Act I introduces Wingate, a character described in the dramatis personae as "a passionate old Man, particularly fond of Money and Figures, and involuntarily uneasy about his Son, Dick." Wingate apprentices his son to the apothecary, Gargle, and wants him to complete his apprenticeship and marry Gargle's daughter, Charlotte. Dick, however, wants to be an actor, and he attends the meetings of a spouting club three times a week. Because acting without royal authority was illegal, Dick's theatrical activities regularly get him in trouble. We learn, for instance, that he was recently arrested as a vagabond, but released because of his father's respectability. In the first act, Gargle and Wingate confer about how to keep an eye on Dick.
Act II begins in a spouting club. After leaving the meeting, Dick goes to Gargle's house in order to run away with Charlotte. Dick and Charlotte are caught as they're running away. They are arrested and cannot make bail. Wingate and Gargle arrive, and Gargle declares that if Dick finishes his apprenticeship, he will allow him to marry Charlotte. Dick agrees to this arrangement, deciding that "it will be like a Play, if I reform at the End."[4]