The Tamer Tamed
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The Tamer Tamed is the subtitle or alternative title to John Fletcher's The Woman's Prize, a comedic sequel and reply to William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew (ca. 1594).
The plot switches the gender roles of Shakespeare's play: the women seek to tame the men. Katherine (the "shrew" of the original) has died, and Petruchio takes a second wife, Maria. Maria denounces her former mildness and vows not to sleep with Petruchio until she "turn him and bend him as [she] list, and mold him into a babe again." After many comedic exchanges and plot twists, Petruchio is finally "tamed" in the eyes of Maria, and the play ends with the two reconciled.
The play may reflect how society's views of women, femininity, and "domestic propriety" were beginning to change.
It is said that Fletcher wrote this play to attract Shakespeare's attention, and it seems to have worked—the two went on to collaborate on at least three plays. Fletcher eventually became the chief dramatist of the King's Men upon Shakespeare's retirement, and wrote about 42 plays during his life.
Recently, the Royal Shakespeare Company resurrected the play, which had sunk into obscurity during the previous three centuries. The play ran in their theatre in England from January 15 - March 6 2004.
