SOURCE: “Katherine of The Taming of the Shrew: ‘A Second Grissel’,” in Texas Studies in English Literature and Language, Vol. 37, No. 3, Fall, 1995, pp. 285-313.

In the following essay, Brown reviews the ways in which Katherina and Petruchio differ from the traditional shrews and tamers depicted in medieval and Renaissance literature, advocating the idea that such differences are the result of Shakespeare's merging of these traditional roles with the “patient Griselda” genre of literature.

Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew within the genre of shrew literature, popular in medieval and Renaissance times. Shrews appeared in almost every form of literature—written and oral—in these periods. And Shakespeare composes his play subtly enough that it can be read as written within the tradition, and he makes Katherine “spirited” enough that she can be read as a shrew, who finds a wise and courageous man with the skills to...