Sly then continues to show his natural biases and base nature by demanding his "wife" undress and come to bed (112). While on one hand this demand is outrageously funny (because we know the page is really playing Sly's supposed wife), it is also quite revealing. We get a good sense of what Sly's about — and more importantly, how he perceives marriage roles, something that will be picked up in more detail in the play. Sly's initial instinct to control and command his wife, however, yields him nothing. Bartholomew is quick to say "your physicians have expressly charged, / In peril to incur your former malady, / That I should yet absent me from your bed" (118–120). Sly, clearly believing himself to be the lord of the manor, doesn't wish to risk a relapse, and so he releases his wife from her "duties."
At this point the players enter again, bringing us toward the beginning of the actual play. With only one small reference at the end of Act I, Scene 1, the story of Sly is left behind, leaving us to wonder what became of him.
