The Sun's Darling is a masque, or masque-like play, written by John Ford and Thomas Dekker, and first published in 1656.
It was probably composed not long before; nineteenth-century speculations that the text was an old play of Dekker's, revised by Ford, have fallen out of favor.
[1] The original text may have been revised c. 1638–39; material in the early portion of Act V reflects the dominant political situation at that time.
Cyrus Hoy has suggested that the play was revised and revived at that time, as a response to Thomas Nabbes's Microcosmus (1636; published 1637).
[4] Featuring standard masque-style personifications, like Youth, Health, Delight, Time, Detraction, Fortune, etc., and rich in songs, dances, and May-Day games, the play has some obvious crowd appeal to explain its popularity in its own era.