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AN INTRODUCTORY WORD.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, "The Taming of the Shrew" has never yet been acted in this country-at least not in the City of New York-in its entirety, or with the very quaint "Induction" with which its immortal author prefaced his since familiar story of Katharine the Shrew, and Petruchio, who became her wooer.

In the year 1754, when Garrick was adapting, refitting, and rearranging many of Shakspere's works to suit the demands of his audiences or the needs of the stage of his time, he reduced "The Taming of the Shrew" from its legitimate form to the proportions of a three-act farce, cutting out the contrastive elements of the original play and leaving in merely the bombast and bustle of the Petruchio episode. Garrick also renamed the comedy "Katherine and Petruchio." The date of the original production of this emasculated play was March 18, 1754, and in that shape the piece has been kept alive ever since by tragic stars who desired to show their versatility-and it has generally been played at the farce end of benefit entertainments, or when "double bills" were necessary to attract an otherwise reluctant public.

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Under its original title I can find no mention of the production of this piece on our stage. Mr. Ireland, in his very comprehensive "Records of the New York Theatres," notes several productions of "Catharine and Petruchio," but not one of “The Taming of the Shrew; and, that we may be certain that it was not the perfect play thus acted, we have the casts of its original production in New York City, April 14, 1768, but no Christopher Sly nor any of the other characters of the induction are given; and again at the John Street Theatre, October 4, 1785, when Hallam played Petruchio and a Mrs. Allen Catharine, but still no Sly, no Lucentio, no Lord, no Hostess

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