entranced by Meercraft's con-game, however, and the central scenes in the play spin out a complex web of manipulation that includes rounds of Who's got the cloak? and Who's got the ring?, and a wealth of satirical commentary on various aspects of London life, such as the booming business of women's cosmetics. Wittipol wins the role of the Spanish woman, and in this disguise he penetrates Fitzdottrel's watch to reach his wife. Mistress Fitzdottrel, however, surprises Wittipol and Manly with an effective plea to their nobler natures (Act IV, scene vi). Appealing to Wittipol to put his "noble parts" that have impressed her "To a right use," she seeks his aid in resolving her dilemma: ...I am a Woman That cannot speak more wretchedness of myself, Than you can read: match'd to a mass of folly, That every day makes haste to his own ruin; The wealthy portion that I brought him, spent: And (through my friends' neglect) no jointure made me. My fortunes standing in this precipice, 'Tis counsel that I want, and honest aids; And in this name I need you for a friend, Never in any other; for his ill Must not make me, Sir, worse. Influenced by Manly and his own better nature, Wittipol puts aside his lustful quest to help Mistress Fitzdottrel out of her difficulties. To this point, Wittipol and Manly have been co-operating with Meercraft and company, but now, in effect, they change sides. Meercraft has by this time tricked Fitzdottrel into signing over all his fortune to his wife, with Meercraft himself as the intended guardian; Wittipol and Manly manage to switch the guardianship to Manly at the last moment. Once she has legal control of their estate, Mistress Fitzdottrel can prevent her husband's follies from bankrupting them. Meercraft, now realising that he's been fooled, strikes back: he persuades Fitzdottrel (who is outraged at his wife's usurpation of authority) to pretend to be bewitched by his wife and her confederates. In the sympathetic court of Sir Paul Eitherside, Meercraft plans to get the legal documents dismissed and restore Fitzdottrel to the control of his own estate, so the cheating can continue. Pug has not done well through all these developments: beaten, manipulated, and generally abused, he ends up confined to Newgate Prison at the end of the day. (Jonson, true to the Aristotelian unities of time and place, stages all this action