This Cambridge University Press edition is well edited by Ann Thompson. It has a lengthy introduction, running to fifty pages, which offer some interesting insights into major themes of the play. It also deals with the fact that the play is now considered a problem play as much as a comedy, and how critics and editors have dealt with it. She ranges across different schools of criticism to give a well balanced view of the play as a whole.
It deals in great detail with the dating of the play and the problems caused by the different editions, including a play called 'a shrew' which has remarkable similarities with 'the shrew'. There are several appendix which also deal with some of this, as well as the issue of music and its use in the play.
The main problem with the body of the introduction is that it was written in the late 1970's, which means that much has changed in the last thirty eight years. Nevertheless, the recent reprint with a shorter addendum to the original introduction does try to bring in some of the newer elements of the staging, filming and critical appreciation of the play.
The play text itself is well set out, although as a novice, I did find the footnotes rather confusing, as she mixes straightforward interpretation of more complex words and phrases with a much deeper discussion of the choices she has made regarding the editions used and the editing of certain lines and words. It is however, a good literary play text with all sources amply explained and plenty of further reference material alluded too if needed.