Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Brides and Grooms: A Judeo-Spanish Version of Well-Known Literary Parallels

1993; Purdue University Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/sho.1993.0089

1534-5165

Reginetta Haboucha,

Sephardic Jews and Inquisition Studies

Brides and Grooms 1 BRIDES AND GROOMS: A JUDEO-SPANISH VERSION OF WELL-KNOWN LITERARY PARALLELS by Reginetta Haboucha Dr. Reginetta Haboucha is Professor of Spanish at Lehman College, C.V.N.Y. One of her most recent publications, Types and Motifs ofthejudeo-Spanish Folktales (Garland, 1992), was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Council Award. She is presently working on an annotated anthology of Sephardic oral narratives in translation. I first heard the Judeo-Spanish tale of the lazy wife in the summer of 1975, sitting in the shade of the small enclosed and tiled yard of Mazal Tov Lazar, in Old Jaffa, IsraeV and I was struck by its Similarity to two wellknown literary treatments of the subject: Don Juan Manuel's didactic tale, La mujer brava/ and the Shakespearian comedy, The Taming of the Shrew.3 Both these works are believed to derive from oral tradition and 'See my article, "Collecting Sephardic Folktales in Israel," in Fabula 23 (1982), pp. 221-231. 2Don Juan Manuel, Libra del conde Lucanor, ed. Reinaldo Ayerhe-Chaux (Madrid, 1986), Example 35 (De 10 que contes<;i6 a un man<;ebo que cas6 can una muger muy fuerte et muy brava). For a structural analysis of the tale, see Ayerhe-Chaux, HI conde Lucanor: materia tradicional y originalidad creadora (Madrid, 1975), pp. 156-160; and John England's article, "tEt non el dia del lodo? The Structure of the Short Story in IiI conde Lucanor," in juan Manuel Studies, ed. Ian Macpherson (London, 1977), pp. 69-86; pp. 79-80 give a structural analysis of Example No. 35; see also John E. Keller, "A ReExamination of Don Juan Manuel's Narrative Techniques: La lIlujer brava," in lIispania 58 (1975), pp. 15-51. In his Introducci6n al estudio de Don juan Manuel yen particular de "N conde l.ucanor" (Madrid, 1972), pp. 126-131, Daniel Devoto studies the tale together with its thematic parallel, Example 27, and gives a complete hihliography on the tale. 37be Taming of the Shrew, ed. Ann Thompson (Camhridge, 198·j). 2 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 can be classified according to a universal tale-type index, Aarne-Thompson 's The Types of the Folktale.4 In 1928, American folklorist Stith Thompson published the first revision of the Finnish Antti Aarne's original compilation of a tale-type index ofIndo-European tales, Verzeichnis der Mdrchentypen (1910). Since that time, folklorists have referred to oral narratives by their AarneThompson type numbers.5 The usefulness of numerical systems and classificatory concepts and their practical necessity cannot be denied: they provide tale collectors and scholars with a common frame of reference. Although the classification is often perceived as arbitrary, regional or national indices continue to be the major instruments used to make a particular collection or individual tales efficiently accessible to readers. Typing classifies tales by plot. It implies a genetic relationship between all the versions of a type or establishes the independent existence of individual types. The Aarne-Thompson index is subdivided into five categories: 1. Animal Tales: wild animals; domestic animals; birds; other animals and objects; wild and domestic animals; man and wild animals. 2. Ordinary Folktales: (a) tales of magic (supernatural adversaries; supernatural or enchanted husband, wife, or other relatives; supernatural tasks and helpers; magic objects; supernatural powers or knowledge); (b) religious tales; (c) romantic tales; and (d) tales of the stupid ogre. 3. Jokes and Anecdotes: numskull stories; stories about married couples, about a woman, about a man (clever or stupid); luck)' accidents; anecdotes about other groups of people; and tales of lying. 4. Formula Tales: cumulative and catch tales. 5. Unclassified Tales. Type 901 (AT 9(1), 1be Taming ofthe Shrew, characterizes the literary versions mentioned above and is summarized as a romantic tale in the Aarne-Thompson index: "The youngest of three sisters is a shrew. For their disobedience the husband shoots his dog and his horse. Brings his wife to 'Antli Aame and Stith Thompson. 'tbe Types of the Fulktale: A ClaSSification and 8ibliography. 1'1' Communications No. 18·1. Second Hevision (Ildsinki. 1973). It includes specialized and regional talc indices that appeared hefore 1961. 