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Frank Welborn, ruined by Sir Giles Over-reach’s financial schemes, seeks to recover his standing while Over-reach plots to marry his daughter Margaret to Lord Lovell. Margaret and Tom Allworth outwit him, and Welborn regains his lands; Over-reach’s schemes collapse and he loses his sanity.
In Spanish-ruled Palermo, two pairs of young lovers face conflict after Almira rejects Prince Antonio, who then wounds her intended suitor Cardenes. Antonio returns disguised as a Turkish slave and becomes a go-between; after a pirate attack, his identity is revealed and the couples’ marriages are resolved, though Cardenes has changed through his recovery from injury and depression.
After usurping the throne of Flanders, General Woolfort faces the exiled royal family, whose members conceal their identities among beggars. Their disguises and romantic plots end in the restoration of the rightful rulers and the reunion of lovers, while the play also explores serious political concerns.
After losing his throne to Rome, King Antiochus wanders the Mediterranean seeking refuge and allies. The Roman Flaminius uses deception and intimidation to isolate him, while Antiochus endures imprisonment and temptation with dignity.
In Seville, a feud between Vitelli and Alvarez threatens the love between Vitelli and the disguised Clara, Alvarez’s daughter raised as a boy and famed as a warrior. Alvarez’s son Lucio, raised as a girl, also falls in love. When the families prepare to settle the feud by combat, the young women intervene and secure peace and two marriages.
In Renaissance Mantua, the bashful courtier Hortensio serves in war to prove himself to Princess Matilda; the military conflict and the intertwined histories of a disguised page and a wounded Florentine officer resolve in restored rule, reconciliations, and marriages.
As Timoleon leads Syracuse's defense against Carthage, its abused slaves revolt under Pisander, who is disguised as a slave while pursuing Cleora. After the citizens regain control, Cleora defends Pisander; his identity and her servant's are revealed, couples are reunited, and the slaves return to a more humane social order.
Merchant Sir John Frugal's wife and daughters disdain his impoverished brother Luke, who secretly schemes to gain control of the family fortune. Disguises and reversals eventually expose the household's greed and vanity, while Sir John restores order and sends Luke to Virginia to atone.
Zenocia marries Arnoldo against the advice of her father and flees the Italian governor Clodio, who claims a traditional sexual right over her. Separated during their escape, the couple face further coercion and intrigue in Lisbon before Clodio renounces his claim; a subplot follows Arnoldo's brother Rutilio through a duel, arrest, and marriage.
In Naples, Virolet joins a revolt against tyrant Ferrant but is captured and compelled to marry pirate chief Sesse’s daughter Martia to gain release. Returning to his wife Juliana, he rejects Martia while remaining faithful to Juliana; the resulting vendettas end in revolt, mistaken identity, and the deaths of Virolet, Juliana, and Martia.
Duke Ludovico Sforza’s obsessive devotion to Marcelia turns to suspicion after his friend Francisco manipulates events to avenge an old grievance. Sforza kills his innocent wife, then Francisco disguises her corpse to appear alive and poisons Sforza with the cosmetics as he kisses her.
French nobleman Lewis and his neighbor Brisac plan to marry Angellina to Brisac’s younger son Eustace and redirect the family inheritance away from the scholarly elder brother Charles. Charles falls in love with Angellina and refuses to give up his birthright; after the families’ plans collapse, a childless uncle offers Eustace his own estate, allowing Charles and Angellina to marry.
Massinger dramatizes Emperor Theodosius II, his sister and regent Pulcheria, and his wife Eudocia amid rumors that she has been unfaithful with courtier Paulinus. In the tragicomedy's resolution, Theodosius disguises himself as clergy and hears Eudocia's confession, which persuades him she is innocent.
In Rowe’s reworking of The Fatal Dowry, the setting moves from Dijon to Genoa and the characters receive new names. The adaptation simplifies the action and focuses more closely on Calista’s infidelity and domestic tragedy.
