The Virgin Martyr is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger, and first published in 1622.
Critics have tended to argue that Dekker most likely wrote the prose comedy scenes in the play, while Massinger concentrated on the main plot.
The play's central event, the martyrdom of St. Dorothea of Caesarea, is mentioned by John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments, or Book of Martyrs.
Robert S. Miola claims that Dekker and Massinger modeled their play on the Mercia of Joseph Simon, a tragedia sacra on Saint Chad.
[4] The Virgin Martyr has been categorized as a "saint's play" or tragedia sacra, a dramatic form that evolved in Roman Catholic societies after the Counter-Reformation, but was generally unknown in Protestant England.
Its music inspired one of the most striking entries in Pepys' Diary: "but that which did please me beyond any thing in the whole world was the wind-musique when the Angell comes down, which is so sweet that it ravished me; and endeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife.
The opening scene shows the arrival in the city of Diocletian and his daughter Artemia, and introduces the local governor, Sapritius, and his main persecutor of Christians, Theophilus.
Theophilus is ruthless and brutal in his pursuit of Christians to torture and execute; he is assisted by his secretary Harpax, who is an actual devil in human guise, and who uses second sight to aid his master's activities.
The Roman emperor and his court are celebrating a victory over rebellious vassals; Diocletian gives his daughter a choice among three captured kings for her husband – but Artemia prefers Antoninus, the son of governor Sapritius and the hero of the recent battle.
Dorothea is presented in highly idealized terms as an epitome of "Beauty and chastity;" she is also a Christian, and Theophilus is aware of her and is eager to apprehend her.
In the play's final Act, Theophilus is visited by Angelo in angelic form, and receives the gift of Heavenly fruits that he'd sarcastically requested.
Angelo and the spirits of Dorothea, Antoninus, and the two murdered daughters appear to Theophilus as he is being tortured; their influence allows him to go to his death in a state of bliss.