As a successful and seemingly long-lived lost play from Shakespeare's era, the 'Comedy of a Duke of Ferrara' should be of interest anyway, but what gives it particular spice is that it may be preserved, at least in part, in a German comedy, also untitled and called, by its nineteenth-century editor, Tiberius von Ferrara und Annabella von
Mompelgard. (18)
It has long been known that Tiberius und Annabella has similarities to what can be discerned of 'The Comedy of a Duke of Ferrara', and these similarities are made clearer by the extra information now available in the Hecatonphila allusion--Tiberius und Annabella features a duke of Ferrara; a margrave; and Annabella, daughter of the margrave, who ends up marrying the duke of Ferrara's son- These four characters map closely onto the four characters now known in connection with the 'Comedy of a Duke of Ferrara', as the table shows As for its plot: in the German play, the widowed duke of Ferrara sends his son, a bachelor, to
Mompelgard, to woo the daughter of the margrave on his father's behalf.