The Differences Between Shakespeare's Play and Chinthio

In most versions of this story before Shakespeare, the woman does sleep with the governor or the authority figure. And in most cases, this is not enough to save her imprisoned brother or husband. Often these monstrous bargain stories end with an emperor, king, or other higher authority coming in and making the bad man marry the woman he has slept with. In Chinthio's version of this story, the woman is the central character in the tale. Her 16-year-old brother is in prison for raping a woman, a crime punishable by death despite the fact that he agreed to marry his victim. So we can see in this outline something of Shakespeare's play, but with some important differences.