The Scornful Lady

The King's Men acted The Scornful Lady on 19 October 1633, when Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, refused to let them perform The Woman's Prize.

While the theatres were closed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum (1642–60), material was extracted from The Scornful Lady to form a droll called The False Heir and Formal Curate, published by Kirkman in The Wits.

Then Thomas Killigrew staged the play with women in the female parts; Pepys saw that production on 12 February 1661.

[5] A few early critics suggested the participation of Philip Massinger, though that possibility has generally been rejected due to lack of evidence.

[6][7][8] The Scornful Lady participates in a complex inter-relationship with several other plays of its era, a set of dramas that includes Marston's The Dutch Courtesan, Fletcher and Massinger's The Little French Lawyer, Massinger's The Parliament of Love, and A Cure for a Cuckold by John Webster and William Rowley.