When does the taming of the shrew take place?

Answer 1

There is no time setting in The Taming of the Shrew. It could be any time after the University was established in Padua. Bear in mind that the whole play is a "play within a play" being watched by Christopher Sly, the drunk we meet in the induction. The apparent time setting of the Induction could be totally different from that of the play itself.

If you want a really specific answer with no accuracy whatsoever, consider the following: The Taming of the Shrew spans for about 10 days over 1593-1594. The first day was Friday, December 31 and the ending day was Sunday, January 9. I have no idea why anyone would guess these particular dates, but they are interesting in light of the fact that some scholars say that the play was written before 1592, and also the fact that Sly would have been watching that play for ten days straight!

Answer 2

"A play focusing on the concerns of married life would have seemed particularly relevant to English audiences of the Renaissance period. Theirs was a society concerned with marriage in general, thanks in part to Henry VIII's separation of England from the Catholic Church in 1534 in order to secure a divorce that the pope had refused to grant him. Henry's troubles highlight one important aspect of Elizabethan marriages among the upper class: they were most often arranged for money, land, or power, rather than for love. Moreover, unless you were the king of England, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries offered few ways out of an unhappy marriage. Thus, the resolution of marital disputes became an important topic in the popular literature of the era."

Taken from this source(fifth paragraph down):

http://www.sparknotes.com/Shakespeare/shrew/context.html