ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the ways Shakespeare uses Thomas Nashe's status as an urban writer and how he develops his association of urbanity and linguistic wit in The Taming of the Shrew, written between 1590 and 1594. It explores how Nashe adapts Ovid to refine his own response to the intellectual and imaginative challenges posed by the city. The chapter discusses The Taming of the Shrew and its relationship to Nashe. Images of prostitution are characteristic of both Nashe's and Ovid's representations of the town as the site for particular kinds of monetary, sexual, and cultural transactions. The chapter suggests that the structure and rhythm of texts like Christs Teares or Pierce Penilesse are urbanized and that they replicate the experience of urban living, albeit with varying degrees of success. The resultant tensions are focused on gender relations: on extra-marital relations in Ovid; on marital relations in Shakespeare; and on prostitution in Nashe.
