Epizia

Epizia is a stage adaptation of Ecatommiti, VIII.5, Giraldi's tale of an errant Governor of Innsbruck, who gets the virginal heroine to his bed with a false offer of marriage and an equally false promise to let her imprisoned brother out of jail. He is sentenced to death by the Emperor for abusing his authority, but the magnanimous intercession of the peerless Epizia saves him from this fate and brings about the happy ending. The play will be of particular interest to students of English literature because of Shakespeare's elaboration of the Epizia story in Measure for Measure.