"[2] Killigrew employed the closet-drama form to work with material that would have met strong resistance on the public stage of his time.
In writing the work, Killigrew was influenced by Artamène, ou Le Grand Cyrus, by Madeleine and Georges de Scudéry.
Both parts of Cicilia and Clorinda were first printed in Comedies and Tragedies, the collected edition of Killigrew's plays issued by Henry Herringman in 1664.
Killigrew includes the Thomas Carew poem "Song of Jealousy" in Cicilia and Clorinda Part 2, Act V scene ii, where it concludes the play.
Margaret Cavendish has been the main beneficiary of this shift in focus, though writers like Killigrew and works like Cicilia and Clorinda have also benefitted.