[3] Of Brome's sixteen surviving plays (including The Late Lancashire Witches, his collaboration with Thomas Heywood), the vast majority are comedies; only three are tragicomedies.
Critics have noted that Queen and Concubine is a critique of royal tyranny and courtly sycophancy,[4] issues that were pertinent in the 1630s, when King Charles I was conducting his period of personal rule and Parliament was prorogued.
Brome is directly critical of religious support for tyrannous rulers: "priests are but the apes to kings, / And prostitute religion to their ends."
The play's strong theme of royal sexual immorality clearly did not apply to Charles, and would have given Brome an obvious defence against anyone who argued for an application of his critical views to the English scene.
The verse in Queen and Concubine is far more formal and self-conscious than what is typical of Brome, and shows a greater effort of artistic composition.
The victory, however, was nearly a defeat: the outcome of the battle was turned when the Sicilian general Sforza personally rescued Gonzago from the enemy forces that were about to overwhelm him.
The genius bestows a range of spiritual gifts upon her, including the ability to heal the sick, and he advises her on how to proceed in her exile.
Eventually her guilty conscience effects her: she begins to show symptoms of mental breakdown, what Horatio calls "a moonflaw in her brains."
Under Eulalia's influence, Alinda's mental illness is cured; the young woman repents her sins and retires to a religious life.