In Egypt in 48 BCE, Caesar encounters Cleopatra while her brother Ptolemy holds her from power. The play centers on Roman officer Septimius, who betrays and murders Pompey; Caesar ultimately deposes Ptolemy and gives Cleopatra the Egyptian crown.
After Charalois’s father dies in debtor’s prison, Charalois takes his place to secure a proper burial. He marries Beaumelle, whose affair with Novall Junior ends in violence, a mock trial, and a series of deaths.
Cozimo, a widowed duke, plans to leave his realm to his nephew Giovanni, whose affection for Lidia complicates the duke’s dynastic expectations. Count Sanazarro also falls for Lidia, while Cozimo’s ward Fiorinda favors him; the young men’s effort to manipulate the duke leads to arrest, confession, forgiveness, and two marriages.
In Naples, Durazzo tries to guide his nephew Caldoro toward worldly pleasures while Caldoro loves Calista, who favors the rakish Adorio. Disguises and mistaken identities entangle their families: Iolante pursues a visiting Frenchman, her husband Severino returns as a bandit, and a series of errors is resolved when the supposed stranger is revealed to be the man Severino thought he had killed.
In France, Montague loses his lands through a corrupt lawsuit and is reduced to poverty, while his devoted page Veramour enters service with Lamira. The Duke of Orleans schemes against Montague and his wife, but an abortive duel and a staged death force a change of heart, restoring Montague’s estate and bringing reconciliation.
On Malta, Mountferrat, a knight who has abandoned his vows, plots against Oriana after she rejects him. Forged accusations and a staged death lead to combat and attempted abduction; Miranda and Gomera expose the schemes, Oriana survives, and Mountferrat is expelled while the lovers are reunited.
In Paris, Dinant loves Lamira, who has married the wealthy Champernell, while Cleremont is drawn into a duel on Dinant’s behalf. Cleremont recruits the timid lawyer La-Writ as his second, and La-Writ’s lucky success turns him into an eager challenger; a series of schemes and misunderstandings eventually ends with reconciliations and a new couple.
In France, Cleander’s friend Lisander remains in love with Calista, who is married to Cleander, while Olinda cannot choose between two suitors. A lawyer named La-Writ becomes obsessed with duelling after a lucky victory, and the lovers’ schemes lead to a murder, an apparent ghost, and a final trial that resolves the couples’ fates.
Camiola loves Bertoldo but refuses to marry him while he remains bound by vows as a knight of a religious order. After he is captured in a military campaign, she pays his ransom and secures a marriage contract, but his attraction to another woman leads Camiola to reject him, enter a nunnery, and give away her fortune.
At the court of Charles VIII, Bellisant rejects the moral strictures of her guardian while various courtiers pursue adulterous schemes. The king convenes a Parliament of Love to hear the lovers’ grievances; a threatened duel, a staged death, and a bed trick expose the characters’ conduct and lead to pardons and reconciliations.
Before leaving for war, the Bohemian knight Mathias receives a portrait that changes color if his wife Sophia is tempted or unfaithful. When Queen Honoria and two courtiers manipulate the couple, the portrait fuels jealousy and desire, until Sophia turns the seducers’ plan against them and the royal pair confronts its own conduct.
The sorceress Delphia prophesies that the soldier Diocles will become emperor after killing a particular boar and marry her niece Drusilla. After Diocles kills the Roman usurper Aper and rises as Dioclesian, he forgets Drusilla and pursues Aurelia; Delphia’s magic redirects events, and Dioclesian ultimately defeats the Persians, abdicates, and retires with Drusilla.
In ancient Corinth, the Queen redirects her son Theanor's intended marriage to her ward Merione toward Argive ruler Agenor. Theanor retaliates by having Merione abducted and raped; mistaken accusations against Euphanes, another favored young man, fuel a revolt and further violence before Theanor's crimes are exposed and the Queen sentences him to death, then pardons him when Merione offers marriage.
