This translation was intended for dramatic reading in the Sidney family circle rather than for enactment. Sidney did not follow Garnier's alexandrines, but translated the work into a highly readable blank verse. Though divinely beautiful, Cleopatra is drawn as a believable woman, caught in the nets of politics and love. Although she retains Senecan unities of time, place, and theme, Cary deepens the female character and the exploration of relationships. The masque was presented before Queen Anne, who herself appeared in a few such masques, though not without disapproval from some of her nobles.
All textual variants appear in the notes.
Wroth uses a variety of verse forms, but most frequently either heroic couplet or an alternating rhyming pattern. Love's Victory is by far the most well-written play of the collection and it takes on familiar themes treated by other Renaissance favorites. Having just taught Spenser, I was especially intrigued with Wroth's treatment of Love under the rule of virtue and reason. This transcription is based on the Rawlinson MS Poet 16 in the Bodleian Library. The play rather transparently portrays family members in settings informed by the events of the Civil War, which so disrupted their lives.