50 Fun Facts About The Taming of the Shrew

Which teen film starring Julia Stiles resets The Taming of the Shrew in an American high school?

10 Things I Hate About You gave Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt their breakthrough roles, with Stiles as the sharp-tongued Kat Stratford.

Which Cole Porter musical about actors staging The Taming of the Shrew takes its title from Petruchio's words?

Kiss Me, Kate won the first Tony Award for Best Musical. Its plot follows a divorced pair of actors who feud backstage while playing the leads, and its three title words are ones Petruchio says to his bride.

Which famous married couple played Katherina and Petruchio in the 1967 film of The Taming of the Shrew?

Taylor and Burton were both nominated for BAFTAs for their performances. Elizabeth Taylor, who had never acted in Shakespeare before, also helped to produce the film.

In which Italian university city do Katherina and Bianca live with their father in The Taming of the Shrew?

Padua is praised by the newly arrived Lucentio as a nursery of arts. He has come there to study, but falls for Bianca on sight instead.

In The Taming of the Shrew, what does Petruchio force Katherina to call the sun shining overhead?

The moon it is, she says at last, and when he changes his mind she agrees it is the sun again, promising that whatever he names it shall be so for her.

At the final banquet of The Taming of the Shrew, what do the three new husbands bet on?

Whose wife is most obedient is settled when each man sends for his bride and only Katherina comes. Petruchio wins the hundred-crown wager, having scoffed at the twenty first proposed.

Petruchio calls his harsh treatment of Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew a way to kill a wife with what?

Kindness is his ironic word for it. Every cruelty is dressed up as loving care, on the excuse that nothing in the house is good enough for her.

In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio wears Katherina down by denying her food and what else?

Sleep is the other weapon. He plans to fling the pillows about and rail all night, complaining that the bed has been badly made.

In the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew, a prank convinces the drunken Christopher Sly that he is what?

A nobleman is what the servants insist he has always been, telling him that his years as a poor drunkard were only a long illness and a bad dream.

In The Taming of the Shrew, what must happen before Bianca's father will let any suitor marry her?

Her elder sister weds first, or nobody gets Bianca. The rule sends her rival suitors searching together for a man bold enough to take on Katherina.

Which gentleman is the father of Katherina and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew?

Baptista Minola treats his daughters' marriages as business, promising Bianca to whichever suitor can guarantee her the largest settlement.

Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew says he was born in which northern Italian city?

Verona, also the city of Romeo and Juliet, is where he was born, the son of old Antonio. He says he left it after his father's death to see the world.

What does Petruchio openly say he is looking for in a wife on arriving in The Taming of the Shrew?

Wealth is all he asks, he says. A bride may be as old, plain or sharp-tongued as she likes, so long as her fortune is big enough.

Which instrument does Katherina smash over her music teacher's head in The Taming of the Shrew?

A lute goes over his head after he corrects her fingering, and he staggers back to report that his skull went straight through the instrument.

At their first meeting in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio calls the furious Katherina which stinging creature?

A wasp is his word for her, and she warns him to beware her sting. The whole scene is a rapid duel of puns in which each line caps the one before.

During his own wedding in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio strikes which person so hard that he falls?

The priest is cuffed just as he stoops to pick up his dropped book. The ceremony takes place offstage, so the audience hears about it from a shocked onlooker.

What does Petruchio refuse to stay for straight after marrying Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew?

The bridal feast goes ahead without the bride and groom. He insists he must leave at once and carries Katherina off, pretending to rescue her from thieves.

In The Taming of the Shrew, which excuse does Petruchio give for throwing out the hungry Katherina's supper?

The meat is burnt, he claims, and burnt food breeds anger, which two hot-tempered people should avoid. She protests that it was perfectly good.

Petruchio compares taming Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew to training which bird?

A falcon, he explains, must be kept sharp and empty until she stoops to the lure, so his bride will go without supper until she gives way.

Which two tradesmen bring Katherina finery that Petruchio picks apart in The Taming of the Shrew?

A tailor and a haberdasher arrive with the outfit he ordered for her, and he rejects every piece of it, mocking one sleeve as carved like an apple tart.

Which servant spends most of The Taming of the Shrew impersonating his master, Lucentio?

Tranio swaps clothes with his master in the opening act and plays the young gentleman so well that he outbids a rival for Bianca's hand.

Under which false name does Lucentio pose as a schoolmaster to woo Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew?

Cambio is the name he keeps until the last act, when Bianca tells her astonished father that Cambio is changed into Lucentio.

Lucentio declares his love to Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew while pretending to translate which language?

Latin verses are his cover: between the phrases he slips in who he really is, and Bianca replies in the same way that she does not yet trust him.

Which friend of Petruchio gives up on Bianca and marries a widow instead in The Taming of the Shrew?

Hortensio swears off Bianca after catching her kissing her tutor, then sets off for Petruchio's house to watch how a wife is tamed.

Which elderly suitor of Bianca mutters that Katherina is too rough for him in The Taming of the Shrew?

Gremio is the old neighbour who brings Bianca a tutor to win her father's favour, never guessing that the tutor is a rival in disguise.

