About the Play:

The Taming of the Shrew tells the story of an exasperated father, desperate to ensure his daughters are married to suitable partners. The trouble is, Katherine is vexing and shrill; the exact opposite of her sister, Bianca. In order for Bianca to accept one of her many suitors, the shrewish daughter Kate must be married first according to the edict of her rich father. Enter the dashing and arrogant, Petruchio, who is just crazy and broke enough to accept the challenge of taming Kate, even as he falls for her, in William Shakespeare's comedy. The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's best known and frequently performed plays.

Read William Shakespeare's great comedy The Taming of the Shrew in all its brilliance and actually understand what it means. No Fear Shakespeare gives you Shakespeare's complete text of The Taming of the Shrew on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand modern English on the right.

Shakespeare side-by-side in plain English. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains:
• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into the kind of English people actually speak today
• A complete list of characters with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

The Taming of the Shrew is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592.

About the Playwright:

Arguably the greatest English-language playwright, William Shakespeare was a seventeenth-century writer and dramatist, and is known as the Bard of Avon. Under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I, he penned more than 30 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous narrative poems and short verses. Equally accomplished in histories, tragedies, comedy, and romance, Shakespeare's most famous works include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It. Like many of his contemporaries, including Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare began his career on the stage, eventually rising to become part-owner of Lord Chamberlain's Men, a popular dramatic company of his day, and of the storied Globe Theatre in London. Extremely popular in his lifetime, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three hundred years after his death. His plays are performed more often than any other playwright's, have been translated into every major language in the world, and are studied widely by scholars and students.