What is meant by "came to practice" in John Manningham's description of Twelfth Night?

Question

In the earliest mention of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"; John Manningham's Diary: > A good practice in it [was] to make the Steward believe his Lady . . . in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his Lady in general terms, telling him what she liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, &c., and then when he came to practice making him belive they took him to be mad. What is meant by "came to practice" here?

Answer 1

This is a very archaic usage of the word practice, which is quite right for Shakespeare's time but makes little sense in ours. In this context it is supposed to mean "conspire" or "plot". Essentially this character was "plotting" to make the others believe he was mad.