Taming of the Shrew

A play within a play is The Taming of the Shrew.
Actors playing actors, reciting lines on cue.

In the English countryside, a tinker named Sly becomes a target of a prank.
A local lord and his servants who are bored are the ones he hath to thank.

Whilst Sly is drunk on ale, they dress him as a lord.
When he awakes from his stupor, a lord's life is his reward.

He is told the lie of his lordly life.
He at first doth not believe.
He then covets the real lord's wife,
and now himself, he doth deceive.

To steer his lust from the real lord's wife,
servants point him to a play
that cuts down this plot like a knife,
then the real plot gets underway
as actors playing actors play their parts
in the play within this play:

In the Italian city of Padua,
Lucentio arrives
with servants Tranio and Biondello.
Bianca changes their lives.

Lucentio falls in love with her.
Court her is what he must do.
Albeit, her older sister, Katherine, must marry first.
Unfortunatly, she's a shrew.

For all Bianca's suitors, her father, Babtista, set down this harsh rule.
Lucentio disguises himself as Bianca's tutor. It is Babtista he must fool
to court Bianca in disguise,
although another suitor is just as wise.

Hortensio is his name
and Bianca is also his flame.

Petruccio, Hortentio's friend,
desires to marry the shrew,
and put the courtship problem to an end.

Katherine is rich.
That is all he cares about.
Can he really tame her?
Or will she chew him up and spit him out?

The lose ends are laid before thee.
Thou shalt see them tied one by one
as you watch or read this play
until the play within this play is done.