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Giovanni and his sister Annabella confess their mutual incestuous love. Annabella is pressured into marriage with Soranzo, who discovers her pregnancy and seeks revenge; after Annabella warns Giovanni, he kills her at a feast and reveals their affair, triggering a final massacre.
A lost play combines two London scandals: a young suitor keeps a wealthy widow drunk and sleepless until he tricks her into marriage and robs her, while a young boy murders his mother, confesses and is hanged.
Duke Phillippo Caraffa marries Bianca after seeing her while hunting, but his friend Fernando also falls in love with her. Bianca eventually returns Fernando’s feelings, while Caraffa’s widowed sister Fiormonda, herself in love with Fernando, uses the scheming D’Avolos to inflame her brother’s jealousy. The conflict ends with the deaths of Bianca, Fernando, and Caraffa.
The pretender Perkin Warbeck claims to be Richard IV and seeks the English crown with Scottish and Cornish support. Ford treats him sympathetically as he faces defeat, capture, and pressure to renounce his claim; Warbeck refuses and is led to execution. The play also shows the historical Lambert Simnel, a pardoned pretender who urges Warbeck to surrender.
In Sparta, general Ithocles forces his sister Penthea to abandon her intended marriage to Orgilus and marry the jealous, tyrannical Bassanes. After Ithocles relents and seeks to marry Calantha, Orgilus murders him; Calantha dances through news of the deaths of her father, Penthea, and Ithocles, then condemns Orgilus and dies of a broken heart.
In Siena, bachelor Marquis Octavio’s Bower of Fancies is mistaken for a harem, though the three young women are his wards. A suitor’s schemes and the women’s tests of virtue drive the main plot; a spendthrift husband who sold his wife, a barber’s marriage and a separate pair of lovers add interlocking comic and romantic complications.
In Genoa, nobleman Auria leaves his low-born wife Spinella while he goes to war. When Adurni’s attempted seduction of her becomes a public scandal, a formal trial lets Spinella prove her honor. Auria rejects violent revenge, Adurni marries Spinella’s sister, and interwoven plots of disguise, reform and comic courtship end in four marriages.
In fictional Candy, a law punishes ingratitude and another lets victorious soldiers choose the most deserving. After Cassilanes's son Antinous wins the soldiers' acclaim, their conflict over recognition and money becomes entangled with Venetian lord Gonzalo's bid for power and the loves of Erota, Antinous and their suitors.
Prince Palador sinks into melancholy after his beloved Eroclea disappears; their identities and disguises are eventually revealed, helping cure him and her father, while secret loves and courtly conceits complicate the relationships among their companions.
The Queen of Aragon pardons the misogynistic rebel Alphonso and marries him, but their marriage fractures when he continues to shun her. A courtier manipulates Alphonso toward reconciliation, while the Queen's general Velasco faces his own struggle to regain self-respect in a relationship with Salassa.
A nobleman abducts and rapes Clara, then later seeks to atone, while a separate plot follows nobleman Don John joining a gypsy troupe to court Pretiosa. The plots converge through mistaken identities, family revelations and reconciliation.
Raybright, the Sun's child, is given a year to experience earthly pleasures across the four seasons. Led astray by Humor and Folly, he fails to find satisfaction until the Sun warns him to resist them and seek harmony.
The ostracized Elizabeth Sawyer turns to witchcraft and gains a devil-dog familiar called Tom. In parallel, Frank Thorney enters a bigamous marriage and murders Susan while trying to escape with his first wife Winnifride. The play also follows the innocent clown Cuddy Banks, whom the dog cannot corrupt.
Giovanni and his sister Annabella confess their mutual incestuous love. Annabella is pressured into marriage with Soranzo, who discovers her pregnancy and seeks revenge; after Annabella warns Giovanni, he kills her at a feast and reveals their affair, triggering a final massacre.
A lost play combines two London scandals: a young suitor keeps a wealthy widow drunk and sleepless until he tricks her into marriage and robs her, while a young boy murders his mother, confesses and is hanged.
Duke Phillippo Caraffa marries Bianca after seeing her while hunting, but his friend Fernando also falls in love with her. Bianca eventually returns Fernando’s feelings, while Caraffa’s widowed sister Fiormonda, herself in love with Fernando, uses the scheming D’Avolos to inflame her brother’s jealousy. The conflict ends with the deaths of Bianca, Fernando, and Caraffa.
The pretender Perkin Warbeck claims to be Richard IV and seeks the English crown with Scottish and Cornish support. Ford treats him sympathetically as he faces defeat, capture, and pressure to renounce his claim; Warbeck refuses and is led to execution. The play also shows the historical Lambert Simnel, a pardoned pretender who urges Warbeck to surrender.
In Sparta, general Ithocles forces his sister Penthea to abandon her intended marriage to Orgilus and marry the jealous, tyrannical Bassanes. After Ithocles relents and seeks to marry Calantha, Orgilus murders him; Calantha dances through news of the deaths of her father, Penthea, and Ithocles, then condemns Orgilus and dies of a broken heart.
In Siena, bachelor Marquis Octavio’s Bower of Fancies is mistaken for a harem, though the three young women are his wards. A suitor’s schemes and the women’s tests of virtue drive the main plot; a spendthrift husband who sold his wife, a barber’s marriage and a separate pair of lovers add interlocking comic and romantic complications.
In Genoa, nobleman Auria leaves his low-born wife Spinella while he goes to war. When Adurni’s attempted seduction of her becomes a public scandal, a formal trial lets Spinella prove her honor. Auria rejects violent revenge, Adurni marries Spinella’s sister, and interwoven plots of disguise, reform and comic courtship end in four marriages.
In fictional Candy, a law punishes ingratitude and another lets victorious soldiers choose the most deserving. After Cassilanes's son Antinous wins the soldiers' acclaim, their conflict over recognition and money becomes entangled with Venetian lord Gonzalo's bid for power and the loves of Erota, Antinous and their suitors.
Prince Palador sinks into melancholy after his beloved Eroclea disappears; their identities and disguises are eventually revealed, helping cure him and her father, while secret loves and courtly conceits complicate the relationships among their companions.
The Queen of Aragon pardons the misogynistic rebel Alphonso and marries him, but their marriage fractures when he continues to shun her. A courtier manipulates Alphonso toward reconciliation, while the Queen's general Velasco faces his own struggle to regain self-respect in a relationship with Salassa.
A nobleman abducts and rapes Clara, then later seeks to atone, while a separate plot follows nobleman Don John joining a gypsy troupe to court Pretiosa. The plots converge through mistaken identities, family revelations and reconciliation.
Raybright, the Sun's child, is given a year to experience earthly pleasures across the four seasons. Led astray by Humor and Folly, he fails to find satisfaction until the Sun warns him to resist them and seek harmony.
The ostracized Elizabeth Sawyer turns to witchcraft and gains a devil-dog familiar called Tom. In parallel, Frank Thorney enters a bigamous marriage and murders Susan while trying to escape with his first wife Winnifride. The play also follows the innocent clown Cuddy Banks, whom the dog cannot corrupt.