The Stolen Heiress; or, The Salamanca Doctor Outplotted. A Comedy

"The Stolen Heiress; or, The Salamanca Doctor Outplotted. A Comedy" by Centlivre is a comedic play composed in the late 17th to early 18th century. The story revolves around themes of love, ambition, and mistaken identities in a Sicilian setting, as characters maneuver through complex social dynamics and familial attachments. The primary narrative follows Count Gravello's efforts to marry off his daughter, Lucasia, particularly to the wealthy Count Pirro, despite her romantic entanglement with the noble Palante. At the start of the play, we see Count Gravello devising a scheme to increase his daughter's fortunes by spreading false news of his son's death, which is intended to attract more suitors for Lucasia. Gravello's machinations are soon complicated by the revelations of Lucasia’s own affections for Palante, thereby introducing conflicts between family loyalty and personal desire. The opening introduces various characters, setting the stage for misunderstandings and comedic entanglements that will unfold as Lucasia must navigate her father's ambitions while secretly trying to meet and protect her love, Palante. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Susanna Centlivre, born Susanna Freeman, and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and "the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century". Centlivre's "pieces continued to be acted after the theatre managers had forgotten most of her contemporaries." During a long career at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the second woman of the English stage, after Aphra Behn.