Celia Daileader

This is the first edition for students and general readers of this pro-woman reply to Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' by a playwright (John Fletcher) who was more admired than Shakespeare in the seventeenth century. Co-edited by a feminist critic and a distinguished textual scholar, this new textbook makes clear why "The Tamer Tamed" should be restored to the theatrical repertoire and the literary canon. It includes the fullest commentary ever provided for the play, explaining for modern students Fletcher's verbal exuberance and his uninhibited sexual language. The full critical introduction describes the play's Renaissance context, its historical and literary sources (including Aristophanes's "Lysistrata"), and its subversive relationship to Shakespeare's "Shrew" and Ben Jonson's "The Silent Woman". It also surveys the play's subsequent theatrical and critical history. A unique and essential companion to the numerous textbook editions of Shakespeare's play, "The Tamer Tamed" provides exciting new material for current debates about the history of gender, marriage, and drama.