The play was entered into the Stationers' Register twice, on 9 September 1653 and 29 June 1660, but never printed in the 17th century. For several decades in the later 18th and early 19th centuries, it was generally believed that the play was lost, destroyed in John Warburton's kitchen; but a manuscript of the play was discovered in 1844, and published in 1849. Massinger re-copied the play into its second Antiochus version; but still-extant autograph manuscript, now "MS. Egerton 2828" in the collection of the British Museum, reveals the play's revision. At a few points, Massinger lapsed and used the original names of characters and settings, and then corrected them — with "Sebastian" twice, and "Venice" instead of "Carthage." Damage from damp makes portions of the MS. illegible.