The Fourth Couple in The Taming of the Shrew

Summary

SHAKESPEARE frequently conveys his meaning through comparisons of adversarial or cooperative characters or pairs of characters in his plays. In comedies he aligns romantic pairs so that we may see both their wisdom and folly, in histories we see potential leaders and kings in contrast with the other “competitors” for the job, and in tragedies he arranges characters of vice and virtue in parallel so that both qualities are enhanced and more visible. In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare affords us three couples, typically seen in comparison and in communication with the others: Kate and Petruchio, Bianca and Lucentio, and Hortensio and the Widow. Each of these couples offers something to the meaning that Shakespeare intends, but the fourth “couple” of the play, Tranio and Lucentio, is the key. While these men are no marriage couple, the characteristics of their trusting and successful relationship are central to understanding the enigmatic speech of Katharine that ends the play.

Once the induction closes and Christopher Sly is at rest with his “wife” to watch the play, Tranio and Lucentio enter the stage. Their relationship is thus foregrounded for the audience, and it is so harmonious that the differences between master and servant are blurred. Lucentio expresses boyish enthusiasm for Padua as his “nursery of arts” that will allow him to study “Virtue” and especially that philosophy which will lead to “happiness,” but still he requests of Tranio, “Tell me thy mind,” seeking his guidance. In fact, the key line of Lucentio’s opening speech is his appellation for Tranio, “My trusty servant, well approved in all” (1.1.7). Trust is the key to what unfolds, for what sort of fool must Lucentio be if he will exchange identities with a servant he does not trust? He praises his servant, shares his thoughts with him, and seeks his guidance. If the details were not already clear otherwise, we might think these two were father and son. There is an immediate and obvious difference between this relationship and any other servant-master pairing in the play. Not only does Lucentio offer his servant the respect afforded a close companion rather than a servant, but in turn Tranio hesitates before criticizing Lucentio’s passionate crush on Bianca: “Master, it is no time to chide you now. / Affection is not rated from the heart” (1.1.151–52).