The Taming of the Shrew steps forward and speaks directly to the audience as herself; "Well, I must own, it wounds me to the Heart/To play, unwomanly, so mean a Part./What – to submit, so tamely – so contented,/Thank Heav'n! I'm not the Thing I represented." Cole Porter's musical "Kiss Me, Kate" is an adaptation of "Taming of the Shrew". The music and lyrics are by Porter and the book is by Samuel and Bella Spewack. It is at least partially based on the 1935/1936 Theatre Guild production of "Taming of the Shrew", which starred husband and wife Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, whose backstage
The Taming of the Shrew suggesting that whatever the relationship between the two plays, "The Shrew" was most likely written somewhere between 1590 (roughly when Shakespeare arrived in London) and 1594 (registration of "A Shrew"). However, it is possible to narrow the date further. A "terminus ante quem" for "A Shrew" seems to be August 1592, as a stage direction at 3.21 mentions "Simon," which probably refers to the actor Simon Jewell, who was buried on 21 August 1592. Furthermore, "The Shrew" must have been written earlier than 1593, as Anthony Chute's "Beauty Dishonoured, written under the title of Shore's wife" (published in June 1593)