Taming of the Shrew has been a startling suprise. On the surface, it is the epitome example, of woman's subjugation and reeks of male domination and congratulational chauvinism which must be the position of the playwright.
Not so fast.
Harold Blooms entirely too brief critique of Taming the Shrew furnished my first clue to the author's intent for the play which isn't the justification of the subjugation of women. Professor Bloom, recognized the essential assumptions that loving couples normally have that fuel arguments and maintain them. I think that couples married for a long time are more likely get to understand the plays deeper meaning. After all, Mark Twain said that we cannot know true love until we have been married for 25 years.
Then, I went to the source and was shocked: according to The Essays by Francis Bacon the plot line or subject of the play, through which Bacon makes his point, is obvious but his major intention is more pertinent: the many vicissitudes of basic bullshit we use to justify to ourselves in relation to our spouse: wife and husband alike.
Remember, Bacon wrote the plays to show us how we are, how we live, how we think, how we feel and how stupid and funny we can be. I believe he wrote the essays as a companion to the plays.Where as the plays define the problem the Essays are the directions to help solve the problems.
Subjugation of women is an obvious problem throughout history but the early part of Taming of the Shrew in which Sly is easily fooled into believing he is someone who he is not, shows how badly men Bullshit themselves and each other with regard to women and social status.
In addition, the reference to hunting dogs in the opening may reflect the male attitude about women at that time. And, I think that the scene between Sly and the Hostess is an example of a kind of battle between the sexes that needs better defining.
Bacon points out to us that relationships and love relationships, in particular, are endlessly conducted by intentionally and inadvertently bullshiting each other. The essay's Simulation and Dissimulation, Of Love, Of Lying, Of Parents and Children, Of Marriage and Single Life, Of Truth and Of Envy are my references for this The Author Speaks - The Taming of the Shrew.
Bacon defined three types of disimulation that people use to create illusions about themselves. The first is a secrecy and occurs when a persons true self is unobserved or unknown and APPEARS to be someone he/she is not.
The second is defined from the negative point of view and occurs when a person uses signs and arguments to create the idea that he IS NOT what he really is, ie., Sly and the Hostess.
The third level Bacon called simulation and is like a model, an imitation, a mock-up, a reproduction, a replication, a recreation, or an imitation. It is a vice rising from a defect, a natural falseness or a fearfulness in the person. It is a disguise which is used in other things. Simulation is more purposeful and culpable than dissimulation and is used less in politics.
1)Shakespeare
2)Bacon
3)Larson
SCENE I.
1) SLY: Ye are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; look in
the chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror.
Therefore paucas pallabris; let the world slide: sessa!
2) Bacon - dissimulation, in the negative; when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he IS NOT, that he appears to be. -- Of Simulation and Desimulation
2) Bacon -- But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself. -- Of Truth
3) Larson – Sly insists that he is descendent of Richard the Conqueror but is a drunkard. ................................................................................................................
Lord: Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds:
Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss'd;
And couple Clowder with the deep--mouth'd brach.
Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good
At the hedge-corner, in the coldest fault?
I would not lose the dog for twenty pound.
First Huntsman: Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord;
He cried upon it at the merest loss
And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent:
Trust me, I take him for the better dog.
Lord: Thou art a fool: if Echo were as fleet,
I would esteem him worth a dozen such.
But sup them well and look unto them all:
To-morrow I intend to hunt again.
Bacon -- A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? – Of Truth.
Larson – Men will be bragging to each other forever. This doesn't seem to be dissimulation because there is no evasion.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Lord: O monstrous beast! how like a swine he lies!
Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image!
Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.
What think you, if he were convey'd to bed,
Wrapp'd in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,
A most delicious banquet by his bed,
And brave attendants near him when he wakes,
Would not the beggar then forget himself?
First Huntsman: My lord, I warrant you we will play our part,
As he shall think by our true diligence
He is no less than what we say he is.
Bacon -- when a man industriously and expressly feigns and PRETENDS TO BE, that he is not, simulation, and false profession; that I hold more culpable, and less politic; except it be in great and rare matters. And therefore a general custom of simulation (which is this last degree) is a vice, rising either of a natural falseness or fearfulness, or of a mind that hath some main faults, which because a man must needs disguise, it maketh him practise simulation in other things, lest his hand should be out of use.
But for the 3rd degree, which is simulation, and false profession; that I hold more culpable, and less politic; except it be in great and rare matters. And therefore a general custom of simulation (which is this last degree) is a vice, rising either of a natural falseness or fearfulness, or of a mind that hath some main faults, which because a man must needs disguise, it maketh him practise simulation in other things, lest his hand should be out of use. The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. 1st , to lay asleep opposition, and to surprise. For where a man's intentions are published, it is an alarum, to call up all that are against them.
Larson – The Lord will lie to Sly thus inducing Sly to become a simulator and every aspect of his life would be a disimulaton. I wonder what he means by "practice."
…………………………………………………………………………….
Page: Here, noble lord: what is thy will with her?
SLY: Are you my wife and will not call me husband? My men should call me 'lord:' I am your goodman.
