Summary
On the streets of London, a number of gallants are shopping and flirting with the shopkeepers' wives.
In the tobacco shop, Laxton (a young gallant) flirts with Mistress Gallipot, though he only pretends to be interested in her to get money to go out with other women.
Jack Dapper – who spends his money recklessly – arrives to buy feathers for a flashy outfit.
Moll also arrives, and catches Laxton's eye. He assumes that because Moll is a cross-dressing woman, she must be morally loose and willing to have sex with him. Laxton flirts with Moll, who agrees to meet him at Gray's Inn Fields later that afternoon.
Trapdoor arrives, pretending to be interested in becoming Moll's servant. She allows it, saying she will meet him at Gray's Inn Fields after her meeting with Laxton.
Meanwhile, Sebastian's father Sir Alexander is spying on his son, though Sebastian is aware of his father's presence.
When Moll arrives, Sebastian attempts to woo her as if he is truly interested in marrying her. Moll announces that she is chaste and that she never wants to get married.
When she leaves, Sir Alexander lambasts Sebastian and calls Moll a whore and a thief. Sebastian defends his pretend bride, arguing that there is no evidence of that reputation in Moll.
When Sir Alexander leaves, he is even more determined to publicly humiliate Moll.
Sebastian decides to inform Moll of his scheme so that she can help him change his father's mind.
Analysis
The second act of the play builds on the first by complicating Sebastian's plot: while he thought it would be easy to convince his father of his interest in Moll, the plan is temporarily derailed by Moll herself, who declares (unknowingly, in front of Sir Alexander) that she is chaste with no plans to marry.
This is a significant moment in the play, as it stands in contrast to most early modern comedies in which a character devises a scheme early on that is immediately put into action and usually swiftly successful. Sebastian's plan, however, does not account for Moll's autonomy or her own voice in the matter. Indeed, by the end of Act II, Sebastian resolves to amend his original plan by bringing Moll in on the scheme. This brief hiccup in Sebastian's plotting underscores Moll's independent nature and the extent to which presumptuous men are ultimately proven wrong by her autonomous control of her own life.
There are only two scenes in Act II, and together they comment once more on the notion of reputation, gossip, and assumption. In the first scene, Laxton foolishly determines that Moll's cross-dressing must mean she is fundamentally "unlike" other women – that is, that she has no standards for herself or the men with whom she engages.
Right after making plans to meet Laxton at Gray's Inn Fields, audiences are privy to Moll's assertion that she is chaste with no interest in marriage.
These two scenes therefore present two vastly different portraits of Moll – the first based on reputation alone and the second based on reality. As such, Act II further comments on the folly of assumption while also foreshadowing the humiliation of Laxton and others who misread Moll's behavior.
