Publication
A Very Woman first appeared in print when it was included in an octavo volume titled Three New Plays, issued by Humphrey Moseley in 1655; the volume also contained Massinger's plays The Guardian and The Bashful Lover. (This 1655 volume appears to unite the final three surviving works of Massinger's dramatic career.) When Moseley entered the play into the Stationers' Register on 9 September 1653, he gave it a different subtitle, calling it A Very Woman, or The Woman's Plot. This alternative subtitle is found nowhere else, and there is no "woman's plot" in the play; but a play with the title The Woman's Plot was acted at Court on 5 November 1621. Moseley employed the possibilities for confusion inherent in play titles and subtitles to register two plays for a single fee — which appears to be what he did in this case. (For other examples of Moseley's trick, see The Bashful Lover, The Guardian, and The Lovers' Progress.)
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