The Taming of the Shrew Introduction I-II

William Shakespeare

Summary of Introduction I

• Somewhere in the English countryside, a drunk beggar, Christopher Slyargues with the Hostess over some glass he broke while he was drunk. While the Hostess leaves to find the local authorities, Sly passes out, and soon a lord returning from the huntdiscovers him. This lord decides to have a bit of fun with the sleeping beggar

Summary Of Introduction II

• At the house, the servants place Sly in the lord’s bed with nice clothes and jewelry, and the lord dresses himself as one of the servants. When Sly wakes up, they give him wine and food and tell him that he is their master. He protests that he remembers being a poor beggar, and they explain that this memory is but the result of a madness from which he has suffered for fifteen years.

Purpose of the Introduction

• Introduces the topic of marriage into the play. Sly resists all the servants attempts to convince him that he is a lord until they tell him that he has a wife,at which point he immediately reverses himself