'For a comprehensive list of tale type and motif indices. including those which appeared aftn 1961. see David S. Azzolina, Tale Type- and Moti(tnde."I."es: An Annotated 8ibliugraphy (New York, 1987). Brides and Grooms 3 submission. Wager: whose wife is the most obedient.,,6 This type has a well-documented history in the Indo-European oral tradition and has inspired other well-known literary renderings.7 Today it is known throughout the European continent, especially in the northern countries, and can be found as far east as India. The Sephardic tale presented here, on the other hand, follows the simple plot of AT 1370 The Lazy Wife, a type much less widely encountered than The Taming oftbe Sbrew.8 AT 1370 is catalogued under Stories 6Types of the Folktale, pp. 311-312. In contrast with type-indices which catalogue by plot, motif-indices deal with the smaller migratory components of a tale. Some types may consist of a single motif. Most of the time, however, motifs will serve as building blocks for folktales, revealing the anatomy of a given version and complementing the outline provided by the type. See Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Literature, 6 vols. (Bloomington, Indiana, 1955-58). Motif T251.2, Tbe Taming of the Shrew, is an old and widely used narrative motif. Other motifs in the type are H386. Bride Test: obedience and N12. Wager on the most obedient wife. 7It may have originated with a simple eastern tale, perhaps from India, in which a husband kills a cat (possibly also a dog) in front of his new wife in order to frighten her and to subdue her. A new subtype in which a horse replaced the cat largely supplanted the original one in Europe. See Jan H. Brunvand, Tbe Taming of the Shrew, a Comparative Study ofOral and Literary Traditions (New York and London, 1991), p. 259. In his Types, Thompson also lists numerous oral parallels for this type as well as some literary renderings of it. In addition to La mujer brava ofJuan Manuel, early European literary sources include the Middle German poem, "Der vrouwen zuht" in Friedrich H. von der Hagen, Gesamtaberlteuer , 3 vols. (Stuttgart and Tiibingen, 1850), vol. I, pp. 37-57 (fucsimile, Darmstadt, 1961); an Old French fabliau, "De la dame escolliee" in Anatole de Montaiglon and Gaston Raynaud, Recueil general et complet des fabliaux des XllIe et XIVe siecles, imprimes ou irwdits, publies d'apres les manuscripts, 6 vols. (Paris, 1872-1890; reprint: Geneva, 1973), vol. VI, pp. 95-116; and the XVIth-century Italian novella by Giovanni F. Straparola, Ie piacevoli notti, trans. W. G. Waters, 4 vols. (London, 1898), vol. III, pp. 108-123 (Night VIII, Tale 2). For a brief descriptive survey of the oriental and European literary sources, consult Ayerbe-Chaux (1975), pp. 154-156. See Stith Thompson, The Folktale (reprint: Berkeley/Los AngelesJLondon, 1977), p. 104, n. 28. &rhompson lists parallel tales from Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, England, Rumania, Hungary, Serbocroatia, Slovenia, Russia, and Greece (Types, pp. 407-408). The 1928 edition of his work reported AT 1370 only from Estonia and Finland and did not include it as a major entry. The oldest known literary version of the type is believed to be a XIIIth-century text of undetermined geographical origin. See Tbe Exempla; or Illustrative Storiesfrom the Sermones Vulgares ofJacques de Vitry, ed. Thomas Frederick Crane (original edition London, 1890; reprint: New York, 1971), pp. 93-94, No. ccxxv, with translation and notes on pp. 224-225. The earliest variant of this type from oral tradition was published in 1853. See H. Prole, Kinder- und Volksmiircherl (Leipzig, 1853), p. 27, n. 12. Early literary versions ofAT 1370 appear in Juan Timoneda, Buen aviso y portacuentos (first edition Valencia, 1564; see Rudolph ScheviU's edition in Revue Hispanique 24 [1911), 4 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 About Married Couples and describes an animal or object being beatenostensibly for disobeying or not doing housework-while the wife holds it or carries it on her back. The wife is thus cured of laziness.9 Although the type mentions beating an unruly or lazy cat, this is only one of three known subtypes of the tale. Quite often an inanimate object suffers the wrath of the husband, with one subtype showing a stick, a poker, or an ax being ordered to work and another featuring a bag or animal hide.lO Together AT 901 and AT 1370 are known as the Taming of the Shrew complex, a title loosely applied to tales describing a variety of wife-taming devices.11 pp. 171-254): No. 15, pp. 189-190 (Husband asks picture of slave to cook and set the table. When meal is not ready, he puts picture on wife's back and hits it. When she complains to parents, they tell her to obey husband.) and No. 28 , pp. 196-197 (Husband brings meat for dinner. Wife does not cook. He cooks himself and eats alone. She cooks but does not set table. He gives her small portion. When she cooks and sets the table, he shares with her equally.). See also J. Wesley Childers, Motif Index of the "Cuerltos" ofJuan Timorzeda, Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series No.5 (Bloomington, 1948), Wll1.3.4.1.* (No. 28) and Wll1.3.5.* (No. 15). 