Page:Taming of the Shrew (1921) Yale.djvu/142

130 text, but there were many cuts, transpositions, and additions, all made for the sake of dramatic effectiveness. The dialogue was curtailed throughout, until of Shakespeare's 2647 lines only about 2000 appear in this acting version. As Katherine was admittedly to be the star part, she does not come on in the street scene of the First Act and thus gains an extremely effective entrance as the curtain rises on Act II; also she brings down the final curtain of this act with Garrick's interpolated speech already cited. In the Third Act she does not appear until after the wedding ceremony, and both she and Petruchio are eliminated from V. i. Both scenes of Act III are played as one, and Act IV is condensed into two sets; Scenes 2 and 4 go well enough together, but when Scenes 1, 3 and 5 are telescoped, the speed of Katherine's taming becomes too rapid to maintain the illusion. Nevertheless the practical success of this version was phenomenal: it was presented not only in the United States and Canada, but in England, Germany, and France. In Paris Constant Coquelin, the great French comedian, saw the performance and as a result decided to play Petruchio himself. The French version of Paul Delair, known as 'La Mégère Apprivoisée,' was produced by Coquelin in Paris, and later in New York (1892) with Jane Hading as Katherine. A recent production in France was that given at the Théâtre Antoine on April 24, 1919, with M. Gémier and Mme. Celiat in the leading parts. In Germany the drama has been very popular and has figured nearly every year in the metropolitan and provincial repertoires under the title of 'Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung'; a German version of the play was given at the Irving Place Theatre in New York City during March, 1916.

In 1903 Elsie Leslie and Jefferson Winter gave a performance of The Shrew which included the Induction and Garrick's Katharine and Petruchio,