Modern audiences are typically troubled by two problems in The Taming of the Shrew. The first is the problem of Christopher Sly's disappearance. Shakespeare sets up an elaborate frame story for presenting The Taming of the Shrew, but, then, seems to abandon the frame story, that of Christopher Sly, at the end. As part of the trick the lord and his servants are playing on Sly, the latter is positioned to watch the inset play (The Taming of the Shrew). Sly watches for a while but then becomes disinterested and is not heard from again. The audience fully expects that the joke on Sly will be revealed to him when he is forced to assume, once again, his real identity. When Shakespeare's play fails to supply this closure, the audience is somewhat disappointed.

A play contemporary with Shakespeare's, The Taming of a Shrew, does provide this...