Christopher Sly is a minor character in William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

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The Taming of the Shrew is a play within a play. The frame play, where the action opens, shows Christopher Sly drunk in what basically is a bar. A wealthy lord arrives and finds Sly drunk and decides to play a joke on him. The lord’s men dress Sly in fine apparel and the men in turn dress up as servants and one even as Sly’s wife in an effort to persuade Sly when he wakes up he is an aristocrat. After this is accomplished the lord’s men perform what we know as The Taming of the Shrew. In some versions of the play the audience never sees or hears from Christopher Sly again and thus assume that he has probably fallen asleep. Other versions have a closing segment in which Sly (who has now learned how to "tame a shrew") returns home to deal with his wife, whose shrewish behaviour had driven him to drink in the first place.