Why is taming of the shrew considered a play within a play?

Answer 1

It is considered a play within a play because of two scenes at the beginning which are called the "Induction". In these scenes a drunk called Christopher Sly passes out in the street. A wealthy man decides to play a trick on him, and moves Sly to his house. When Sly awakes, the wealthy man persuades him that he is really a Lord who is suffering from amnesia. As part of the pretence, a group of actors privately perform a play, which is the comedy of Petruchio and Kate or in other words the Taming of the Shrew. In Shakespeare's play as we know it the other half of the frame is not written in, but in an almost identical contemporary play called "The Taming of A Shrew" (which is the source of considerable debate as to whether it was written by Shakespeare or someone else, and whether "a shrew" or "the shrew" was written first), there is a final scene in which Sly, having fallen asleep again, is returned to the gutter, but awakes saying that he now knows how to deal with his shrewish wife.