On 20 December 1624, the King's Men provided Herbert with a "submission", a written apology, signed by each actor who had taken part in the offending performance.
Moseley, however, had a habit of skimping on registration fees by deliberately confusing titles and subtitles, and registering two plays for the price of one.
[3] Early critics developed the argument that The Spanish Viceroy was a play about the Count of Gondomar, the diplomat who had served as Spain's ambassador to England to 1622.
The King's Men had made a sensation in August 1624 with their staging of Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess, with its satiric portrayal of Gondomar.
[citation needed] (Officials supported plays on controversial subjects when it was in their interest to do so, as with Sir John van Olden Barnavelt and The Late Lancashire Witches.)
By this reasoning, the actors dared to stage the unlicensed Spanish Viceroy because they had protection from some segment of the Jacobean power structure.
[5] This is one of Massinger's collaborations with John Fletcher, and the play does feature a Spanish viceroy of Sicily as a supporting character.