, or of Shakespeare's revision, The Taming of The Shrew, for which 1594 is a plausible date. An early reference to the printed book is in Harington's Metamorphosis of Ajax (1596), 95, 'For the shrewd wife, read the book of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that now every one can rule a shrew in our country, save he that hath her'. It is to be noted that, unlike Leire (q.v.) and King Lear, the two versions counted, from the copyright point of view, as one, so that the transfer of A Shrew to Smethwick made an entry of The Shrew in S. R. for the purposes of F_{1} of Shakespeare unnecessary. Probably Pembroke's in their turn got the play from the earlier Admiral's or Strange's. Its date has been placed in or before 1589, because certain lines of it appear to be parodied both in Greene's Menaphon of that year, and in the prefatory epistle to Menaphon by Nashe. Some such date is confirmed by its direct imitations from Marlowe's Tamburlaine (c. 1587) and to a less extent from Dr. Faustus (c. 1588), which are collected by Boas, 93. For author, Marlowe, Kyd, Greene, and Peele have all been suggested, but, so far as we know, Marlowe did not repeat himself, and the others did not plagiarize him, in this flagrant manner. Shakespeare also is still often credited with a hand in the old play,