Page: My husband and my lord, my lord and husband;
I am your wife in all obedience.
Bacon -- And the 3rd, simulation, in the affirmative; when a man industriously and expressly feigns and PRETENDS TO BE, that he is not. -- Simulation and Dissimulation.
Larson -- The page is a simulator.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Page: For your physicians have expressly charged,
In peril to incur your former malady,
That I should yet absent me from your bed:
I hope this reason stands for my excuse (for not sleeping with Sly).
Bacon -- Besides (to say truth) nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body; and it addeth no small reverence, to men's manners and actions, if they be not altogether open. -- Of Simulation and Dissimulation
Larson -- This appears to be a lie but the truth is an assumption the page doesn't directly deny. Classic BS.
……………………………………………..
Page: It is a kind of history.
SLY: Well, well see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side
and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger.
Bacon -- The 2nd, dissimulation, in the negative; when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he IS NOT, that he is.-- Simulation and Dissimulation.
Larson: Basking in his BS world.
……………………………………………………………………
BAPTISTA: Gentlemen, importune me no farther,
For how I firmly am resolved you know;
That is, not bestow my youngest daughter
Before I have a husband for the elder:
If either of you both love Katharina,
Because I know you well and love you well,
Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
Bacon -- They(parents) cannot utter the one; nor they will not utter the other. -- OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN.
Larson – Parents must think of all the children all the time.
…………………………………………………………………………………
BAPTISTA: Gentlemen, that I may soon make good
What I have said, Bianca, get you in:
And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,
For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl.
Bacon -- They that are the first raisers of their houses, are most indulgent towards their children; beholding them as the continuance, not only of their kind, but of their work; and so both children and creatures. -- Of Parents and Children.
Larson –Playing favorites could explain Kates attitude. With two children the parents job is evenly divided.
…………………………………………………………………………….
KATHARINA: A pretty peat! it is best
Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.
Bacon -- The illiberality of parents, in allowance towards their children, is an harmful error; makes them base; acquaints them with shifts; makes them sort with mean company; and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty. … And therefore the proof is best, when men keep their authority towards the children, but not their purse. – Of Parents and Children.
Larson -- Baptista's indulgence with Bianca may be the cause of the family dysfunction. Children will often seek opposite poles of personality to develope identity.
………………………………………………………………………………..
BAPTISTA: Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolved:
Go in, Bianca:
Exit BIANCA
And for I know she taketh most delight
In music, instruments and poetry,
Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,
Or Signior Gremio, you, know any such,
Prefer them hither; for to cunning men
I will be very kind, and liberal
To mine own children in good bringing up:
And so farewell. Katharina, you may stay;
For I have more to commune with Bianca.
Bacon -- one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest made wantons; but in the midst, some that are as it were forgotten, who many times, nevertheless, prove the best. Of Parents and Children.
Bacon -- Men have a foolish manner (both parents and schoolmasters and servants) in creating and breeding an emulation between brothers, during childhood, which many times sorteth to discord when they are men, and disturbeth famils. --Of Parents and Children.
Larson -- Bianca is clearly the favorite which feeds Kates anger. Baptista needs a wife more tan the children need a husband.
……………………………………………………………….
KATHARINA: Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What,
shall I be appointed hours; as though, belike, I
knew not what to take and what to leave,
Bacon -- There be none of the affections, which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch, but love and envy. They both have vehement wishes; they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the present of the objects; which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. see likewise, the Scripture calleth envy an evil eye; and the astrologers, call the evil influences of the stars, evil aspects; so that still there seemeth to be acknowledged, in the act of envy, an ejaculation or irradiation. -- OF Envy
Larson -- Sibling rivalry can easily become envy in a family where favoritism is concerned.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
TRANIO: Master, you look'd so longly on the maid,
Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all.
Bacon -- That it is impossible to love, and to be wise. -- Of Love
Larson – Any disagreement?
………………………………………………………………………………..
LUCENTIO: O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
That made great Jove to humble him to her hand.
When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand.
TRANIO: Saw you no more? mark'd you not how her sister
Began to scold and raise up such a storm
That mortal ears might hardly endure the din?
LUCENTIO: Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move
And with her breath she did perfume the air:
Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her.
Bacon -- It is a strange thing, to note the excess of this passion, and how it braves the nature, and value of things, by this; that the speaking in a perpetual hyperbole, is comely in nothing but in love. -- Parents and Children.
Larson –The love poems will soon begin.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
TRANIO: Nay, then, 'tis time to stir him from his trance.
LUCENTIO: Sirrah, come hither: 'tis no time to jest,
And therefore frame your manners to the time.
Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life,
Puts my apparel and my countenance on,
And I for my escape have put on his;
For in a quarrel since I came ashore
I kill'd a man and fear I was descried:
Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes,
While I make way from hence to save my life:
Bacon -- And the 3rd, simulation, in the affirmative; when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be. -- Of Simulation and Dissimulation.
Larson – Would Lucentio be disguising himself as a simulator or be lying or hiding his true self like a disimulator? I'm not sure.
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There is much more of the play and I WILL BE ADDING.
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