9Brunvand writes: "The wife, thus, gets beaten more or less by proxy, but she realizes that to escape future pain she must do work herself' (p. 230). Usually no housework is done until after the "servant" is punished; once the lesson is learned, however, the lazy wife becomes industrious and performs the necessary chores herself (pp. 244-46). (Motif Wll1.3.2. The cat beaten for not working. The wife must hold the cat and is scratched, Wll1.3. The lazy wife, and Q321. Lazirzess punished, in Thompson's Motif-Index.) lOBrunvand, pp. 4, 229. He finds that tales in which an inanimate object is beaten are more widely disseminated than tales of The Lazy Cat and appear more frequently in older literary sources. He also finds that they turn up generally in the oral tradition of southern Europe, with te."ts known from England to Russia and from Scandinavia to Spain and Greece, with one version from French Canada and another from a Polish-American informant (p. 229). Brunvand believes (1) that the type had originated in southern Europe by the early Middle Ages and subsequently spread north; (2) that the versions in which the "servant" is not first ordered to work may represent the oldest form; and (3) that the subtype of the inanimate object was the first to be invented and that, in the process of oral transmission, it was then possibly influenced by the animal punishment in AT 901 to become The Lazy Cat. "Brunvand's opinion is that Aarne-Thompson's division (Types 901 and 1370) "creates an artificial breach between the tales" (p. 4). It should be noted that Boggs, in his Index of Spanish Folktales, FF Communications No. 74 (Chicago, 1930), lists two Lazy Wife tales under AT 901, while AT 1370 does not appear in his Index. Was the omission an oversight as Brunvand suggests? I believe, on the contrary, that it was intended to correct the artificial division created by Aarne-Thompson. The two tales are Aurelio M. Espinosa's No. 92 (The loving husband repeatedly gives his new wife the opportunity to change her stubborn ways. When she does not, he resorts to beating and breaks her arm. He then pays the doctor Brides and Grooms 5 While it is generally accepted that literary texts may be inspired by oral tradition, the reverse may also be held as true. Popular tradition may integrate literary elements. It is difficult to ascertain, however, whether the Sephardic tale presented here has been contaminated by literary parallels. The 75-year-old teller from whom I collected the story was a multilingual woman who lived in Old Jaffa, Israel. Born and raised in Turkey, she had spent most of her adult life in Bulgaria and Israel. As she could neither read nor write, she was totally dependent on oral transmission. like most Sephardic oral narratives, the tale narrated was given no title. It tells the story of the only "daughter of a wealthy man who is very beautiful but so lazy that she must be dressed and fed in bed.12 Suitors appear but are dissuaded by her parents, who stress that she would not make a good wife. One young man, however, becomes enamored and persists. Convinced that he can change her habits, he marries her and at once forbids her parents to visit his house until she is well trained. When she continues to lie idle in bed, he demonstrates to her, in a vivid and physically threatening fashion, what may result from her sloth. She is eventually transformed into an impeccable housewife, and he proudly displays his success to her family.13 To my knowledge, no other Jewish version of the tale can be found, from oral or literary tradition. 14 Although such lack of representation does double his fee in anticipation of the next beating.) in Cuentos populares espaiioles, recogidos de la tradici6n oral de EspaiUl, 3 vols. (Stanford University, 1923-1926; second edition, 3 vols., Madrid 1946-47; reprint New York, 1967), and No. 123' in A. de Llano Roza de Ampudia, Cuerltos asturianos (Madrid, 1925), which tells of a lazy wife who reforms when her husband beats his bag for laziness. "MotifS WIll. Laziness, Wlll.3. The lazy wife, Q5. Laziness punished; industry rewarded, and Q32l. Laziness punished. 'Yfhe English translation of the tale is appended at the end of this article. The JudeoSpanish text appears in my forthcoming article, "The Lazy Wife: A Rare Jewish Version of an International Folktale Type," in Hispanic Culture in theJewish World: In Honor ofJoseph H. Silvennarl, ed. Michael Caspi. "After consulting the published indices of the Israel Folktale Archives, I find that no mention is made of existing versio~s of AT 1370 among the thousands of tales preserved there. HedaJason's index of oral tales from the IFA lists two Jewish versions ofAT 901: one from an Israeli Sephardic teller (IFA 2778) and the other from an Eastern European teller (IFA 4644). See "Types ofJewish-Oriental Oral Tales," Fabula 7 (1965), pp. 115-224, 177. Other parallels in the archives are IFA 7177 from Iran, IFA 7338 from Poland, IFA 7417 from Iranian Kurdistan (see D. Noy, A Tale for Each Morlth 1966 [Haifa, 1967), p. 155) and IFA 8550 from an Israeli Sephardic teller (see E. Cheichel, A Tale for: Each Month 1968-1969 6 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 not constitute conclusive proof that the tale is missing from the oral repertoire of a particular group, it usually points to a lack of popularity among