In Tunis, Venetian gentleman Vitelli seeks his captured sister Paulina, held in the viceroy’s harem. A Turkish princess falls in love with Vitelli, while the renegade pirate Grimaldi regrets his past; the interlocking conversions, captivity and escape plots reunite the family and send them back to Italy.
In imperial Rome, actor Paris’s performances expose the abuses of Emperor Domitian. Domitian’s fascination with the stage turns lethal when Paris becomes entangled with the emperor’s household and is killed during a staged scene; conspirators then assassinate the tyrant.
A storm strands French pirate Albert, his love Aminta, and their crew on an island where they encounter Portuguese castaways. After the Portuguese escape in the French ship, hunger and conflict threaten the crew. Albert reaches a nearby island inhabited by Amazons, whose leader’s daughter falls in love with him; family reunions and new relationships ultimately reconcile the French and Portuguese groups.
Two brothers' inheritance dispute entangles a boy whose paternity is challenged, while Violante plots murder and Leandro pursues the married Amaranta. The schemes are exposed, and the characters' relationships are reconciled; a parallel sailor's family dispute is settled by a mock trial.
A political tragedy depicting the aging Dutch statesman Barnavelt's conspiracy against the Prince of Orange, the failed rebellion, his trial, and execution.
In Marseille, Governor Beaufort's son loves Theocrine, daughter of Admiral Malefort, whose pirate son blockades the harbor and challenges him to single combat. After killing his son, Malefort develops an incestuous desire for Theocrine; his former friend Montreville abducts and rapes her, revealing that Malefort had poisoned his first wife to marry Montreville's mistress, Theocrine's mother. Theocrine dies and Malefort is killed by lightning.
In Diocletian’s Rome, Christian Dorothea is arrested by the persecutor Theophilus, whose aide Harpax is a devil in disguise. Dorothea’s faith converts Theophilus’s daughters, but he kills them and Dorothea is executed; an angel’s gift of heavenly fruit later converts Theophilus, who is himself tortured and dies in a state of bliss.
Frank Welborn, ruined by Sir Giles Over-reach’s financial schemes, seeks to recover his standing while Over-reach plots to marry his daughter Margaret to Lord Lovell. Margaret and Tom Allworth outwit him, and Welborn regains his lands; Over-reach’s schemes collapse and he loses his sanity.
In Spanish-ruled Palermo, two pairs of young lovers face conflict after Almira rejects Prince Antonio, who then wounds her intended suitor Cardenes. Antonio returns disguised as a Turkish slave and becomes a go-between; after a pirate attack, his identity is revealed and the couples’ marriages are resolved, though Cardenes has changed through his recovery from injury and depression.
After usurping the throne of Flanders, General Woolfort faces the exiled royal family, whose members conceal their identities among beggars. Their disguises and romantic plots end in the restoration of the rightful rulers and the reunion of lovers, while the play also explores serious political concerns.
After losing his throne to Rome, King Antiochus wanders the Mediterranean seeking refuge and allies. The Roman Flaminius uses deception and intimidation to isolate him, while Antiochus endures imprisonment and temptation with dignity.
In Seville, a feud between Vitelli and Alvarez threatens the love between Vitelli and the disguised Clara, Alvarez’s daughter raised as a boy and famed as a warrior. Alvarez’s son Lucio, raised as a girl, also falls in love. When the families prepare to settle the feud by combat, the young women intervene and secure peace and two marriages.
In Renaissance Mantua, the bashful courtier Hortensio serves in war to prove himself to Princess Matilda; the military conflict and the intertwined histories of a disguised page and a wounded Florentine officer resolve in restored rule, reconciliations, and marriages.
As Timoleon leads Syracuse's defense against Carthage, its abused slaves revolt under Pisander, who is disguised as a slave while pursuing Cleora. After the citizens regain control, Cleora defends Pisander; his identity and her servant's are revealed, couples are reunited, and the slaves return to a more humane social order.
