How Shakespeare Met Regency England
In Christy English’s Novel
HOW TO TAME A WILLFUL WIFE
Elizabeth
Taylor in The Taming of the Shrew
One of the most popular Shakespearean
comedies is The Taming of the Shrew.
It tells the tale of how Katherine, a woman despised by all who meet her, the
“shrew” of the play, meets her match in the wisecracking, sometimes charming
Petrucchio. He marries her, almost against her will, then proceeds to tame her
with mind games, sleep deprivation, and by withholding food. Needless to say,
taken out of the medieval mindset in which this play was first written, it is a
tough sell. What is romantic about any of that? And what does it have to do
with Regency England? The answer lies within Katherine herself, and she is the
bridge I used to create my own Regency heroine, Caroline Montague.
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Caroline rides astride a war horse wearing
breeches, fights with a knife and a rapier. At archery, she can best any man
she has ever met. In The Taming of the
Shrew, Katherine does not own a horse, nor does she fight with a knife. Her
only weapons are her sharp tongue and her rapier wit, both of which she uses
against every man she meets. She does not seem to possess much of a sense of
duty to her father. In contrast, my heroine, Caroline, does possess a deep
attachment to her father and a need to do her duty, to marry where her father
bids her so that his estate can be brought out of penury. She and Katherine diverge
on that point, but when both women meet their husbands-to-be, neither is
thrilled with the idea of marrying.
This attitude changes over the course of
the play. Katherine does agree to marry Petrucchio, and she begins slowly to
come around to his way of thinking, to be “tamed.” So in the final moments of
the play, when Katherine tells her fellow wives to obey their husbands, she
believes every word. Modern interpretations of this scene often cast an ironic
light on it, a bit of a wink at the audience to indicate that Katherine has not
really undergone a complete personality shift. As I began my own novel, I knew
that I would not endorse this transformation. Indeed, if anyone was to be tamed
in HOW TO TAME A WILLFUL WIFE, it would be Caroline’s husband, Anthony.
A
Modern Dagger
Of course, Anthony and Petrucchio have
little in common. Anthony does not possess much of a sense of humor, but he
also does not try to starve his wife into submission. Instead, over the course
of my novel, Anthony and Caroline both strive to meet somewhere in the middle,
to understand each other, and to live together with their daggers sheathed.
This growth in their relationship takes months of their lives to achieve, not
days as in the play, and in the end, neither is tamed. Anthony begins to see
that Caroline is a woman of intelligence who he can respect as well as lust
after, and Caroline finds that her husband is not as unreasonable as he first
appeared. They learn to talk to each other, and those conversations, more than
any sexual attachment, cement the foundation of their marriage. At the end of
the novel, as I leave Caroline and Anthony alone with each other, I find myself
hopeful that they will make a go of it, and truly live happily ever after.
Description
of HOW TO TAME A WILLFUL WIFE:
Anthony Carrington, Earl of Ravensbrook,
expects a biddable bride. A man of fiery passion tempered by the rigors of war
into steely self-control, he demands obedience from his troops and his future
wife. But Caroline Montague is no simpering miss. She rides a war stallion
named Hercules, fights with a blade, and can best most men with both bow and
rifle. She finds Anthony autocratic, domineering, and...gorgeous.
It's a duel of wit and wills in this charming retelling of The Taming of
the Shrew. But the question is...who's taming whom?
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| Photos courtesy of the author |
After years of acting in Shakespeare’s
plays, Christy is excited to bring the Bard to Regency England. She can often
be found hunched over her computer, immersed in the past. Her latest novel is
HOW TO TAME A WILLFUL WIFE, a re-telling of The Taming of the Shrew.
She is also the author of the historical novels TO BE QUEEN and THE QUEEN’S
PAWN.
Please join her on her website http://www.ChristyEnglish.com
and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ShakespeareInLoveSeries?ref=ts&fref=ts
Thank you for hosting me, lovely Carol. I am thrilled to be a part of your fabulous site.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It was an honour and pleasure to have you as guest.
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