The City Madam

It was licensed by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 25 May 1632 and was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre.

Specific connections have been cited between The City Madam and Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (regarding Sir John Frugal's pretended absence and masquerade), Ben Jonson's Volpone (Luke Frugal's rhapsodising over his wealth), and Rollo, Duke of Normandy (Stargaze's astrological verbiage), among other works.

[3] A play founded on The City Madam, entitled Riches; or, The Wife and Brother, by Sir James Bland Burges, was brought out with success at the Lyceum in 1810.

Goldwire Junior has an affair with a prostitute called Shave'em and wants to buy clothes for her by swindling his master.

The characters then learn from Lord Lacy that Master John Frugal has left his house to go to a monastery and that he has bestowed all his goods to his brother Luke, who is surprised by such a reversal of fortune.

Lord Lacy also tells Luke that his brother has requested him to welcome in his house some Indians from Virginia whom he could convert to Christianity.

He treats Lady Frugal and her daughters with disdain and obliges them to wear coarse clothes in order to teach them humility.

The play is not often performed, but it was part of the 2011 season of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in a production directed by Dominic Hill.