The play begins with the entrance of the actor who speaks the Prologue — quickly followed by four audience members seeking seating on the stage. (The practice of selling seats on the periphery of the stages in the private theatres of the era is exploited for commentary and comedy in a variety of plays, from Beaumont's "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" (1607) to Jonson's "Magnetic Lady".) In this case the four are the Gossips Mirth, Tattle, Expectation, and Censure. They interrupt the Prologue with their comments, and continue this through the four entr'actes that Jonson calls "Intermeans" — a structure he would employ again in "The Magnetic Lady". The gossips have a number of criticisms of the play as it proceeds (mainly that it contains neither a devil nor a fool).