blood to Hippolito. A masque is held to celebrate the Duke's impending marriage to the widowed Bianca, but it descends into bloodshed. Hippolito is killed by poisoned arrows (shot by cupids in the masque) and dies after throwing himself on his sword; and Isabella and Livia murder each other. Bianca tries to murder the Duke's brother, but accidentally poisons the Duke himself. After realising her mistake, she finishes the poisoned drink and dies. Characters Bianca – Leantio's wife Leantio – Bianca's husband Mother – widow, Leantio's mother Duke of Florence – Bianca's lover Lord Cardinal – brother to the Duke of Florence Fabritio – Isabella's father, who is eager to marry off his daughter Isabella – daughter to Fabritio, lover to her uncle Hippolito Livia – widow, sister to Fabritio and Hippolito, aunt to Isabella Hippolito – brother to Fabritio and Livia, lover to his niece Isabella The Ward – rich young heir, prospect for Isabella Guardiano – uncle to the Ward Sordido – the Wards Man Sources Middleton based the plot of his play on actual events. Bianca Cappello was first the mistress and then the second wife and Duchess of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The story of Bianca's elopement with her first husband, her affair with the Duke, her first husband's death and her marriage to the Duke, is adapted by Middleton for his play. The subplot of Hippolito and Isabella in Middleton's play is strongly similar to the plot of a French novel that was published in 1597 but not translated into English until 1627, the year of Middleton's death. Scholars are divided as to whether Middleton was familiar with the novel in manuscript form prior to its 1627 printing, or whether the translator of the book was influenced by Middleton's play. Chess The device of the chess game exploited by Middleton in Women Beware Women has an obvious commonality with his own A Game at Chess—but the same chess-game device also appears in John Fletcher's play The Spanish Curate, which was acted in 1622. Here again, scholars are divided as to which play preceded and influenced which. It is also possible that both writers independently derived the chess device from the same source. T. S. Eliot, a student of Jacobean drama, refers to the Women Beware Women chess game in The Waste Land, Part II, line 137. Reception Little is known of