The Grateful Servant

The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 3 November 1629, under the title The Faithful Servant.

Foscari, however, through an exaggerated sense of loyalty, resolves to resign his interest in Cleona to the Duke and decides to become a Benedictine monk.

Valentio reveals that Leonora had fled the Milanese court when her father died, for she feared being forced to marry her uncle.

Grimuldo offers to introduce Lodwick to a superior mistress, and brings him to a lush garden filled with strange music, where they watch a masque of nymphs and satyrs.

The woman Lodwick meets there is enticing but disturbing; she hints that she has unusual powers, and offers him unlimited dominion – and finally concedes that she is a devil, a succubus.

The chastened and reformed Lodwick decides to renew his vows with Astella, making them a third matrimonial couple at the play's end.

Comic relief is provided by Jacomo, Cleona's steward; ambitious but foolish, he resembles Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.