The Guardian was not published until 1655, when it was included in an octavo volume issued by Humphrey Moseley that also contained Massinger's The Bashful Lover and the Fletcher/Massinger collaboration A Very Woman.
Massinger also exploited classical literature for his versification in the play, drawing upon the works of Seneca the Younger (Hercules Furens), Terence (Heauton Timonumenos), and Catullus.
[4] During the Restoration era, material from The Guardian was adapted into a droll, titled Love Lost in the Dark, or the Drunken Couple (printed 1680).
Durazzo serves as the legal guardian for his nephew Caldoro, and encourages him to live a life of "rich clothes...horses, games, and wenches" suitable for a gentleman.
Severino enters his house by a secret way, and finds his wife in her nightgown, with a banquet and wines laid out; she is clearly expecting a lover.
Severino returns, still angry, having found no lover but realized that his daughter and her maid are missing; in his anger, he torments the woman he thinks is his wife, wounding her arms and her nose with his dagger.
[9] In his momentary absence, Iolante returns and takes Calypso's place; when Severino comes back, she feigns prayer, and makes him believe that her wounds have been miraculously healed, as a sign of her innocence and chastity.
Caldoro is able to make a good impression on Calista, and begins to win her favor; Mirtilla placates the angry Adorio, and in a moment of mutual exhaustion they fall asleep under a tree, his head in her lap.
In the final scene, the last misunderstandings are cleared way: Laval is revealed to be the supposedly dead Monteclaro, who had been rescued from near death and brought back to health by a travelling French nobleman.
[10] The play's Robin-Hood style bandits provide opportunity for social commentary on other issues as well (most prominently in Act II, scene 4).