Merchant Sir John Frugal's wife and daughters disdain his impoverished brother Luke, who secretly schemes to gain control of the family fortune. Disguises and reversals eventually expose the household's greed and vanity, while Sir John restores order and sends Luke to Virginia to atone.
Zenocia marries Arnoldo against the advice of her father and flees the Italian governor Clodio, who claims a traditional sexual right over her. Separated during their escape, the couple face further coercion and intrigue in Lisbon before Clodio renounces his claim; a subplot follows Arnoldo's brother Rutilio through a duel, arrest, and marriage.
In Naples, Virolet joins a revolt against tyrant Ferrant but is captured and compelled to marry pirate chief Sesse’s daughter Martia to gain release. Returning to his wife Juliana, he rejects Martia while remaining faithful to Juliana; the resulting vendettas end in revolt, mistaken identity, and the deaths of Virolet, Juliana, and Martia.
Duke Ludovico Sforza’s obsessive devotion to Marcelia turns to suspicion after his friend Francisco manipulates events to avenge an old grievance. Sforza kills his innocent wife, then Francisco disguises her corpse to appear alive and poisons Sforza with the cosmetics as he kisses her.
French nobleman Lewis and his neighbor Brisac plan to marry Angellina to Brisac’s younger son Eustace and redirect the family inheritance away from the scholarly elder brother Charles. Charles falls in love with Angellina and refuses to give up his birthright; after the families’ plans collapse, a childless uncle offers Eustace his own estate, allowing Charles and Angellina to marry.
Massinger dramatizes Emperor Theodosius II, his sister and regent Pulcheria, and his wife Eudocia amid rumors that she has been unfaithful with courtier Paulinus. In the tragicomedy's resolution, Theodosius disguises himself as clergy and hears Eudocia's confession, which persuades him she is innocent.
In Rowe’s reworking of The Fatal Dowry, the setting moves from Dijon to Genoa and the characters receive new names. The adaptation simplifies the action and focuses more closely on Calista’s infidelity and domestic tragedy.
In Egypt in 48 BCE, Caesar encounters Cleopatra while her brother Ptolemy holds her from power. The play centers on Roman officer Septimius, who betrays and murders Pompey; Caesar ultimately deposes Ptolemy and gives Cleopatra the Egyptian crown.
After Charalois’s father dies in debtor’s prison, Charalois takes his place to secure a proper burial. He marries Beaumelle, whose affair with Novall Junior ends in violence, a mock trial, and a series of deaths.
Cozimo, a widowed duke, plans to leave his realm to his nephew Giovanni, whose affection for Lidia complicates the duke’s dynastic expectations. Count Sanazarro also falls for Lidia, while Cozimo’s ward Fiorinda favors him; the young men’s effort to manipulate the duke leads to arrest, confession, forgiveness, and two marriages.
In Naples, Durazzo tries to guide his nephew Caldoro toward worldly pleasures while Caldoro loves Calista, who favors the rakish Adorio. Disguises and mistaken identities entangle their families: Iolante pursues a visiting Frenchman, her husband Severino returns as a bandit, and a series of errors is resolved when the supposed stranger is revealed to be the man Severino thought he had killed.
In France, Montague loses his lands through a corrupt lawsuit and is reduced to poverty, while his devoted page Veramour enters service with Lamira. The Duke of Orleans schemes against Montague and his wife, but an abortive duel and a staged death force a change of heart, restoring Montague’s estate and bringing reconciliation.
On Malta, Mountferrat, a knight who has abandoned his vows, plots against Oriana after she rejects him. Forged accusations and a staged death lead to combat and attempted abduction; Miranda and Gomera expose the schemes, Oriana survives, and Mountferrat is expelled while the lovers are reunited.
In Paris, Dinant loves Lamira, who has married the wealthy Champernell, while Cleremont is drawn into a duel on Dinant’s behalf. Cleremont recruits the timid lawyer La-Writ as his second, and La-Writ’s lucky success turns him into an eager challenger; a series of schemes and misunderstandings eventually ends with reconciliations and a new couple.
