Baptista and his Daughters

In this essay I hope to provide a useful footnote to a hitherto insufficiently understood aspect of Shakespeare's characterization of the father of Kate and Bianca. Shakespeare depicts Baptista as a matchmaker whose ostensible commitment to getting his daughters properly married off has underlying it a profound reluctance to part with them. Though not altogether cryptic, the various hints that Shakespeare gives us of Baptista's subliminal conflict are yet not so obvious that they cannot easily pass unnoticed by even the most attentive spectators of The Taming of the Shrew. Each of the clues is faint enough to blend imperceptibly into the pale light of common convention.

The first of those clues is implicit in Baptista's firm support of the traditional custom of marrying off the older daughter before the younger, a regular social practice of immemorial usage. That it is of long standing in no way implies that it is not honorable in the breach; it is a system of nuptial priority ordinarily applicable at the option of the father of the bride, who can readily utilize it to cloak a variety of motives. The wily old Laban of Pandanaram cites it in unabashed defense of his skulduggery. When Jacob arises in the morning and finds to his dismay that he spent the night with Leah instead of with Rachel, he reproaches his father-in-law for the bed-trick. Laban pleads craftily as he doubtless rejoices at the prospect of seven additional years of indentured service from his outwitted son-in-law, “It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn” (Genesis 29:26). Jacob without rejoinder resigns himself to his predicament and accepts the new bride-price. In The Taming of the Shrew, however, Shakespeare gives the suitors some opportunity