Which servant of Petruchio teases the starving Katherina with dishes he never brings in The Taming of the Shrew?

Grumio offers her tripe, then beef with mustard, finding a reason to withhold each, until she beats him for feeding her on the mere names of food.

In The Taming of the Shrew, which old traveller does Katherina greet as a budding young maiden at Petruchio's command?

Lucentio's father, old Vincentio, is on his way to visit his son when she hails him as a fresh young girl, then blames her mistake on the dazzling sun.

What excuse does Bianca send back when Lucentio summons her in the final scene of The Taming of the Shrew?

She is busy and cannot come, says the supposedly gentle sister. The widow does worse, telling her new husband to come to her instead.

At Petruchio's command in the final scene of The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina throws down which item?

Her cap comes off at once when he calls it a bauble that does not suit her, to the disgust of the widow, who calls it a silly thing to be brought to.

At the end of her final speech in The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina offers to place her hand beneath what?

Her husband's foot is where she tells the other wives to put their hands, as a sign of duty. In one early film version she delivers the speech with a wink to her sister.

By his own account in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew, Christopher Sly follows which trade?

A tinker is only his latest job: he says he was born a pedlar, trained as a card-maker and kept bears before taking up his present trade.

What has the Lord been doing just before he finds Christopher Sly in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew?

Hunting has left him in a playful mood: he is still praising his hounds when he stumbles on the drunkard and decides to practise on him for sport.

Who is dressed up as the loving wife of Christopher Sly in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew?

A page boy named Bartholomew plays the lady, and has to invent excuses when the eager husband asks his wife to come straight to bed.

In the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew, what is Sly's pretend wife advised to hide in a napkin?

An onion is the Lord's backup plan, in case the pretend wife lacks what he calls a woman's gift for raining tears on command.

Offered a cup of sack on waking in The Taming of the Shrew, Christopher Sly asks for which humbler drink instead?

Small ale is all he wants. He protests that he never drank sack in his life, and that if they must bring him preserves they should be preserves of beef.

Why is Christopher Sly thrown out of the alehouse at the very start of The Taming of the Shrew?

For breaking glasses and refusing to pay for them, the Hostess goes off to fetch the constable, while he simply lies down outside and dozes off.

In Shakespeare's text of The Taming of the Shrew, what becomes of Christopher Sly once the main story starts?

He vanishes from the script after one drowsy exchange, and the frame is never closed. A separate anonymous version of the story does bring him back for an ending.

Katherina's final speech in The Taming of the Shrew brands a wife who defies her husband as what kind of offender?

A rebel, she says, and a graceless traitor too, because a wife owes her husband the same duty that a subject owes a prince.

Katherina's final speech in The Taming of the Shrew likens an angry woman to which thing when it is stirred up?

A fountain, she says, is muddy and ugly when troubled, and however thirsty a man is he will not stoop to sip a drop of it.

Unafraid of Katherina's tongue in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio boasts he has heard which animals roar?

Lions come first in a list of terrors he claims to have faced, along with stormy seas, cannon fire and thunder, beside which a woman's scolding is nothing.

Petruchio plans to tell the railing Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew that she sings as sweetly as which bird?

A nightingale is his answer to her railing, and the plan runs on: if she frowns he will call her fresh as morning roses, and if she is silent he will praise her eloquence.

On which day of the week does Petruchio announce he will marry Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew?

Sunday is the day he names to her father as if all were settled, at which the bride snaps that she will see him hanged on Sunday first.

What has Katherina done to her sister Bianca while questioning her about suitors in The Taming of the Shrew?

Tied her hands, and when Bianca will not name a favourite, Katherina strikes her. Their father walks in and takes the weeping younger sister's side at once.

In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says he would wed a woman as curst as Xanthippe, wife of which philosopher?

Socrates had a wife remembered as the classic scold, and Petruchio adds that even a bride as old as the Sibyl would not put him off.

How does Petruchio shock the guests when he arrives to marry Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew?

By wearing ragged clothes: a new hat with an old jerkin, breeches turned three times, odd boots and a rusty sword, all on a horse riddled with ailments.

A brawl opens Petruchio's first scene in The Taming of the Shrew when his servant misunderstands an order to do what?

Knock at the gate is all he means, but the servant takes the order as a demand to be hit, refuses, and has his ears wrung for it.

Which playwright answered The Taming of the Shrew with a sequel in which Petruchio's second wife tames him?

John Fletcher, who later succeeded Shakespeare as house playwright of the King's Men, called his reply The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed.

The Taming of the Shrew did not reach print until which collection of Shakespeare's plays?

The First Folio of 1623 printed it some thirty years after it was written. A quarto of the comedy on its own did not follow until 1631.

Which Hollywood star played the Petruchio figure in McLintock!, a Western comedy based on The Taming of the Shrew?

John Wayne starred opposite Maureen O'Hara in the 1963 film, which trades Renaissance Italy for the American frontier.

The Bianca subplot of The Taming of the Shrew derives from I Suppositi, a comedy by which Italian poet?

Ludovico Ariosto's comedy reached Shakespeare through Supposes, George Gascoigne's English translation, which was performed in 1566.