In France, Cleander’s friend Lisander remains in love with Calista, who is married to Cleander, while Olinda cannot choose between two suitors. A lawyer named La-Writ becomes obsessed with duelling after a lucky victory, and the lovers’ schemes lead to a murder, an apparent ghost, and a final trial that resolves the couples’ fates.
Camiola loves Bertoldo but refuses to marry him while he remains bound by vows as a knight of a religious order. After he is captured in a military campaign, she pays his ransom and secures a marriage contract, but his attraction to another woman leads Camiola to reject him, enter a nunnery, and give away her fortune.
At the court of Charles VIII, Bellisant rejects the moral strictures of her guardian while various courtiers pursue adulterous schemes. The king convenes a Parliament of Love to hear the lovers’ grievances; a threatened duel, a staged death, and a bed trick expose the characters’ conduct and lead to pardons and reconciliations.
Before leaving for war, the Bohemian knight Mathias receives a portrait that changes color if his wife Sophia is tempted or unfaithful. When Queen Honoria and two courtiers manipulate the couple, the portrait fuels jealousy and desire, until Sophia turns the seducers’ plan against them and the royal pair confronts its own conduct.
The sorceress Delphia prophesies that the soldier Diocles will become emperor after killing a particular boar and marry her niece Drusilla. After Diocles kills the Roman usurper Aper and rises as Dioclesian, he forgets Drusilla and pursues Aurelia; Delphia’s magic redirects events, and Dioclesian ultimately defeats the Persians, abdicates, and retires with Drusilla.
In ancient Corinth, the Queen redirects her son Theanor's intended marriage to her ward Merione toward Argive ruler Agenor. Theanor retaliates by having Merione abducted and raped; mistaken accusations against Euphanes, another favored young man, fuel a revolt and further violence before Theanor's crimes are exposed and the Queen sentences him to death, then pardons him when Merione offers marriage.
In Tunis, Venetian gentleman Vitelli seeks his captured sister Paulina, held in the viceroy’s harem. A Turkish princess falls in love with Vitelli, while the renegade pirate Grimaldi regrets his past; the interlocking conversions, captivity and escape plots reunite the family and send them back to Italy.
In imperial Rome, actor Paris’s performances expose the abuses of Emperor Domitian. Domitian’s fascination with the stage turns lethal when Paris becomes entangled with the emperor’s household and is killed during a staged scene; conspirators then assassinate the tyrant.
A storm strands French pirate Albert, his love Aminta, and their crew on an island where they encounter Portuguese castaways. After the Portuguese escape in the French ship, hunger and conflict threaten the crew. Albert reaches a nearby island inhabited by Amazons, whose leader’s daughter falls in love with him; family reunions and new relationships ultimately reconcile the French and Portuguese groups.
Two brothers' inheritance dispute entangles a boy whose paternity is challenged, while Violante plots murder and Leandro pursues the married Amaranta. The schemes are exposed, and the characters' relationships are reconciled; a parallel sailor's family dispute is settled by a mock trial.
A political tragedy depicting the aging Dutch statesman Barnavelt's conspiracy against the Prince of Orange, the failed rebellion, his trial, and execution.
In Marseille, Governor Beaufort's son loves Theocrine, daughter of Admiral Malefort, whose pirate son blockades the harbor and challenges him to single combat. After killing his son, Malefort develops an incestuous desire for Theocrine; his former friend Montreville abducts and rapes her, revealing that Malefort had poisoned his first wife to marry Montreville's mistress, Theocrine's mother. Theocrine dies and Malefort is killed by lightning.
In Diocletian’s Rome, Christian Dorothea is arrested by the persecutor Theophilus, whose aide Harpax is a devil in disguise. Dorothea’s faith converts Theophilus’s daughters, but he kills them and Dorothea is executed; an angel’s gift of heavenly fruit later converts Theophilus, who is himself tortured and dies in a state of bliss.