see a play. Pug comes to him in the body of a thief who'd been hanged earlier in the morning; Fitzdottrel refuses to believe that Pug is a devil, since the corpse's feet are not cloven hooves—but Pug's claim that his name is "Devil" (or "Deville") is enough to earn him a place as a servant in Fitzdottrel's household. His reputation for eccentric foolishness has made Fitzdottrel the target of a host of confidence men, who fall out into two groups: on the one hand, the young gallant Wittipol and his friend Manly, and on the other the "projector" Meercraft and his henchmen, Ingine the broker, Lady Tailbush, Guilthead the goldsmith, Everill and Train and others. Meercraft is after Fitzdottrel's money, while Wittipol is more interested in the man's wife. In exchange for a sumptuous cloak, Wittipol actually negotiates fifteen minutes of conversation with Mistress Frances Fitzdottrel, in her husband's presence. Fitzdottrel tries to outwit the gallant by ordering his wife to remain silent; but when Wittipol finds that the young woman will not answer him, he answers for her, so aptly that the virtuous Mistress Fitzdottrel is impressed, almost against her will, with his "brain and spirit." Meanwhile, Meercraft is making progress with his intended mark by tempting Fitzdottrel with various get-rich-quick schemes, like raising "drowned land," harvesting dogs' skins, or making wine from raisins. Fitzdottrel is most enthusiastic about the first, and Meercraft convinces his dupe that he will soon be elevated to the peerage as the Duke of the Drowned Lands. (Reclaiming swamps and fens for agricultural use, via dykes and windmill-driven pumps, was a real and lucrative development of the time.) To train Mistress Fitzdottrel in the manners of the upper class, Meercraft persuades his victim to solicit, with a present of a diamond ring, the aid of an Englishwoman who has lived in Spain and is fluent in courtly manners. The "Spanish woman" will actually be a Meercraft henchman in disguise. Pug, looking for opportunities for villainy, tries to tempt Mistress Fitzdottrel into cheating on her husband with Wittipol; but his effort is inept, and she thinks he is a spy planted by her husband. She denounces Pug to Fitzdottrel, who beats the imp with a cudgel. Wittipol manages to obtain a window-to-window conversation with her—but her husband finds out about it and seeks to guard her even more closely than usual. He is still