2. A Merry Jest of a Shrewd and Curst Wife Lapped ifi Morel's Skin, for her Good Behaviour,
[THE following humorous tale in verse has no especial relation in its incidents to Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," and consequently none to the older comedy reprinted in the present work; but it is of a similar character, and has always been mentioned in connection with both: it is therefore appended, in order that the ancient materials existing in the time of our great dramatist, and most likely well known to him, may be at one view before the reader. Regarding the merit of " The Wife lapped in Morels Skin," as a piece of popular poetry, there can be no dispute. The author of it is unknown: at the end, we read " Finis, quoth Mayster Charme her," but that is evidently an assumed name.
The poem was included by Mr Utterson, in 1817, in his two excellent and amusing volumes ; but our edition has been made from a fresh collation (for which we are indebted to Mr Halli-well) with the original copy (wanting one leaf) in the Bodleian Library, so that it differs in no other respect than that we have not adopted the black-letter type. When Mr Utterson repub-lished it, he apprehended that the entry in the Stationers' Registers, in 1594, referred to it; for, in 1817, the copies of the old "Taming of a Shrew," of 1594 and 1596, had not been discovered. It is to the first of these, unquestionably, that the memorandum in the Stationers' Registers relates.
It was long supposed that only two copies of " The Wife lapped in Morels Skin " were known; but this now appears to be a mistake, although it is certainly a production of great