Summary
As the party continues to roll on, a subplot emerges in which Truewit, Clerimont, and Dauphine muse over the nature of women. In the presence of the Ladies Collegiates, Truewit advertises that he is an expert on the female sex and assures Dauphine that he can make all of the women fall in love with him (Dauphine) by the end of the evening. Meanwhile, Captain Otter, in a moment of supposed privacy, criticizes his wife's behavior and involvement in the college. However, Mistress Otter overhears him and ends up beating him for his comments. As the women retire together with a few of the men, Morose appears and continues to complain about the noise. Both Epicene and John Daw declare that he is manic, and Lady Haughty offers to make Epicene a member of the women's college.
Truewit, in a plan to both embarrass the two knights and fulfill his promise to Dauphine, arranges a fake feud between John Daw and Amorous La Foole. He explains to each one separately that they are to fight one another, but neither knight desires this combat and they instead relinquish their swords in order to become friends again. The ladies of the college watch the entire rouse unfold and are so entertained by the foolishness of the two knights that they begin fawning over Dauphine once Truewit tells them that it was Dauphine who organized the feud. Morose, having attempted to run to court to plead his case for a divorce, returns to his house saying that the people at court are too busy making their own noise to hear his argument. Truewit offers to help him by finding him a lawyer.
Analysis
Act IV of the play is dominated by two subplots: the ladies of the college each privately attempting to seduce Dauphine, and the chaotic false feud between Daw and La Foole. Ultimately, these two subplots converge when the ladies are so entertained by the foolishness of the two knights that they become interested in the alleged orchestrator of the rouse (Truewit in actuality, though he tells them it was Dauphine). That the women are so quick to abandon their misandrist attitudes and passionate arguments for independence in order to seduce Dauphine is yet another source of comedy in the play, as the expectations laid out by the Ladies Collegiates are swiftly derailed by a single man. Indeed, more dramatic irony takes shape when the audience realizes that the ladies, who all along have been laughing at the false feud between the knights, are themselves fooled by Truewit's machinations when he claims it was Dauphine who organized the entertainment. Thus, the play once again turns its characters into caricatures, hyperbolized representations of people who are quick to dispense with their social performances in order to get what they truly desire.
The same can be said for Daw and La Foole, who have been the subjects of private slights and jokes throughout the play, but who in Act IV are publicly discovered as cowardly fools. At Truewit's behest, both knights agree to combat with one another, only to both relinquish their involvement and their swords in order to restore their friendship and avoid injury. Thus, just like the ladies of the college, Daw and La Foole are quick to abandon the reputations they have tried so hard to cultivate – that of learned, galant, and virile men. These transformations in which characters' "true" natures come to the fore hearken back to Epicene's own transformation from meek young lady to bossy woman and, ultimately, foreshadow the play's final revelation that even the audience does not see coming.
