“Such duty as the subject owes the prince/Even such a woman oweth to her husband;/And when she is forward, peevish, sullen, sour,/And not obedient to his honest will,/What is she but a foul contending rebel/And graceless traitor to her loving lord?"
The Taming of the Shrew, Act V, Scene ii: lines 159-164
Of course, I was thrilled that Pastor Allen quoted Shakespeare while illustrating a Biblical principle! Finding the full reference to reproduce for you here on the blog opened a different can of worms, however.
A Google search of the portion of the quote that Allen cited led to an interesting web site called "Gradesaver," which provides notes, essays, and study guides to school subjects for students to reference on the internet while preparing school assignments. In an unsigned analysis of the play, a writer (presumably a literature teacher moonlighting by writing for this site) opines that this is a "blatant affirmation of sexism," and likely to be offensive to "modern" audiences. The author then goes on to suggest that Shakepeare was surely being ironic here, his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, as opposed to the notion that Katherine could have been "transformed" to actually espouse this view.
One of the principles that we teach children in our "Shakespeare catechism" at Cornerstone Christian Academy is that, while no one can account for his personal faith, Shakespeare was educated at a time when scripture was a normal part of an English child's education, and his plays are filled with references to Biblical wisdom. But the modern educator quoted above would not know this. I know I harp on this all the time, but Christian parents who think that a secular educator will teach their child the SAME thing that a Christian teacher would (about any subject) are just naive. Dreadfully (for the sake of their children and their future as Christians) naive.
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