raconteurs ofthat group. Consequently, ourJudeo-Spanish version provides a doubly valuable contribution, by adding to the limited number of known international versions of The Lazy Wife and by providing a unique example of AT 1370 from the previously unrepresented Jewish tradition. Whereas careful textual comparison is important when tracing literary influences in parallel texts, the study offolktales calls for an understanding of the cause and effect of oral refashioning, as well as of the linear surface of texts. As we shall see, although the Sephardic narrative has a tradition of its own and does not represent a degenerated retelling of a Shrew tale, it is unmistakably related to the Shrew versions, structurally and psychologically . The text is true to traditional form and preserves the essence of the archetype. At the same time, as a result of oral refashioning, it is distinctive in its treatment, including details about housework, domestic chores, and marital problems, and telling us about the economic status of the characters and of their life, from family relations to relations with others. This paper will attempt to shed light on how traditional material is manipulated according to the needs of narrative genres and the ideological bends of different cultures at various points in time (medieval Spain, XVIIth century England, and modern Sephardic society). In all three texts examined here-the medieval exemplum, Shakespeare 's play, and the Judeo-Spanish folktale-the major actors are the imperfect bride, her husband, and her father. The father's attempt to discourage the marriage by emphasizing the unsuitable disposition of the bride is to no avail: the suitor is confident in his own taming ability. In the literary versions the suitor is greedy and drawn primarily by the attractive dowry of his intended, while in the oral tale the beauty of the bride is [Haifa, 1970], p. 266). There is a Judeo-Spanish version of the taming of a shrewish wife, collected from Bitolj, Yugoslavia, which is the equivalent of motif J21.16. "Go to Goosebridge "; counselproved wise by experience. Man with disobedient wifefinds mules beaten there and made to cross bridge (cf. Boccaccio's Decarneron, Night IX, Tale 9, and.A. C. Lee, The Decarneron, Its Sources arm Arl£1logues (London, 1909), pp. 289-91; also Le Grand d'Aussy, Fabliaux ou contes, pp. 356-357). Stressing the advice given by King Solomon, which is proven wise by e.xperience, and the wisdom acquired from observation, the tale ends with a saying: Para Ius rzegrus it palu es it kunsegu, it golpi fa milizirze (The stick counsels while blows cure, or There is no argument like that of a stick), in :l. Kolonomos, Proverbs, Sayings, and Tales of the Sephardi jews ofMacedonia (Beograd, 1978), p. 147. See my Type and Motif Index of the judeo-Spanish Folktales (New York, 1992), under **910M Go to Goosebridge. Brides and Grooms 7 emphasized, with only a passing mention made of her economic statUs. In his comparative study of The Shrew and La mujer brava, Spanish folklorist Ralph Boggs writes that neither love nor greed provides sufficient incentive to marry a lazy or shrewish woman. They only serve as a justification for the sacrifice. The real inducement for the marriage, he argues, is the desire of the groom to demonstrate his ingenuity by taming a hopelessly difficult wife. To accomplish this, he inflicts violence onto others so as to inspire in the shrew fear and compliance.15 The basic pattern is the same in all the versions examined here, but the mood in each is deeply different. When the Sephardic father depicts an ill-managed home as the unappealing prospect of married life with his idle daughter, the suitor promises to take his new wife from one bed to another, making of love rather than greed the moving factor in the tale.16 The sexual overtone, at once subtle and obvious, provides the JudeoSpanish tale with a realistic setting. In the English comedy, on the other hand, the objective is to make the audience laugh, and when Baptista tells Petruchio that the shrewish Katharina would not make an appropriate bride, the apparently irrational behavior of the groom towards his bride is consistent with the play's intent. In turn, when the father in the medieval story predicts unavoidable death for the groom-in character with the brutal mood depicted-the moral pragmatism of the hero in marrying the bride fits the didactic intent of the text. In all three versions of the tale the behavior of the groom is the accepted male dominant attitude: his violence, lateness, poor attire, or tolerance are meant to show his superiority. When the bride is terrorized into compliance, the groom's ascendancy is confirmed. In turn the wife's extreme behavior is a caricature of an unacceptable standard of feminine conduct. Her social resistance can only be understood as one more instance ofthe irrational, capricious, erratic behavior attributed traditionally to the female gender. To modern readers, trained in psychological subtleties and aware of feminist issues, the stubborn initial stance of each woman may seem a deliberate transgression. The shrewishness or laziness of the bride, however, is depicted in each text as an eccentric female 15See Ralph S. Boggs, "La mujer mandona de Shakespeare y de Juan Manuel," Hispania 10 (1927), pp, 419-422. In his study on the structure of La mujer brava (1977), John England disagrees, arguing that "the young man's intentions are financial rather than a frivolous test of his own skills" (p. 80, n. 16). 