follow. None of
these successors, however, presents a larger or more varied group of
delightful men and women.

+Date+.--The later limit of the date is settled by the mention of this
play in Meres's catalogue, and by its entry in the Stationers' Register
of that same year. Basing their opinion on extremely unsubstantial
internal evidence, some scholars have dated the play as early as 1594,
but the evidence of style and construction make a date before 1596
unlikely. Two quartos were printed, one in 1600; the other, though
copying the date 1600 upon its title-page, was probably printed in 1619.

+Source+.--The story of the pound of flesh and that of the choice of
caskets are extremely ancient. The former is combined with that of the
wedding rings in Fiorentino's _Il Pecorone_ (the first novel of the
fourth day), a story which Shakespeare probably knew and may have used.
Alexander Silvayn's _The Orator_, printed in English translation in
1596, has, in connection with a bond episode, speeches made by a Jew
which may be the source of some of Shylock's lines. The combination of
these plots with those of Jessica and Nerissa is, so far as we can yet
prove, original with Shakespeare; but we cannot be certain how much
_The Merchant of Venice_ resembles a lost play of the Jew mentioned in
Gosson's _School of Abuse_ (1579), "representing the greediness of
worldly chusers, and bloody mindes of Usurers."

+The Taming of the Shrew+.--_The Taming of the Shrew_ is only in part
the work of Shakespeare. Just how {162} much he had to do with making
over the underplot, we shall probably never know; but, in any case, he
did not write the dialogue of this part of the play, and its
construction is not particularly remarkable. The winning of a girl by
a suitor disguised as a teacher is a conventional theme of comedy, as
is the disguising of a stranger to take the place of an absent father
in order to confirm a young lover's suit. The main plot Shakespeare
certainly left as he found it. It tells how an ungovernable, willful
girl was made into a submissive wife by a husband who assumed for the
purpose a manner even wilder than her own, so wild that not even she
could endure it. This story is presented in scenes of uproarious farce
in which there is little opportunity for subtle characterization or the
higher sort of comedy. What Shakespeare did was to give to the hero
and heroine, Petruchio and Katherine, a semblance of reality,