Penthea goes mad and dies, and, beside her dead body, Orgilus causes to be placed a chair in which he induces Ithocles to sit, and which closes on him and holds him helpless while Orgilus stabs him to death. Orgilus is condemned, and, in the final scene, Calantha, before the altar, puts a wedding ring on the finger of the dead Ithocles, hands over her newly inherited crown to the prince of Argos and dies of a broken heart. The last two scenes, if somewhat deliberately theatrical, are among the most beautiful and memorable in the drama of the period. No source has been found for the story of Calantha, though suggestions from Sidney's Arcadia seem to have been used throughout. Since something will have to be said on the subject of Ford's dubious morality, it is only just to point out that, in this play, Penthea reaches a lofty standard in her perception of the essential unchastity of a loveless marriage.
Illicit passion is here the dominant theme.
The duke of Pavy has married the beautiful but humbly born Bianca, who is loved by his favourite Fernando. They swear mutual but chaste love. Meantime, the duke's sister Fiormonda, whose love Fernando has repulsed, and the villainous secretary d'Avolos, excite the duke's jealousy and arrange to make him spectator of a love scene between Fernando and the duchess in her bedchamber. The duke breaks in and accuses Bianca. She acquits Fernando of guilt, confesses to having tempted him and brazenly tells her husband that she preferred Fernando as the better man.