161n "La esposa desobediente," No. 92, pp. 160-162 of Espinosa's Cuentos, love is also the basic factor in the marriage. 8 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 vagary and ridiculed as an obstacle to be overcome by the husband in order to reach domestic felicity. While the characters of Petruchio and the medieval groom are as firmly drawn as those of Katharina and the Moorish bride, the stress in the Judeo-Spanish version is more on the lazy wife than on her husband. In her own bed, in her father's house and in her husband's, she acts out a rebellion against traditional expectations. Later, we follow the slow development of her transformation as she begins to equate idleness with the unpleasantness of fear and physical pain. The taming process in each case involves animals, inanimate objects, or the bride herself, and the plan ofaction utilizes psychological manipulation to reform the conduct of the young wife, threatening her with death or with great discomfort. The strategy by which control is achieved varies, as the character of each genre differs. The medieval technique used to train the wife develops through cumulative physical violence: threats, dismemberment, the slaughter of innocent animals, blood spattered everywhere, terror. By immolating not only household pets but also his only horse, the groom transmits the message to his bride in a dramatic fashion. Although she is made to feel serious mental anguish, however, her body is never subjected to the physical aggression inflicted on the domestic animals. Acting as a silent spectator, she nonetheless understands fully the analogy between the fate of the animal victims and her own, were she to disobey. That the analogy should function as a successful deterrent betrays how medieval Spanish society seemed to perceive women as possessions of the husband, open to a treatment no different from that inflicted on the dog, the cat, or the horse. The laughter evoked from the readers reflects the sympathy for the groom. The situation in the XVlIth-century play is likewise entertaining. We know that Shakespeare did not invent the plot, but he successfully infused it with vitality, turning it into a shining comedy rather than a farce. By satirizing society with memorable characters, the bard clearly displays his understanding of it. The groom appears late for the wedding and is poorly attired, embarrassing his overbearing bride and taking her away from her father's house as soon as the ceremony is over. As if conspiring with him to tame Katharina, her horse eventually slips in the mud and her clothes are soiled. This foreshadowing is not a deliberate device on the part of the husband but an omen which establishes the dramatic quality of the play. At home, Petruchio starves his new wife and keeps her awake and without decent dress, all in apparent reverence to her. Later, he makes absurd statements: he calls the sun the moon and old Vincentio a gentlewoman, Brides and Grooms 9 and orders his wife to kiss him in public.17 Forced to control her temper so that she may be allowed to eat and sleep, the shrew soon capitulates. The events emphasize the farcical tone of the play but remain nonetheless forms of physical violence, far more real than the indirect threats received by the medieval bride. The method of the Sephardic groom may be less sophisticated than that of the other husbands, but in the end it is as effective. Initially, he shows patience with his bride's idleness, perhaps because of his love for her. When his patience is eventually exhausted, he positions two iron globes strategically above her head. The psychological process begins almost as soon as the globes are set in motion, clashing dangerously close to her head. As soon as she begins to perceive the objects as instruments of punishment and pain which represent a real physical danger to herself, her performance shows visible improvement and receives silent praise from her husband and, later, from her parents. The husband's scheme gains momentum in the teller's narration, and we follow the struggle in the bride's mind. Although the threat of punishment is constant, even verbally expressed, it is never clear whether the Judeo-Spanish bride is actually hurt. This ambiguity may reflect the female teller's uneasiness about the use of physical violence as a means of reforming an unruly wife. It may also reflect that of the surrounding society. In Judaism, the opinion that women are lazy passed into a proverb: "As she slumbers the basket falls" (Sanhedrin 7a); but the opposite is also written: "It is