INTRODUCTION.

LITERARY HISTORY.

The first known edition of this play, or rather we should say, of Shakespeare's version of it, is that published in the first Folio. In 1631, an edition in Quarto was published, the title of which is as follows:

“A wittie | and pleasant | Comedie | Called The Taming of the Shrew. | As it was acted by his Maiesties | Seruants at the Blacke Friers | and the Globe. | Written by Will. Shakespeare. | LONDON, | Printed by W. S. for John Smethwicke, and are to be | sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstones Church | yard vnder the Diall: | 1631”

The Cambridge editors add, however: “From a minute comparison of this Quarto edition with the first Folio, extending to points which are necessarily left unrecorded in our notes, we have come to the conclusion that the Quarto was printed from the Folio.” Mr. Collier's conjecture that this Quarto “was printed long before 1623, perhaps as early as 1607 or 1609,” and that the title-page was “struck off long subsequent to the printing of the body of the comedy to which it is attached,” is perfectly refuted by the result of the examination of Capell's copy by the said editors, from which it appears that the paper, on which the title was printed, “forms part of the first quire, and has not been inserted.”