Act 5 — ANDROMANA OR THE MERCHANT'S WIFE.
Reading edition
EDITION.
Andromana; or, The Merchant's Wife. The Scene Iberia. By J. S. London: Printed for John Bellinger; and are to be sold at his shop, in Clifford's Inn Lane, in Fleet-street. 1660. 4o.
This play was printed in the year 1660, and has the letters J. S. in the title-page. Chetwood, in his "British Theatre," p. 47, says that it was revived in 1671, when a prologue was spoken before it, in which were the following lines—
"'Twas Shirley's muse that labour'd for its birth, Though now the sire rests in the silent earth."
[But there is in fact no authority whatever for believing it to be from Shirley's pen; nor is it included in Gifford and Dyce's edition of that writer.[80]]
The plot is taken from the story of Plangus, in Sir Philip Sydney's "Arcadia." The same subject had before been made use of by Beaumont and Fletcher in their play of "Cupid's Revenge."
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
Ephorbas, King of Iberia.
Plangus, his son.
Eubulus, Anamedes, Rinatus,
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three lords, and councillors to the king.
Inophilus, son to Rinatus, and friend to the prince.
Zopiro, Nicetes, Aramnes,
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captains.
Artesio, an informing courtier.
Andromana, a merchant's wife.
Libacer, her servant.
Messenger.
Captains and Soldiers.
Scene, Iberia.