Aspatia is grief-stricken to lose Amintor. She wishes death would take her. She is daughter to Calianax. Calianax was once a favorite in court and is now a counselor to the King. He is a wrathful old man whose youth never promised valiance.

I.ii: The celebratory masque is presented in Calianax's house, again by the King's order. The masque features Night, Cynthia (as Moon and possibly Lunacy), Neptune, and Aeolus. Songs in praise of marriage are sung. At the end, the King abjures the custom of leading the bride to the bridal chamber to witness the consummation. Instead, he bids everyone to leave the couple in peace.

II.i: Aspatia, as mistress of the house, is forced into the hurtful position of preparing the bridal chamber for her love, Amintor, and his new bride.

Once alone, Evadne tells Amintor that he must never lie with her. She has sworn never to sleep with him. She informs her new husband that he must submit to being the King's wittol, that the wedding was a ruse to cover up her affair with the King. There was never an intent to honor Melantius. Amintor is to become bawd to his bride and the King.

Amintor is enraged. He is a virgin himself and thought to have deserved the same in his wife. Although he is denied happiness and will be cuckolded by his sovereign, he is a strict believer in the Divine Right of Kings and will not seek vengeance.

II.ii: Aspatia laments Amintor's marriage. Her waiting gentlewomen, Antiphila and Olimpias, commiserate. Calianax enters, upset by the dishonor to his daughter and himself. He desires to be revenged.

III.i: Amintor, not knowing how to react to the treachery nor who is privy to the King's secret, pretends to Diphilus and Melantius that he and Evadne enjoyed their wedding night together. The brothers tease Evadne of losing her maidenhead.

Alone with the King, Evadne confesses she loves not him but his position. She loves not with her heart but with her ambition. The King questions Amintor and satisfies himself that he has chosen the best wittol, a man both honest and wise who will not for loyalty harm his sovereign. Amintor sees his situation as vengeance against him for breaking faith with Aspatia. He ends the scene wishing that his grief could drive him mad.

III.ii: Calianax accosts Melantius, offering to fight with him, saying that he has become valiant in his old age. Melantius scoffs and proves the old man a coward still.

Melantius notices the change in his usually carefree friend and questions him. Reluctantly, Amintor tells Melantius that Evadne is a whore. Melantius defends his sister's honor, pulling his sword, but friendship overtakes him. He chooses to believe Amintor. He vows to kill the King. Amintor dissuades him for three reasons:

• He believes in the Divine Right of Kings,
• He believes vengeance is God's, and
• He does not want his shame made public.

First, Melantius requires a safe haven to escape to after he has assassinated the King. Calianax has a fort that would suit his need. When he approaches the old man, Calianax runs to tell the King of the treason.

IV.i: Melantius next finds his sister, Evadne, and forces her to confess and name her paramour. She is instantly converted and confesses, repenting of her sin. He enlists her aid in his plot to kill the King. Evadne goes and begs Amintor's forgiveness, which he gives.

IV.ii Meanwhile, Calianax has told the King of Melantius' treason. The King is suspicious of Calianax's motives, knowing the old man to be a sworn enemy of Melantius. The King calls for Amintor, Evadne, Melantius, and Diphilus. He tests Melantius by suggesting how he might be assassinated in the way Calianax has described. When Melantius fails to betray any guilt at the suggestion, the King disbelieves Calianax, thinking the old man mad, and dismisses him from service.

Calianax, thus thrown from the King's favor, has no recourse but to join with Melantius and deliver the fort. The treason is set.

Melantius finds Amintor on his way to kill the King. Amintor is in a state of mental turmoil. Melantius calls upon Amintor's belief in Divine Right of Kings and thus disarms him, secretly saving his own well-planned assassination.

V.i: That night the King calls Evadne to his chamber. She enters to discover him asleep. She ties his hands to the bed, wakes him, reveals her desire for vengeance, and stabs him to death. After she leaves, two gentlemen discover the King's body. Before they can capture Evadne, however, word arrives that Melantius has taken the fort and confessed his part in the assassination.

The King's brother, Lysippus, becomes King.

V.ii: Lysippus and his men go to the fort and hear Melantius' grievances. Melantius swears he did not kill the King to improve his social position but rather to avenge the honor of his family and friend. Lysippus believes him and gives the conspirators carte blanche pardons.

V.iii: Mentime, Aspatia has dressed herself as her brother, a soldier in Melantius' army (who is only mentioned in the play but never appears). She meets Amintor and claims to have come to fight him for the honor of Aspatia. Amintor refuses, feeling the genuine grief of having dishonored Aspatia. She taunts him, kicks him, slaps him, and forces him to draw his sword. He easily kills the disguised girl and thereby aids in her suicide.

Evadne enters with the bloody knife and tells Amintor how she has won back her honor and can now be his true wife. But, because of his belief in the Divine Right of Kings, he sees her act as a blacker sin than her fornication and adultery. He rejects her. She commits suicide.

Aspatia, not quite dead, revives and reveals her true identity to Amintor. He swears his love for her and, when she dies, kills himself.

Melantius and Lysippus enter with their retinue to find the carnage. Melantius is far more upset over Amintor's death than his own sister's. He offers to kill himself but is stopped. He swears never to eat, drink, or sleep and thereby kill himself.

The play ends with Lysippus saying he has learned a lesson from all of this. Kings are to act well lest the wrath of God strike them down and in the process damn the instrument of God's wrath.

Amintor is the wronged husband. He was betrothed to Aspatia, whom he loved, but marries Evadne, the sister of his best friend, Melantius. When he discovers that the wedding is only a ruse to conceal Evadne's fornication with the King, only Amintor's belief in the Divine Right of Kings keeps him from killing his rival. He is tricked into killing Aspatia when she appears dressed as a man and challenges him to a duel. When he rejects Evadne for her murder of the King, she kills herself. When he discovers that the young man he killed was actually his love Aspatia in disguise, he kills himself.

