The Tamer Tamed

by John Fletcher, Lucy Munro (Editor)

Overview

The Tamer Tamed is the subtitle or alternative title to John Fletcher's The Woman's Prize, a comedic sequel and reply to The Taming of the Shrew.

The plot switches the gender roles of Shakespeare's play: the women seek to tame the men. Katherine (the "shrew" of the original) has died, and Petruchio takes a second wife, Maria. Maria denounces her former mildness and vows not to sleep with Petruchio until she "turn him and bend him as [she] list, and mold him into a babe again." After many comedic exchanges and plot twists, Petruchio is finally "tamed" in the eyes of Maria, and the play ends with the two reconciled. The play is seen to reflect how society's views of women, femininity, and "domestic propriety" were beginning to change. It is said that Fletcher wrote this play to attract Shakespeare's attention - the two went on to collaborate on at least three plays together.

This brand new New Mermaid edition offers unique and fresh insight into the critical interpretation of the play. It builds on current critical foundations (the relationship with Taming of the Shrew, gender relations etc) and suggests different areas of interest (popular associations of the shrew, the question of reputation, and a re-examination of the play's structure). as well as examining stage history and recent productions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408143810
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/29/2014
Series:	New Mermaids
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	720,625
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Lucy Munro is Lecturer in English at Keele University.
John Fletcher (1579-1625) was an English dramatist who collaborated with Francis Beaumont on at least six plays. They began working together in about 1607 and had their first success in 1609 with Philaster; or Love Lies Bleeding.

After Beaumont's retirement in 1613, Fletcher became chief playwright for the King's Men; in addition to writing his own plays, he apparently collaborated with Shakespeare on three works: Two Noble Kinsmen, Henry VIII, and a lost play, The History of Cardenio. He also collaborated with Nathan Field, William Rowley and Philip Massinger, who succeeded him to the post of the King's Men's playwright in 1625.

His own plays include the pastoral The Faithful Shepherdess (1608), the tragedy Bonduca (1613), and the comedies Wit Without Money (1614), The Wild Goose Chase (1621), and The Chances (1625), which was revived at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1962. His work remained enormously popular until the end of the 17th century.