and to
add enormously to the life and movement of the scenes in which they
appear. Some of these scenes are very effective on the stage, but they
are not of a sort to reveal Shakespeare's greatest qualities. The
induction, the framework in which the play is set, is, however, quite
another matter. The story of the drunken tinker, Sly, unfortunately
omitted in many modern presentations, is a little masterpiece. A
nobleman returning from the hunt finds Sly lying in a drunken stupor
before an inn. The nobleman has Sly taken to his country house, has
him dressed in rich clothing, has him awakened by servants who make him
believe that he is really a lord, and finally has the play performed
before him. The outline of this induction was in the old play which
Shakespeare revised; but {163} he developed the crude work of his
predecessor into scenes so delightfully realistic, into
characterization so richly humorous, that this induction takes its
place among the great comic episodes of literature.

+Date+.--No certain evidence for the date of this play exists, even the
metrical tests failing us because of the collaboration. It is commonly
assigned to the years 1596-7, but this is little more than a guess.

+Source+.--As has already been indicated, this play is the revision of
an older play entitled _The Taming of a Shrew_. The latter was
probably written by a disciple of Marlowe, and was first printed in
quarto in 1594. The chief change which the revision made in the plot
was that which gave Katherine one sister instead of two and added the
interest of rival suitors for this sister's hand. Stories concerning
the taming of a shrewish woman are both ancient and common, but no
direct antecedent of the older play has been discovered, although some
incidents seem to have been borrowed from Gascoigue's _Supposes_, a
translation from the Italian of Ariosto.

+Authorship+.--The identity of Shakespeare's collaborator is unknown,
nor is it possible to define exactly the limits of his work. It is
practically certain, however, that Shakespeare wrote the Induction; II,
i, 169-326; III, ii, with the possible exception of 130-150; IV, i,
iii, and v; V, ii, at least as far as 175.

+The Merry Wives of Windsor+.--_The Merry Wives_ is the only comedy in
which Shakespeare avowedly presents the middle-class people of an
English town. In other comedies English characters and customs appear
through the thin disguise of Italian names