at the stake after he had fled to Flanders: the English records state he was executed in Flanders, while the Flemish records state he was extradited to England. Shakebag escaped and was never heard of again. Other conspirators were executed and hanged in chains. One – George Bradshaw, who was implicated by an obscure passage in a sealed letter he had delivered – was wrongly convicted and posthumously acquitted. The story would most likely have been known to Elizabethan readers through the account in Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, although the murder was so notorious that it is also possible that it was in the living memory of some of the anonymous playwright's acquaintances. Both the play and the story in Holinshed's Chronicles were later adapted into a broadside ballad, "The complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of Feversham in Kent". Main characters Thomas Arden: A self-made man, formerly the mayor of Faversham. Arden was appointed as the king's controller of imports and exports. He had made his will on 20 December 1550, a few months before his death. Alice Arden: Wife of Thomas Arden. Alice plots with her lover Mosby to kill Arden. Alice is shown to believe love transcends social class. Mosby: Alice's lover. Thomas Arden frequently belittles him for being a tailor. His sister, Susan, serves Alice as a maid. Michael: The Ardens' butler-like servant. He becomes a pawn in the murder plot after he is promised Susan's hand in marriage. Black Will and Shakebag: Murderers hired by Alice's trusted accomplice Green. Various complications foil several of their attempts to kill Arden. Shakebag is shown to be the more evil of the two. Franklin: Thomas Arden's best friend and travelling companion. On the road from London, he tells a tale of female infidelity. (Franklin has no real-life parallel and is purely a literary invention.) Text, history and authorship The play was printed anonymously in three quarto editions during the period, in 1592 (Q1), 1599 (Q2), and 1633 (Q3). The last publication occurred in the same year as a broadsheet ballad written from Alice's point of view. The title pages do not indicate performance or company. However, the play was never fully forgotten. For most of three centuries, it was performed in George Lillo's adaptation; the original was brought back to the stage in 1921, and has received intermittent revivals since. It was adapted into a ballet at Sadler's Wells