The Great Duke of Florence

The Great Duke of Florence is an early Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger, and first published in 1636. It has been called "one of Massinger's best dramas," and "a masterpiece of dramatic construction."

A play titled The Great Duke was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 5 July 1627; the scholarly consensus interprets this as referring to Massinger's play. Topical allusions in the text have been read as indicating a date of authorship between October 1623 and March 1625. The play was acted by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre, and was published in quarto in 1636 by the bookseller John Marriot; Massinger dedicated the work to one of his patrons, Sir Robert Wiseman, in gratitude for his "supportment and protection." The quarto includes two commendatory poems, one by John Ford.

Massinger is thought to have based his plot on the traditional story of Ethelwald and Elfrida, available to him in several versions; he may also have been influenced by an earlier play, A Knack to Know a Knave.

The play had no other publications or revival productions in its own era or in subsequent generations — somewhat surprisingly, since critics have tended to regard it highly. Algernon Charles Swinburne called it "remarkable even among Massinger's works for elegance and grace of execution;"William Gifford, in his edition of Massinger's works, wrote that "It is impossible not to be charmed with the manner in which this play is written." In the play, Massinger exploits the richness of a courtly style, full of "gay flourishes of language" (Act IV, scene ii), perhaps more successfully than in any other of his works. Though generally classified as a tragicomedy, there is nothing tragic and little serious in it; the play can just as correctly be called a comedy of manners.

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