Summary
Amorphus and Asotus enter, and Asotus laments his most recent performance as a courtier, where he was embarrassed by Hedon. Amorphus encourages Asotus to keep striving to behave as courtiers behave, but Asotus is concerned he will not appear learned enough. Meanwhile, Hedon and Anaides plan to destroy Crites's reputation.
Crites addresses the audience directly, explaining that the gallants are idle and not to be taken seriously. Arete appears to Crites, who describes all the men he surrounded by as if they are spiders. Arete assures Crites that such "webs" will be swept up by Cynthia's court, and that Crites should consider his true friends as good but few.
Amorphus continues to provide instruction to Asotus in the ways of the courtier. Asotus dons new clothing and practices rhetorical tools for conversing with and flattering women. Amorphus decides that he and Asotus will go visit the nymphs' chamber.
Analysis
Act Three of the play delves deeper into the moral differences between the courtiers, specifically between Crites – the one redeemable character – and the other competitive courtiers. In Act Two of the play, Mercury described Crites as honorable and temperate, and Crites himself delivered a lengthy speech about the dangers of vanity and self-interest. When Crites converses with Arete about the "spiders" by whom is surrounded, she assures him that Cynthia's power will destroy all their "webs." This is an important metaphor given the historical context: the play suggests that the "spiders" are weaving "webs" at court based on their own interests, and these plans threaten to the court's prosperity. When Arite assures Crites that the webs will be eradicated, Jonson subtly suggests that Elizabeth I has a duty to dispel with corrupt, self-interested noblemen in her court. Not only does Jonson flatter Elizabeth by endowing her with the power of the goddess, Cynthia, but he also reminds the queen that she is surrounded by people who may not be entirely trustworthy.
Asotus's pathway to becoming a courtier continues in Act Three as he realizes that the title may be more difficult to achieve than he originally planned. After being embarrassed by Hedon in an off-stage encounter, Asotus doubts whether he can ever amount to the status of a courtier because he is not familiar with the writers and philosophers of antiquity. While Asotus's failures are largely satirical, there is truth behind his anxiety: in early modern England, being a courtier meant that one was endowed not only with nobility but also with quite a specific formal education. The Book of the Courtier, an instruction manual for courtiers written by Baldassare Castiglione, was one of the most widely-distributed books during the sixteenth century. Here, Jonson continues to suggest that becoming a courtier is largely a matter of performance, but he also acknowledges how the role of a courtier was highly specific and inaccessible to the majority of the population.
