The Duke of Milan

The Duke of Milan is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. First published in 1623, the play is generally considered among the author's finest achievements in drama.

Massinger's play was first performed in 1621 (performed from 1621–1623); an apparent allusion to the imprisonment of the poet George Wither in Act III, scene 2 makes sense at that point in time.

There is no record of a revival of The Duke of Milan during the Restoration era. A heavily adapted version by Richard Cumberland was staged at Covent Garden in 1779, but lasted only three performances. Massinger's original was revived by Edmund Kean at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1816; Kean hoped to repeat his sensational success as Sir Giles Over-reach in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, another Massinger play. Kean, however, was not able to achieve the same result with The Duke of Milan.

The play was first printed in quarto in 1623 by the stationer Edward Blackmore, as "A Play Cd Sforza: Duke of Milanin, made by Mr. Messinger" who issued a second quarto in 1638. The first edition was entered in the Stationers register in 1623 as "A Play Called Sforza: Duke of Milanin, made by Mr. Messinger". Massinger furnished the first edition with a dedication to Katherine Stanhope, the wife of Philip Lord Stanhope, then Baron of Shelford and future Earl of Chester. Massinger also dedicated his poem A New Year's Gift to her. Katherine Stanhope (c. 1595–1636) was a cousin of Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke and a sister of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, the primary patron of John Fletcher, Massinger's longtime collaborator.

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