The Faithful Shepherdess / The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Volume 2 of 10).

The play follows a circle of shepherds and shepherdesses in a pastoral setting where mourning, vows, and ritual shape relationships. One woman buries a lost beloved and resolves to guard her virgin purity while practising herbal cures; another pair pledges mutual fidelity and seek sacred rites at a consecrated fountain. Satyrs, a river god, and rustic priests of Pan intervene through offerings, songs and enchantments that test devotion and expose treachery. The action weaves ritual ceremonies, supernatural rescue, and moral dilemmas into a lyrical exploration of chastity, constancy, the healing powers of nature, and the fragile boundary between human desire and otherworldly influence.