The Doubtful Heir

The Doubtful Heir, also known as Rosania, or Love's Victory, is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by James Shirley and first published in 1653. The play has been described as "swift of action, exciting of episode, fertile of surprise, and genuinely poetic."

The play dates from the Irish phase of Shirley's dramatic career (1636–40), and was acted at the Werburgh Street Theatre, most likely in 1638, under its alternative Rosania title. After Shirley's return to London (April 1640), the play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, still as Rosania (June 1, 1640), and was performed at the Globe Theatre by the King's Men. (In the play's Prologue, Shirley comments on how "vast" the stage of the Globe is, compared to the small private theatre in Dublin where the work premiered.) The title was changed by the time the play was included in a general list of works belonging to the King's Men (1641).

The play was published in the octavo volume Six New Plays, issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley and Humphrey Robinson in 1653. In that volume the play is dedicated by Shirley to Sir Edmund Bowier.

For the plot of his play, Shirley exploited Tirso de Molina's El Castigo del Penséque, a source he had previously employed for his The Opportunity. The play's Fletcherian aspects have been noted, with special emphasis on A King and No King and Philaster.

Olivia, the Queen of Murcia, is engaged to marry Leonario, the prince of Aragon. The wedding plans are disrupted by an invasion: Ferdinand claims to be the Queen's cousin and the rightful heir to the throne. Leonario leads an army against the pretender and brings him back a captive. Ferdinand is accompanied by his page, Tiberio — who is actually Ferdinand's fiancee Rosania in disguise. On trial for treason, Ferdinand courageously maintains his claim to the throne. Olivia is impressed with him, falls in love with him, and commands a recess in the trial as she leaves the courtroom. Leonario and the nobles are prepared to sentence the apparent usurper, but the Queen prevents and reproves them. She states that investigation may yet validate Ferdinand's claim, and has him escort her from the court, to the general consternation of her supporters.

...
Wikipedia