First published in 1609, the play presents a range of problems for scholars attempting to understand its place in Jonson's canon of works.
The Case is Altered was entered into the Stationers' Register on 26 January 1609, with the publishing rights assigned to the booksellers Henry Walley and Richard Bonion; a second entry in the Register, dated 20 July the same year, adds Bartholomew Sutton's name to Walley's and Bonion's.
This company of boy actors had originated as the Children of the Chapel, and went through a series of name changes during its tempestuous career; the version of the name used in a given case can help to date a performance or production.
Revision could also explain a few anomalies in the text, like an allusion to Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, which was written later than The Case is Altered.
The former supplies the plot of the Milanese Count Ferneze and his persecuted slave – who turns out to be his long-lost son; and the latter the tale of the miser Jaques and his supposed daughter Rachel.