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 lines are extended and split between Polidor (the equivalent of Hortensio) and Phylema (Bianca). As Gremio "does" have a counterpart in "I Suppositi", Miller concludes that "to argue the priority of "A Shrew" in this case would mean arguing that Shakespeare took the negative hints from the speeches of Polidor and Phylema and gave them to a character he resurrected from "Supposes". This is a less economical argument than to suggest that the compiler of "A Shrew", dismissing Gremio, simply shared his doubts among the characters available." He argues there is even evidence in the play that the compiler knew