[6] The opening scene introduces the play's senex amans: Lorenzo is in erotic pursuit of Franceschina, and composes bad poetry praising her (questionable) beauties.
They desperately need a go-between; Lodovico – Lorenzo's nephew, Aemilia's cousin, and Aurelio's friend – is ready to fulfill the need.
Lodovico counsels both young people to overcome their shyness, brings the two together, and even supplies a rope ladder for the climb to Aemilia's balcony.
The scenes featuring Quintiliano and his party allow satiric commentary on soldiering, gambling, money, drinking, and various other aspects of society, manners, and life.
A third skein of the plot involves a mysterious young woman who calls herself Lucretia; she is an apparent relative of Aurelio, staying at his father Honorio's house.
Angelo convinces Lorenzo that he needs to disguise himself to gain entry to Franceschina's house, and he helps the old man dress up as Snail, the local chimney sweep, with blackened face and filthy clothes.
Franceschina, who is in on the joke, allows her would-be seducer into her house, but then claims that her husband has come home unexpectedly, and hides Lorenzo in the coal cellar.
Lorenzo has sense enough to maintain his disguise, and to claim that Franceshina had locked him, Snail the chimney-sweep, in the cellar for doing a bad job of sweeping the chimney.
In the style of the Venetian carnival, all the characters are masked and disguised, leading to the grand exposure of all the plotting and manipulation.
It turns out that Lucretia is really Lucretio, a gentleman who had to flee his native Sicily for political reasons; Lionell is actually his betrothed, Theagine, who has come to search for him in the guise of a page.