Pages 184-213 Summary

Tomjon, Hwel and the Fool are drunk in a dwarven bar when the Fool's brand of humor rubs a patron the wrong way. Tomjon defuses the situation, however, when he recognizes the dwarf in question as a greasepaint salesman. The dwarf is overjoyed to learn that Tomjon is among the actors he saw the previous week. Tomjon performs a few lines, sending the assembled dwarves into a fit of melancholic weeping. Finally realizing that his drinking companions are with the theater, the Fool declares that he's come five-hundred miles to find them.

The next day, Hwel tells Vitoller of the Fool's proposal. The Fool wishes Hwel to write a play upon a provided plot and then to perform it in Lancre. In the course of deciding whether or not Hwel should take the job, Vitoller reveals that he is indebted to...