Editing The Taming of the Shrew (section)

==== Hortensio problem ====
[[File:Sly Induction.jpg|thumb|upright=0.70|[[Henry Courtney Selous|H.C. Selous]]' illustration of Sly and the Hostess; from ''The Plays of William Shakespeare: The Comedies'', edited by [[Charles Cowden Clarke]] and [[Mary Cowden Clarke]] (1830)]]

H.J. Oliver argues the version of the play in the 1623 ''First Folio'' was likely copied not from a [[prompt book]] or transcript, but from the author's own [[foul papers]], which he believes showed signs of revision by Shakespeare.{{sfnp|Oliver|1982|pp=4–10}}<ref name="Greg" />{{sfnp|Duthie|1943}} These revisions, Oliver says, relate primarily to the character of Hortensio, and suggest that in an original version of the play, now lost, Hortensio was not a suitor to Bianca, but simply an old friend of Petruchio. When Shakespeare rewrote the play so that Hortensio became a suitor in disguise (Litio), many of his lines were either omitted or given to Tranio (disguised as Lucentio).{{sfnp|Oliver|1982|pp=10–13}}

Oliver cites several scenes in the play where Hortensio (or his absence) causes problems. For example, in Act 2, Scene 1, Tranio (as Lucentio) and Gremio bid for Bianca, but Hortensio, who everyone is aware is also a suitor, is never mentioned. In Act 3, Scene 1, Lucentio (as Cambio) tells Bianca "we might beguile the old [[Pantalone|Pantalowne]]" (l.36), yet says nothing of Hortensio's attempts to woo her, instead implying his only rival is Gremio. In Act 3, Scene 2, Tranio suddenly becomes an old friend of Petruchio, knowing his mannerisms and explaining his tardiness prior to the wedding. However, up to this point, Petruchio's only acquaintance in Padua has been Hortensio. In Act 4, Scene 3, Hortensio tells Vincentio that Lucentio has married Bianca. However, as far as Hortensio should be concerned, Lucentio has denounced Bianca, because in Act 4, Scene 2, Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) agreed with Hortensio that neither of them would pursue Bianca, and as such, his knowledge of the marriage of who he supposes to be Lucentio and Bianca makes little sense. From this, Oliver concludes that an original version of the play existed in which Hortensio was simply a friend of Petruchio's, and had no involvement in the Bianca subplot, but wishing to complicate things, Shakespeare rewrote the play, introducing the Litio disguise, and giving some of Hortensio's discarded lines to Tranio, but not fully correcting everything to fit the presence of a new suitor.{{sfnp|Oliver|1982|pp=10–13}}

This is important in Duthie's theory of an ''Ur-Shrew'' insofar as he argues it is the original version of ''The Shrew'' upon which ''A Shrew'' is based, not the version which appears in the 1623 ''First Folio''.{{sfnp|Oliver|1982|pp=23–27}} As Oliver argues, "''A Shrew'' is a report of an earlier, Shakespearian, form of ''The Shrew'' in which Hortensio was not disguised as Litio."{{sfnp|Oliver|1982|p=27}} Oliver suggests that when Pembroke's Men left London in June 1592, they had in their possession a now-lost early draft of the play. Upon returning to London, they published ''A Shrew'' in 1594, sometime after which Shakespeare rewrote his original play into the form seen in the ''First Folio''.{{sfnp|Oliver|1982|p=31}}

Duthie's arguments were never fully accepted at the time, as critics tended to look at the relationship between the two plays as an either-or situation; ''A Shrew'' is ''either'' a reported text ''or'' an early draft.{{sfnp|Miller|1998|p=5}} In more recent scholarship, however, the possibility that a text could be both has been shown to be critically viable. For example, in his 2003 Oxford Shakespeare edition of ''2 Henry VI'', Roger Warren makes the same argument for ''The First Part of the Contention''.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Warren | editor-first=Roger | title=Henry VI, Part Two | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | series=The Oxford Shakespeare | year=2003 | pages=87–98 | isbn=978-0-19-953742-6}}</ref> Randall Martin reaches the same conclusion regarding ''The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of Yorke'' in his 2001 Oxford Shakespeare edition of ''3 Henry VI''.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Martin | editor-first=Randall | title=Henry VI, Part Three | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | series=The Oxford Shakespeare | year=2001 | pages=96–123 | isbn=978-0-19-953711-2}}</ref> This lends support to the theory that ''A Shrew'' could be both a reported text and an early draft.