The play, commonly known by its more distinctive subtitle, was acted by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (which had escaped the Great Fire of London the year before).
(Dryden returned to Scudéry's Ibrahim for inspiration for another play, An Evening's Love, the following year, 1668 — though that venture proved much less successful.)
By Dryden's own testimony, the unheroic Philocles was inspired by Magnus de la Garide, the royal favourite of Queen Christina of Sweden.
The drama was revived in an adapted form in 1707; Colley Cibber mixed it with materials from Marriage à la mode.
The play remained in the repertory throughout the eighteenth century in various forms; a shortened version called Celadon and Florimel was acted as late as 1796.