The play opens with a harlequinade, with the commedia dell'arte characters Pierrot and Columbine on stage performing. Cothurnus, the fifth character, appears and begins to manipulate the action on stage. He clears Pierrot and Columbine off the stage and brings on Thyrsis and Corydon, two naïve shepherds, to stage their own performance, in which they play two rivals. The action consumes them and they transform from friends to bitter enemies, ultimately killing each other. Cothurnus hides their bodies under the table on stage and allows Pierrot and Columbine to resume the harlequinade that he had earlier interrupted.