'a pitiful poor fellow' who had 'nothing but three suits of apparel

Foole called him 'a pitiful poor fellow' who had 'nothing but three suits of apparel and some few benevolences that lords ga' [him] to fool to 'em and swagger', he asserts his maleness by threatening to 'beat 'em ... bind 'em ... and have 'em baited' (4.5.8-13). The degradation of Daw and La Foole involves locking them into separate closets and jeering them into abject displays of submission, witnessed by the Ladies Collegiate. Co-ordinated jointly by Truewit and Clerimont, the inspired stage management presents Dauphine as manly and witty, and induces all the Ladies to fall in love with him. This group-sponsored power takes direct aim at Morose in Act 5, and achieves what Dauphine could not have done on his own: the utterly humiliating defeat of Morose before jeering witnesses. This punishment reconfirms the unity and power of the successful group, even though Dauphine's degradation of Morose began as a private war whose secret weapon Clerimont and Truewit knew nothing about.