Nora and I watched the hilarious Shakespeare Retold version of Taming of the Shrew last night. Now I can't stop wanting to tell people to "swivel". Moaning Myrtle and Seth Starkadder are amazing in this! Having never read the play, I decided to read it today.
Then, of course, I had to see what Harold Bloom had to say about it:
"Petruchio gets to swagger, and Kate will rule him and the household, perpetually acting her role as the reformed shrew.
The swaggering Petruchio provokes a double reaction in her: outwardly furious, inwardly smitten.
Roaring on the outside, Petruchio is something else within, as Kate gets to see, understand, and control, with his final approval.
From this moment on [IV.v. 1-22], Kate firmly rules while endlessly protesting her obedience to the delighted Petruchio, a marvelous Shakespearean reversal of Petruchio's earlier strategy of proclaiming Kate's mildness even as she raged on."
I agree with Bloom's description of one of my favorite moments in the play:
"There is no more charming scene of married love in all Shakespeare than this little vignette on a street in Padua:
KATHERINA.Husband, let's follow to see the end of this ado.
PETRUCHIO.
First kiss me, Kate, and we will.KATHERINA.
What! in the midst of the street?PETRUCHIO.
What! art thou ashamed of me?KATHERINA.
No, sir; God forbid; but ashamed to kiss.PETRUCHIO.
Why, then, let's home again. Come, sirrah, let's away.KATHERINA.
Nay, I will give thee a kiss: now pray thee, love, stay.PETRUCHIO.
Is not this well? Come, my sweet Kate:
Better once than never, for never too late."
