 W.W. Greg has demonstrated that "A Shrew" and "The Shrew" were treated as the same text for the purposes of copyright, i.e.ownership of one constituted ownership of the other, and when Smethwick purchased the rights from Ling in 1609 to print the play in the "First Folio", Ling actually transferred the rights for "A Shrew", not "The Shrew".One of the most fundamental critical debates surrounding "The Shrew" is its relationship with "A Shrew".