[1] The play was clearly performed by the King's Men; the cast list for the original production, added to the play in the second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679, includes Joseph Taylor, John Lowin, William Ecclestone, John Underwood, Nicholas Tooley, George Birch, Richard Sharpe, and Thomas Pollard, all members of that company.
With that roster of personnel, the play could have premiered anytime between the spring of 1619, when Taylor joined the troupe, and June 1623, when Tooley died.
Critics are unanimous in their verdicts on the low quality of The Laws of Candy; "tiresome" is one of the kinder epithets that have been attached to the work.
(Historically, Venice conquered Crete in the early thirteenth century [1209–17] and ruled the island until 1669, though with many rebellions by the local populace.)
The commander of the army, Cassilanes, the leading soldier of his generation, expects to receive the acclaim of the troops, and is incensed to find that he has a rival in his own son, Antinous, who has distinguished himself in his first battle.
Fernando is a noble young man, in mind as well as in birth; and once he falls in love with Cassilanes' daughter Annophel, he reveals Gonzalo's plots.
Royal, rich, witty, and beautiful, she is also extravagantly vain; she is loved by many men, including a prince of Cyprus named Philander, but scorns them all.
Motivated by that love, she manipulates the vain Gonzalo into selling her Cassilanes' mortgage, and also into committing his plots and plans to writing.