The Taming of the Shrew, or, on not knowing Italian (and Latin, and Spanish, and French)

This article takes its cue from the important work currently being done to underscore the multilingual nature of early modern English culture, in order to take a fresh look at the ‘Paduan play’ The Taming of the Shrew. I argue that its ‘Italianness’ must be understood within the context of a conscious effort on Shakespeare's part to achieve foreignising effects by foregrounding alien lexical items and linguistic processes.