Act 2, Scene 2 Summary

As Puff, Dangle and Sneer watch, the actors in Puff's play rehearse. The dialogue consists of bad poetry, undisguised and badly handled exposition, or explanations of the play's context, and over-wrought and melodramatic emotion. As the rehearsal continues, every few lines Puff offers explanations of what's going on, exclaims over what's been cut and what's been changed, clarifies what's meant and what isn't and comments on how wonderful his original piece of writing was. He responds to questions and/or comments from Dangle and/or Sneer with almost arrogant confidence that his own ways of interpreting what's going on are absolutely right, and in doing so, he convinces the always persuadable Dangle and Sneer to at least appear to alter their opinions. At one point, Puff refers to a character who refuses to give an opinion unless he's absolutely sure of...