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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1748  Friday, 14 October 2005

From: 		Larry Weiss <larry@lweiss.net>
Date: 		Thursday, 13 Oct 2005 12:47:33 -0400
Subject: 16.1740 A Shrew
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.1740 A Shrew

Stephen Miller's conjecture that by 1623

 >The Shrew may have acquired its sequel.  If the players produced
 >the two plays together, it would be logical for them to omit the
 >Sly conclusion to The Shrew with its apparent closure of the
 >thread to be taken up afresh by The Tamer Tam'd.

is intriguing.  But if that were the case, wouldn't it be more logical 
to omit the Sly frame entirely?  Presumably, the intention would have 
been to make the interior action stand on its own, so any implication of 
a play within a play would be inapt.

Do we know if Shakespeare's company ever performed The Tamer?

In any case, I assume that  Mr. Miller's best guess is that Shakespeare 
wrote a continuation and completion of the Sly story and for some reason 
it fell out of the text (probably a prompt book) used to compose F1.  I 
wonder if he has any idea of how close to the Shakespearean original A 
Shrew comes to reproducing the lost scenes, especially the hilarious 
epilogue which makes the entire play one extended joke.

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