not a woman's way to sit at home idle" (Ketubbot 30a).18 The survival of laziness as a bride's character flaw in our tale may represent the traditional belief, apparent in medieval Jewish responsa, that household chores are the mandatory obligations of a married woman. When a woman refuses to engage in them, she is guilty of breaking the marital contract and deserves punishment. Maimonides wrote that any wife who abstains from performing her wifely duties may be forced to do so, even by whip (or stick).19 His recommendation of corporal punishment as a valid means of punishment, however, is a radical departure from tradition17Example 27 ofEI conde Lucanor, pp. 277-283, and two other Spanish folktales, which show this episode, belong to a distinct northern European subtype of AT 901. See Jose A. Sanchez Perez, CierI cuentospopulares (Madrid, 1942), pp. 213-218, and Espinosa, Cuerltos, pp. 159-160. The theme of delusion versus reality appears in Don Quijote in a more elaborate fashion. 18See A. Cohen, Everyman's Talmud (New York, 1978), p. 161. 19Mishne Torah, Nashim, Ch. 21, Art. 10. 10 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 al rabbinic consensus which establishes that beating or causing harm to one's wife is not permitted. The Code of Jewish Law (Shu/khan Arukh) tells us that it is not the way of Jews to hit their wives. Other authorities also write that there is no legal support in Jewish sources for Maimonides' ruling, and they suggest milder forms of punishment for the recalcitrant wife.20 The Talmud does not mention Wife-beating as a permissible punishment and, in Geniza records, husbands are invariably reprimanded and chastised by the rabbis for such improper behavior.21 Judaism, in fact, directs a husband to love and honor his wife above himself.22 Timing in the training of the wife is crucial in each of our three texts. The groom's objective is clear and the psychological means to achieve it well considered. The couple departs immediately after the wedding, and the taming occurs at the couple's home or on the way to it, after the bride has been isolated from her environment and from her family. In all versions the stress is on how effective techniques used by a skillful husband at the onset of marital life can reform even the most seemingly untamable of women. The persisting speed of transformation, however, has the effect of precluding any sympathy for the bride. We laugh at her, and we have no time to feel pity for her. At the core of the didactic inclination of Don Juan Manuel is that wife-taming should begin at once, as illustrated in the humorous epilogue of the Spanish exemplum, when the admiring father-in-law tries to imitate the groom and belatedly attempts to establish his authority over his wife of many years: he only succeeds in becoming the object of her derision.23 The emphasis on early training is implied rather than stated in The Shrew. Furthermore, while it takes the medieval hero no more than one night to master his spouse's shrewish personality, Petruchio needs a few· days to break Katharina's contrary disposition. The Sephardic hero also understands the rule ofswiftness but displays more tolerance. While he has a specific plan from the start, he spends several months educating his wife in the art of governing a house. As soon as the wedding has been celebrated he takes her to his own home and 2"These include Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquiere. 21See S. D. Goitein's A Mediterranean Society (Los Angeles, 1978), Ch. III, The Family, pp. 184-189. 22See my article, "Women in the ]udeo.Spanish Folktales," in The Sephardic Scholar, Series 4, 1979-1982 (New York, 1982), pp. 33-47. 23Devoto (1972), p. 430. Brides and Grooms 11 forbids her parents to visit them until his bride is trained. When she refuses to leave her bed, he performs all the household duties himself, in an effort to teach through positive example. This development is unlike anything depicted in the other versions, where a behavior to be avoided is shown by giving a glimpse of possible consequences. None of the texts examined in this paper ends in fairy-tale fashion. They all take us behind the scenes after the curtain falls, where bride and groom face a period of adjustment. In all three versions the reformed bride satisfies an order desired by the husband and legitimized by society. The last episode shows the hero displaying before others his cleverness and his success in subjugating his bride. The mode of action elected by each man reflects the differing characteristics of the genre. In Shakespeare's comedy, the mood is jocose, and the wager on whose wife is the most obedient-which appears in neither of the other two versions-is consistent with the general merriment of the piece. In addition to being amusing, however, the wager serves the purpose of focusing attention on the skill of the tamer. When Petruchio joins other husbands in testing his wife's docility, it is primarily to prove that his strategy has succeeded and to win acclaim. No clear traces of a wager