Begging and poor in "The Taming of the Shrew," 1590-91
The Taming of the Shrew contains only four occurrences of "beg," many disparaging, and 9 instances of "poor," some quite interesting.
[LEFT: "A pleasant conceited historie, called The taming of a shrew." By anon., printed 1594, which may have been a source for Shakespeare, or an early draft. Image via Folger.edu, which Folger obtained via Huntington Library, and which allows not-for-profit use. MIDDLE: The first page of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, printed in the First Folio of 1623, via Wikipedia, from Folger. Fair use. RIGHT: The title page from the first quarto, printed in 1631 Quarto of A wittie and pleasant comedie called The Taming of the Shrew, via Wikipedia.org, from Folger Shakespeare Library. Fair use.]
Petruchio, a kind of trickster figure and Lord of Misrule, is like an Elizabethan comic version of a torturer in the episode of Star Trek: TNG, where Picard is tortured and shown four lights. His torturers want to break him so that he will say there are five, but Picard resists. (In Orwell's 1984, it's four fingers instead of lights.) Patrick Stewart, a Shakespearean actor who played Picard, would have noticed the similarity with Petrucio.
The play also contains a number of scenes that simulate interrogations: Katherina is subjected to brainwashing, which may have reflected public perception of tortured political prisoners during Elizabeth’s reign.
The play is objectionable to modern sensibilities for its portrayal of spousal abuse, as it should be. Yet in a historical context, some believed Mary I and Elizabeth I, nominally Christian monarchs, were as heavy-handed as Petruchio, to torture and execute so many Protestants and Catholics. They wanted more religious toleration, as Elizabeth initially said she’d allow.
Some scholars have argued that the play's framing dialogue casts the events of the play in a different light: The play is not merely a play, but a play within a play, so properly comprehending the play requires understanding the frame. For some preliminary information on the frame, see the Folger's text here.
Some in Elizabethan England objected to being ruled by women. According to fans of the Great Chain of Being, God places a monarch to rule over a people, and a husband and father to rule over his household. Some scholars consider the play a fantasy of putting a powerful woman in her place: subservient to men. As in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale, totalitarian male rule would not allow women to rise above their station
Dostoyevsky and others have claimed that the suffering of children proves there is no God. But this, too, implies a kind of violent totalitarian fantasy: If an all-powerful God existed, should this God force the wicked to repent of their wrongdoing and the suffering they inflict? Such a God would not allow a Petruchio to torture and brainwash his wife, nor allow a Katherina to act spoiled or entitled (according to her own report).
A totalitarian God could rule from his heaven, and all would be right in the world. Or not?
With a totalitarian God, there would be no need to tame a torturer or a shrew.
Who exactly would want such a God?
How much toleration should a queen or deity allow?
BEGGARS:
At the start of 4.3, Katherina tells Grumio (Emphasis mine):
The more my wrong, the more his spite appears.
What, did he marry me to famish me?
Beggars that come unto my father's door
Upon entreaty have a present alms;
[...]
But I, who never knew how to entreat,
Nor never needed that I should entreat,
Am starv'd for meat, giddy for lack of sleep...
Katherina is not used to begging. Petruchio forces her into that role.
Later in the same scene, Petruchio tells Katharina (emphasis mine):
Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's
Even in these honest mean habiliments;
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
O no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me;
And therefore frolic; we will hence forthwith
To feast and sport us at thy father's house.
Petrucio applies, as a weapon, overused folk wisdom about inner riches greater than appearances.
Some claim that Katharina wins in the end and has tamed her torturer, or they have tamed each other, but that is debatable.
Do uses of “beggar” and “poor” in this early play shed any light on Shakespeare’s later uses? Perhaps. It certainly shows that he is exploring many possibilities for how begging (and entreating?) might be perceived by different characters, as well as different ways to being poor.
Perhaps in an early play like this, we see the seeds of later explorations of begging and poverty: Those whose habits make them too proud to beg or entreat, like Lear, may have appeared already in a less developed form in characters such as Katherina; those who abuse them (like Petrucio or Lear's daughters) may be acting inexcusably, but may be agents of change for the proud to be humbled?
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I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I use the Advanced Search Engine at OpenSourceShakespeare to search for instances of particular words in Shakespeare's plays. I'd like to explain how I do that, in case any of my readers may benefit. There may also be among my readers those who are much better at this than I am, so feel free to leave comments about your experience or recommendations.
First, one should note that there are some searches that might overwhelm the search engine: If a word or phrase appears too often in the works of Shakespeare, the search engine may list, alphabetically, some of the plays where that word or phrase is found, but one has to pay attention to see if other plays were cut off.
Second, some tips for narrowing the searches:
If you search only for "beg," the search will include words you don't want in which "beg" appears, such as begin, began, begun, beguile, begotten, etc. So besides searching FOR a word, it's helpful to include in the advanced search some examples of things you're NOT looking for.
If you enter "beg" as the word you're searching for, and begu as something you're NOT searching for, then this will eliminate both "begun" and "beguile." You have a limited number of options, so it can help to be a bit judicious about what you're searching for, and what you're not. Here's an example of what I did in searching for "beg/beggar/begging/beggars" in Taming of the Shrew:
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MORE TO COME: This is part in a new multi-part series: After I came near the end of the previous series, on the Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (to the Biblical tale of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar), I decided that since no other character in Hamlet is described as often as Hamlet as begging or poor, I would investigate other Shakespeare plays to see how those two words are used - and to be open to other insights along the way.
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POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. Beg/beggar/begging/poor in "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1589-91 - 3 August, 2021
2. Begging and poor in The Taming of the Shrew - 10 August, 2021
3. Begging and Poor in 1 Henry VI, 1591-92 - 17 August, 2021
4. Begging, Poor, Eve, and Protestant-Catholic Context for 2 Henry VI - 31 August, 2021
5. Begging and Poor in 3 Henry VI (1591) - 7 September, 2021
6. Begging & Poor; Dust & Stones in Titus Andronicus (1593) - 14 September, 2021
7. Begging and Poor in Richard III (1592–1593) - 28 September, 2021 8. Begging and Poor in The Comedy of Errors (1594) - 5 October, 2021
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Shakespeare quotes: All quotes from Hamlet in older posts have been taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada. In this post and in the future, I will be taking them also from The Folger Shakespeare Library.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes, when taken from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading! My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
This is truly new, brilliant, and eye opening in its focus. How current to this distinctions now. Thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm grateful for the feedback.
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