Richard Easy
Easy is a gentleman and a landowner from Essex. Like all farmers from Essex he has the reputation of being gullible and easy to dupe. He proves this stereotype to be true when he is duped out of his land in a series of scams and con deals, but he remains gentlemanly and ends up the winner, because Thomasine falls in love with his honest and gentle demeanor, and he ultimately gets his land back with a little good fortune and trick of his own.
Ephestian Quomodo
This mouthful of a name belongs to a dishonest and calculating cloth merchant who is also very controlling. He does not see himself in this way and is very surprised when he overhears others saying less than positive things about him, He prioritizes money over everything else, including his daughter's happiness; she is clear about wanting to marry Rearage, but he finds her opinion irrelevant and insists on her committing to Andrew Lethe. Ultimately, the conman is conned, when his scheme backfires and he ends up alone and without the land that he was so focused upon getting.
Thomasine Quomodo
Thomasine is married to Quomodo and is not well treated by her husband. This is why she is happy when he is dead. She observes on a number of occasions his plot to swindle Easy and is disgusted by it. She does not like the type of man that he is and this is why she does not want her daughter to marry Lethe - she finds him too similar to her own husband. Thomasine ends up happy at the end of the play; she marries Richard Easy and the two of them get his land back.
Shortyard
Shortyard is almost as much of a conman as his associate Quomodo. He is devious and even when he believes Quomodo to be dead he is still devising plans and cons. He is the leader in his partnership with Falselight. He works with Quomodo to swindle Easy out of his land and his money, and swindles Sim out of his inheritance. Like most successful con artists he also thinks on his feet to avoid the consequences of his actions. At the end of the play he gets his comeuppance and is forced to sign over the swindled land and money back to Easy.
Falselight
Falselight is Shortyard's partner and associate, and also an associate of Quomodo. He spends much of the play disguised as another character as required by the particular part of the swindle of Easy that they are working on.
Susan Quomodo
Susan is the daughter of Thomasine and Ephestian Quomodo. It is time for her to find a husband and she has decided that the best man for her is Rearage. She does not want to marry Andrew Lethe at all. After her father's "death" she marries Rearage and their marriage is announced at the end of the play.
Sim Quomodo
Sim is Quomodo's son and despises his father, calling him a "knave" (which is very insulting). He is swindled out of his inheritance by Shortyard. He is not close to his father and is not overjoyed by his return.
Rearage
Rearage is a gentleman of London, a decent man who wants very much to marry Susan Quomodo but cannot understand why her father hates him so much. Susan also cares very much about him. Her mother favors Rearage for her daughter because he is honest and a gentleman, and she also knows that he is a landowner who will be able to support her with rent on the land. At the end of the play it is announced that he and Susan have married.
Andrew Lethe
Andrew Lethe is an upstart Scotsman who has recently made a great deal of money and is now making a splash in London. Anxious to leave his years of poverty behind, he has changed his name from Gruel to Lethe. He is a womanizer and pays wenches for sex, whilst trying to win over Thomasine by offering to have an affair with her when he is married to her daughter. He is big-headed and arrogant and thinks Thomasine is attracted to him. It does not occur to him that it is his character that she finds undesireable as a son in law.
Mother Gruel
Mother Gruel is Andrew's mother. She comes to London searching for him but doesn't recognize him once she comes into contact with him. She is offered a position as his servant and becomes his go-between and letter deliverer.
