![]() ![]() When Sly requests his wife join him in bed, he is told that the doctors have warned that sexual activity may cause a relapse, and so rather than risk returning to his beggarly self, he agrees to wait, opting instead to watch the play put on by the acting company. The Lord and his servants, though, have a laugh at Sly's expense. Before long, Sly falls into the Lord's trap and believes he is, in fact, master of all he surveys. The Lord himself assumes a subordinate position and takes great delight at Sly's consternation at the situation. He immediately calls for a drink and is attended to by three servants (supposedly his). Upon waking, Christopher Sly is understandably confused. In the midst of this merry planning, a troupe of actors appears and is enlisted for a performance that evening. He also orders his servants to wait on Sly and treat him as if he were the lord of the manor. The Lord orders Sly to be taken into the house, bathed, and placed in the estate's nicest bed. When the Lord returns from hunting, he spies Sly and immediately concocts a plan to convince the beggar that he is a nobleman. Drunken, he falls asleep before a nearby Lord's house. As the action opens, he is being thrown out of an alehouse. Here we meet Christopher Sly, a tinker by trade and a drunk by avocation. The Taming of the Shrew opens with an Induction. ![]()
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