This was a strategy that Moseley adopted in other cases;[5] the challenging effort to produce collected editions of playwrights' dramas in the chaotic world of English Renaissance theatre sometimes necessitated such approaches.
The characters in the list of Dramatis personae are given fulsome descriptions; De Gard, for example, is summarized as "A Noble stay'd Gentleman that being newly lighted from his Travels, assists his sister Oriana in her chase of Mirabel the Wild-Goose."
The financial proceeds from the volume went to those two veteran actors, who, like many of their compatriots, had fallen on hard times after the theatres were closed in 1642 at the start of the English Civil War.
The name of Fletcher's protagonist, Mirabel, was adopted by William Congreve for his hero in The Way of the World (1700); and Sir Richard Steele employed it for a character in The Spectator.
Farquhar's version was acted at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, by David Garrick and Charles Kemble and other leading men of the century.
Three years earlier, before setting out on his travels, Mirabel had offered marriage to Oriana; now, she is eighteen, he is returned home, and she wants him to fulfill his commitment to her.
When Mirabel reaches Paris with his two friends, Pinac and Belleur, La Castre introduces him to Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca, the two daughters of the wealthy Nantolet.
His two friends are more interested; since opposites attract, the big but bashful Belleur is drawn to the bold and outgoing Rosalura, while the merry Pinac decides to court her serious and intellectual sister.
Belleur meets Rosalura again, but finds her haughty and distant; he's so distressed by his poor showing as a wooer that he storms out looking for a fight, threatening to "beat all men."
It turns out that both young women are under the curious tutelage of a man named Lugier, and have enacted the "taught behaviors" he espouses; but both want husbands, and neither is happy with their result so far.
The three of them, however, are united in their dislike of the conceited Mirabel; and Lugier claims he can help Oriana to obtain her desires and humble the arrogant man in the bargain.
Pinac pretends to have obtained a prestigious and advantageous new love, an English gentlewoman; but Lillia-Bianca exposes her as a courtesan who has been hired to play the part for the occasion.
La Castre, De Gard, Lugier, and Nantolet suddenly appear; and Mirabel, caught and worn down by the pursuit, gives in.
Belleur and Pinac talk about resuming their travels – but Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca inform them that they will follow the men wherever they go, to Wales, to Turkey, to Persia, even to "live in a bawdy-house."