The Perjur'd Husband; or, The Adventures of Venice. A Tragedy

Set in Venice during Carnival, the play tracks Count Bassino, who is married to Placentia yet becomes infatuated with Aurelia, a young woman promised to another. Masked entertainments, intercepted letters, and servant schemes escalate misunderstandings as friends and rivals press matters of honor, desire, and duty. Bassino vows fidelity but repeatedly confronts temptation; Aurelia’s conflicting attachments and others’ jealousies propel secret meetings, plots, and moral reckonings. Scenes shift between public revelry and intimate confession, examining how social expectation, deception, and perjury strain relationships and shape the consequences of broken promises.