TAMING OF THE SHREW.] We have hitherto fuppofed Shakspeare the authour of The Taming of the Shrew, but his property in it is extremely difputable. I will give my opinion, and the reafons on which it is founded. I fuppofe then the prefent play not originally the work of Shakspeare, but reftored by him to the ftage, with the whole Induction of the Tinker; and fome other occafional improvements; especially in the character of Petruchio. It is very obvious that the Induction and the Play were either the works of different hands, or written at a great interval of time. The former is in our author's beft manner, and a great part of the latter in his worst, or even below it. Dr. Warburton declares it to be certainly fpurious; and without doubt, fuppofing it to have been written by Shakspeare, it must have been one of his earliest productions. Yet it is not mentioned in the lift of his works by Meres in 1598. I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596, (and poffibly there may be an earlier edition,) called The Metamorphofis of Ajax, where I fufpect an allufion to the old play: " Read the Booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us fo perfect, that now every one can rule a fhrew in our countrey, fave he that hath hir."- -I am aware a modern linguist may object that the word book does not at present feem dramatick, but it was once technically fo: Goffon, in his Schoole of Abufe, containing a pleafaunt Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jefters, and fuch like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth, 1579, mentions" twoo profe bookes played at the Bell-Sauage:" and Hearne tells us, in a note at the end of William of Worcester, that he had feen a MS. in the nature of a Play or Interlude, intitled The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore. And in fact there is fuch an old anonymous play in Mr. Pope's lift: "A pleasant conceited hiftory, called, The Taming of a Shrew-fundry times acted by the earl of Pembroke his fervants." Which feems to have been republished by the remains of that company in 1607, when Shakspeare's copy appeared at the BlackFriars or the Globe.Nor let this feem derogatory from the character of our poet. There is no reason to believe that he wanted to claim the play as his own; for it was not even printed till fome years after his death; but he merely revived it on his stage as a manager In fupport of what I have faid relative to this play, let me only obferve further at prefent, that the author of Hamlet fpeaks of Gonzago, and his wife Baptifta; but the author of The Taming of the Shrew knew Baptifta to be the name of a man. Mr. Capell indeed made me doubt, by declaring the authenticity of it to be confirmed by the teftimony of Sir Afton Cockayn. I knew Sir Afton was much acquainted with the writers immediately fubfequent to Shakspeare; and I was not inclined to difpute his autho rity but how was I furprised, when I found that Cockayn afcribes nothing more to Shakspeare, than the Induction-Wincot-Ale and the Beggar! I hope this was only a flip of Mr. Capell's memory. FARMER. The following is Sir Afton's Epigram : TO MR. CLEMENT FISHER, OF WINCOT. Sir A. Cockayn's Poems, 1659, p. 124. In fpite of the great deference which is due from every commentator to Dr. Farmer's judgement, I own I cannot concur with him on the prefent occafion. I know not to whom I could impute this comedy, if Shakspeare was not its author. I think his hand is vifible in almost every scene, though perhaps not so evidently as in those which pafs between Katharine and Petruchio. I once thought that the name of this play might have been taken from an old ftory, entitled, The Wyf lapped in Morells Skin, or The Taming of a Shrew; but I have fince difcovered among the entries in the books of the Stationers' Company the following: "Peter Shorte] May 2, 1594, a pleafaunt conceyted hyftorie, called, The Tayminge of a Shrowe." It is likewise entered to Nich. Ling, Jan. 22, 1606; and to John Smythwicke, Nov. 19, 1607. It was no uncommon practice among the authors of the age of Shakspeare, to avail themselves of the titles of ancient performances. Thus, as Mr. Warton has obferved, Spenser sent out his Paftorals under the title of The Shepherd's Kalendar, a work which had been printed by Wynken de Worde, and reprinted about twenty years before thefe poems of Spenfer appeared, viz. 1559. Dr. Percy, in the firft volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, is of opinion, that The Frolickfome Duke, or the Tinker's Good Fortune, an ancient ballad in the Pepys' Collection, might have fuggefted to Shakspeare the Induction for this comedy. Chance, however, has at laft furnished me with the original to which Shakspeare was indebted for his fable; nor does this difcovery at all difpofe me to retract my former opinion, which the reader may find at the conclufion of the play. Such parts of the dialogue as our author had immediately imitated, I have occa |