Antiphila is, along with Olimpias, Aspatia's waiting gentlewoman. She commiserates with her mistress when Aspatia's betrothed, Amintor, marries Evadne instead.

Aspatia is Amintor's betrothed love. When Amintor marries Evadne by the King's order, Aspatia wishes for death. She is ironically made to prepare her lover's wedding chamber. Unable to live with the turmoil, Aspatia ultimately disguises herself as her own brother and taunts her lover, Amintor, into a duel in which she is killed.

Calianax is Aspatia's father. He is counselor to the King and was once a favorite. His youth never promised valiance, but he is in his old age called upon to act against his enemies. Chief among his enemies is Melantius. When Melantius comes to him for assistance in a planned assassination, the old man tells the King of the treason. The King does not believe Calianax, however, and the old man's dismissal from court forces him to side with Melantius in the assassination of the King. His main characteristic is proclaiming that he has discovered valiance in his old age.

Cleon is a gentleman of the court. He assists in the preparations for the wedding masque and announces the arrival of Melantius.

Cynthia is a character in the masque.

Diagoras is a foolish servant to Calianax. He spars with his master and notes that Calianax has become humorous since Aspatia was forsaken by Amintor.

Diphilus is brother to Evadne and Melantius. He joins with his brother in teasing his sister after her wedding over loss of her maidenhead. Later, he and Melantius join in their plot to kill the King who has dishonored the family by taking Evadne as his whore.

Dula is a lady of the court. She openly envies Evadne her wedding night with Amintor, teasing her with gentle bawdy about the forthcoming loss of maidenhead.

Evadne is the model for the Jacobean impudent woman. She allows herself to be married to an honorable man, Amintor, in order to disguise her fornication with the King. She tells the King that she loves him not with her heart but with her ambition. If he should ever be replaced on the throne, she says, she will love the next king and not him. She repents when her brother, Melantius, confronts her and agrees to join with him in assassinating the King. She ties the King to the bed and stabs him herself. When, however, she goes to her wronged husband and claims to have regained her honor in killing the King, Amintor rejects her. She kills herself over the rejection.

The King is a typical lusty monarch. He marries his whore, Evadne, to a noble and honest young man, Amintor, in order to hide his fornication. He means to make Amintor a wittol and his bawd. He shows no remorse over his actions. He learns from Calianax that Evadne's brother, Melantius, plans to kill him for dishonoring Evadne, but the King does not believe the old man. Evadne, having repented, ties the King to his bed and stabs him to death.

Lysippus is the King's brother. When the King is assassinated, Lysippus becomes King. He goes to the assassins, Melantius, Diphilus, Evadne, Calianax, and Amintor and hears their reasons for killing the King. He determines that they had good reason and gives them his pardon. He ends the play by saying that Kings must be honorable lest God should cut them down.

Melantius is leader of the army of Rhodes and Amintor's best friend. He is delighted to learn that his friend has married Evadne, his sister, instead of Aspatia, to whom Amintor had been betrothed. When he learns that the wedding is a ruse to disguise the King's fornication with his sister, Melantius plans the King's assassination. He enlists the aid of his brother, Diphilus, and Evadne, who actually kills the King in his bed. He also wins the aid of his one-time enemy Calianax, who provides them a fort for their escape. Once the killing is completed, Melantius acquits the deed to the new King, Lyssipus, and wins a full pardon. When he finds that his friend Amintor has committed suicide, Melantius determines to starve himself to death.

Neptune is a character in the masque.

Night is a character in the masque.

Olimpias is, along with Antiphila, Aspatia's waiting gentlewoman. She commiserates with her mistress when Aspatia's betrothed, Amintor, marries Evadne instead.

Strato is a gentleman of the court. He assists in the preparations for the wedding masque.

This play marks the end of one era and the beginning of another in English Renaissance drama. The great period is over. The mainstream of drama becomes concerned with decadence from this point on.

The age of Children's Theatre is over. Beaumont and Fletcher have shifted to the adult companies, the King's Men have moved into the Blackfriars, and the distinction between public and private theatre has been blurred to non-existence. Coterie theatres begin now to strive to satiate prurient tastes--more pornographic, decadent plays begin appearing. Beaumont and Fletcher's sexual morbidity is often remarked today. It is likely a reaction by those writers to the needs of the private theatres. Ovidian myth themes are focused upon, the doting lover and the rejected beloved, the titillation of unrequited love, sado-masochistic tendencies are each to be found here. See especially the tying of the King to the bed in a pseudo-sexual murder and also the scene of Aspatia dying at her lover's hand, his sword an ersatz phallus, being "penetrated" by her lover.

Other interesting images running through this play:

• The teller of truth is thought mad at II.i.195-96; III.ii.126-29; IV.ii.180-227);
• The Divine Right of Kings (passim)

• The Quarrel Scene, wherein one of the combatants is converted to the other's way of thinking (III.ii.205ff.);
• The Sudden Conversion Scene, wherein one character is taken from sinner to saint in one fell swoop (IV.i.25ff.)
• long scenes and sonorous sentences, drawn out for dramatic effect (a melodramatic effect by today's standards, especially noticeable at IV.i.202 et seq).

Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. Calianax like Hieronimo is thought mad when he tells his sovereign an unpleasant truth. Their subsequent ouster causes them to take matters into their own hands.

Marston's The Malcontent. Evadne's sudden conversion here is very like that of Aurelia in Marston's play.

Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy. In both plays there is the theme of good attracting evil. Compare III.i.270-1 with Vindice's commentary on Gloriana's death. See also line echoes of the thunder image from Middleton's play with this play at II.i.245-47.