The Miseries of Enforced Marriage

The play is a fictionalised treatment of the real life case of murderer Walter Calverley whose marriage was forced on him through Tudor wardship practices.

[1] Wilkins' literary career appears to have been of short duration, but The Miseries of Enforced Marriage was reprinted, and he was involved in another popular stage work for the King's Men, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Wilkins is generally agreed to have been co-author with William Shakespeare).

Wilkins had premises in the area around Cow Cross and Turnmill Street, then a notorious red-light district; he claimed to be running a pub, but court records suggest that it was a front for prostitution.

[2] Calverley's crimes were the subject of another play A Yorkshire Tragedy (published in 1608) which is attributed to Thomas Middleton.

Aphra Behn reworked The Miseries of Enforced Marriage into her 1676 play, The Town Fop or, Sir Timothy Tawdry.