Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0910.  Wednesday, 22 Nov.
1995.

(1)     From:   Jeff Myers <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 20 Nov 1995 14:24:29 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0906 Re: *Shr.* Irony

(2)     From:   W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 20 Nov 1995 17:03:55 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0906  Re: *Shr.* Irony


(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Jeff Myers <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 20 Nov 1995 14:24:29 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 6.0906 Re: *Shr.* Irony
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0906 Re: *Shr.* Irony

Perhaps a place to begin to question Kate's taming is with a character
who does so.  Lucentio ends the play with

        'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so.

Since he is the future Vincentio, the richest and most powerful of all
the patriarchs, perhaps his doubt shows some positive social outcome
from the game Kate and Petruchio have been jointly playing since the
encounter with the "young maiden" Vincentio.  After all, Lucentio's
expectations have been thoroughly disappointed by Bianca, and he is
right not to jump to conclusions, as Hortensio does, about Kate.

On the other hand, perhaps the moral of the play is that "'Tis a good
hearing, when children are toward."  But I find it difficult to believe
that we are meant to respond with old Vincentio at this point in the
play (or any other) for a number of reasons.

Jeff Myers

(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 20 Nov 1995 17:03:55 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 6.0906  Re: *Shr.* Irony
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0906  Re: *Shr.* Irony

I would like to add one detail to Professor Mayes' analysis of 4.5.
Katherine tells Petruchio: " . . . sun it is not, when you say it is
not; / And the moon changes even as your mind" (Riverside ed.
4.5.19-20). I assume that she's implying that Petruchio is a "lunatic,"
since the mind of a lunatic is influenced by the moon.  This comment can
hardly be read as wifely submission.  Or can it?

Yours, Bill Godshalk

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