The Town of Odyssey

I saw "Taming of the Shrew" with my class today, and I found out that Shakspere was a dirty old man.

Uh, ok

They made a movie based on taming of the shrew called "Kiss Me Kate" with Howard Keel and Ann Miller. I liked it and find it very funny, its more of a comedy then a drama like Shakspere.

jasonjannajerryjohn wrote: I found out that Shakspere was a dirty old man.

Do you mean dirty as soiled with dirt; foul; unclean?

Or as obscene; pornographic; lewd?

Taming of the Shrew is a comedy. Dirty as in lewd. He dosen't use bad language, but there are references to certain things. I thought the play was good though.

When reading any sort of literary classic, it is important to keep in mind the author's intended audience. The Elizabethan Era was the height of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. Comedies of the time were often performed for rowdy crowds at tavern courtyards. Going to see a play was not the high society event that attending a Shakespeare play is today, especially when it came to comedies. Tragedies and historical plays are not as lewd, as they were often commissioned by or written specifically for nobility. But to entertain the general ale-swilling public, playwrights often wrote humor that catered to them. Modern movies (including interpretations of this play) are no different.


That's my "yes I really was a Theatre and Dance major" moment of the day.

Rio wrote:Uh, ok

They made a movie based on taming of the shrew called "Kiss Me Kate" with Howard Keel and Ann Miller. I liked it and find it very funny, its more of a comedy then a drama like Shakspere.

They also made another based on The Taming of the Shrew called "10 Things I Hate About You." It is also funny--one of my favorites.

As noted, filling the Globe Theatre meant appealing to all classes; you wanted to draw in not just the high society types, but also the working man who might pay a ha' penny for standing room in the peanut gallery, but only if the play was bawdy enough to compete with other entertainment of the day, such as bear-baiting. Shakespeare was no stranger to innuendo -- but at least he did it well.

The play was good and pretty funny. Yah, Shakespeare uses suggestive things in a lot of his plays.