Froth
Who is Froth?
Froth is a foolish, evidently well-off young gentleman swept up in Elbow's confused prosecution of Mistress Overdone's establishment, though his own offense is never made entirely clear even to the characters questioning him. He answers Escalus's inquiries with a vague, easily distracted good nature, more interested in the price of prunes than in the seriousness of the charges against him.
A foolish, well-off young gentleman caught up in Elbow's confused prosecution of vice, dismissed by Escalus as more silly than criminal.
Appears In
Biography
Escalus ultimately dismisses him with a mild warning rather than punishment, judging him more foolish than genuinely criminal - a small act of proportionate leniency that contrasts pointedly with the death sentence Angelo has just handed down to Claudio for a comparatively private offense.
Motivation
Froth is motivated by little beyond idle pleasure-seeking and a general obliviousness to the seriousness of the legal trouble he has wandered into.
Personality
Froth's vague, unbothered responses to serious questioning make him a minor comic foil within Elbow's chaotic prosecution scene, and Escalus's gentle dismissal of him underscores the disproportion between the law's severity toward Claudio and its casualness toward Vienna's genuinely idle vice.