As Follywit & co. exit, Penitent Brothel, a country gentleman, enters. Penitent remarks on Follywit's reputation as a wild prankster, but notes that he is not so much better because he is subject to "wild passions and deadly follies himself": he is in love Mistress Hairbrain, who is extremely difficult to get to because she is kept under strict guard by her obsessively jealous husband, Mr. Hairbrain. In order to get to Mistress Hairbrain, Penitent says he has contracted the services of 'The Courtesan', a prostitute who poses as Mistress Hairbrain's friend and moral instructor but is in fact working to corrupt her.