[3] The question of the play's date is complicated by one internal factor: in Act III, scene 3, Dorothea states that when her maid put "a little saffron in her starch," she "most unmercifully broke her head."
This is a reference to the fashion for yellow-dyed ruffs and cuffs that was current c. 1615, and was closely associated with Mistress Anne Turner and her execution for her role in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury (15 November 1615).
The title page of the 1661 edition states that the play was "acted with great applause" by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre.
The claim is credible – Davenport's King John and Matilda was performed by the same company – but no data on the play's early productions is extant.
A century and a half later, Washington Irving based his sketch "Wives," published in his collection Bracebridge Hall (1822), on Davenport's drama.
Trapped in an awkward position for a gentleman, Philippo informs Abstemia of the situation; thrown together, the two become friends – which only exacerbates Lorenzo's jealousy.
In the play's first trial scene (II,3), two of Lorenzo's slaves give suborned testimony against the accused; the court has little choice but to convict them.
The scene shifts to Milan in Act IV; Abstemia, a victim of "treacherous intelligence," has been lured to a brothel.
Philippo happens to visit, attracted by the report of a new girl of beauty and recalcitrant spirit, who has not yet been tamed to sex work.
They switch outfits again: the "slave" (Antonio in disguise) will try to convince "Millicent" that the prince's love is now chaste and virtuous.
When the body is found, the face is obscured by its bloody wound; the corpse in Antonio's clothing leads people to believe that the prince has been murdered.
In the concluding revelation scene, all the complications are unwound; Antonio shows that he is still alive, and Philippo admits that he killed the slave.
He expects to be proved correct in trusting his wife – but is profoundly shocked when she admits her affair and her illegitimate pregnancy.
In his friar's disguise, Lodovico gives his wife her penance: she must publicly admit to her husband that he is not the father of her child.
Dorothea is appalled – but resourceful; she makes the confession at a banquet in front of her husband and his friends, but she cleverly phrases it as if she is relating the contents of a dream.