Blaming Sly's seemingly mad behavior on a foul spirit (14-16), the Lord begins to talk Sly into believing he really is of the gentry rather than, as Sly himself confesses, "by birth a peddler, by education a cardmaker, by transmutation a bearherd, and now by present profession a tinker" (18-20). When the Lord enters (13), the duping really picks up steam. However, it doesn't take long before the rhetoric of the Lord and his servants begins to take ahold of Sly (but who could blame him? In many ways, for a poor man to wake up rich is a dream come true). In fact, in many ways, Sly deserves respect because he is initially skeptical about the situation in which he finds himself. He knows who he is and remembers his accustomed lifestyle. Clearly at this point, Sly is in control of his identity. He continues, disparaging sack and conserves, two of the pleasures of the upper class, and then very wittily confesses there is no need to ask what he wants to wear because he has only one set of clothes, so there is little choice to be made.
With an obvious lack of decorum Sly informs the serving men he is neither " honor" nor "lordship" (5-6). When the serving men encourage " lordship" to drink "sack" and taste of the "conserves" (2-3), we begin to see just how much out of his element Sly is - and he knows it. Accustomed to having very little money, he calls for a cheap drink. In addition to revealing his predilection for liquor, Sly's request reveals his social status. Not surprisingly, his first action in this scene is to call for "a pot of small ale" (1). Our first glimpse of Sly revealed a man who uttered four lines and passed out. Sly's immediate response is, of course, disbelief. The servingmen dote on the beggar, insisting he is, in fact, lord of all he surveys. When Sly awakes, the Lord's plan goes into full swing. Sly, Bartholomew, and the others settle in for the performance.
To pass the time, however, the players agree to entertain the group with a story. He beckons his wife to come to bed with him, but Bartholomew handily escapes by noting the doctor has not recommended such activity in case of a relapse. Sly is drawn into the tale the servants weave, and, by the time his supposed "wife" enters, he is completely convinced he is, in fact, lord of the estate. In getting Sly ready to meet the others in the house, the serving men regale him with fanciful stories of all the harsh dreams of poverty brought about by his madness. As Sly attempts to figure out what has happened, the serving men reassure him that the entire household is overjoyed to learn their master has made a miraculous recovery after having been ill the past fifteen years. Christopher Sly awakes to find himself in a lovely bedchamber in a strange house (the Lord's) with attendants ready to wait on him.
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