In fact here's a synopsis of John Kemp's Wager I wrote:
Setting: the 1820s
John Kemp, a descendant of William Kemp the Elizabeth stage-clown, lives in the fictitious village of Campden Cantorum in Somerset. He is a carpenter and joiner and a local champion, revered for his physical prowess.
A new postman has been appointed to the village, Henry Dee, who is a dishonest Londoner hoping to get rich by his appointment but resentful of having to live in a backward and remote village. He voices his opinions of the villagers’ customs and lack of sophistication to them and to John Kemp. Kemp is already beginning to dislike him. The local morris troupe assemble and decide to rehearse their play. They persuade Dee to play the Dragon. Kemp plays St George and kills the Dragon, although Dee expects this Kemp gives him an extra hard beating, at which he protests. St George also goes on to kill a Turkish knight, who, however, is resurrected by the Doctor, and there is much sword dancing. Dee swears revenge against Kemp and when Virginia, Kemp’s sweetheart, appears he tries to impress her with his office and uniform, but she rebuffs him.
Virginia and Kemp declare their love for each other, but Virginia has promised her mother, recently deceased, that she will not marry Kemp until she is 21. Now her mother is dead she has to support herself by being a lady’s companion, and her lady is travelling to America. She promises to return in four years when she is 21 to marry Kemp. Kemp promises to work hard and save money in that period. They promise to write to each other.
Four years later and Kemp is a changed man, he is bitter because he has not heard from Virginia despite her promise to write to him and his constant letters to her. His hard work has isolated him from village life. However, now that the four years are up and Virginia has not returned he resolves to make his fortune with a wager, he wagers with the Duke of Campden to undertake three feats of prowess to be determined by the Duke, the sum wagered being 1000 guineas. The first feat proposed is for him to fight his way, against anyone who opposes him, one at a time, from the church of nearby Campden Saltorum to Campden Cantorum church. Dee, knowing Kemp is a strong swimmer, but hoping he will drown, butts in and proposes that he swim 15 miles across the Bristol Channel in his coat and topboots. Kemp agrees to these challenges and the Duke then proposes as the third challenge that Kemp will successfully deceive all of the villagers for one whole year.
The first feat Kemp easily wins, though Dee, at one points knocks him over from behind, only to be floored in turn by one the village girls. For the second feat the main characters adjourn to the shores of the Bristol Channel and the Duke provides a boat to follow Kemp and pull him out if he begins to sink. The villagers watch him anxiously and he swims strongly away from the shore only to be swallowed up in a bank of mist. At that point the Duke’s boat is hit by another craft and Kemp is presumed lost.
Three years later in the village and Virginia returns, now a rich woman as her ‘lady’ died and left her all her property. She tells the Widow Green, the inn-keeper, that she has returned to find out what happened to John and to find out why she never heard from him. She is despondent when told that John is presumed drowned, but when she is told that John wrote constantly to her for four years and never received any letters from her she begins to suspect treachery. Dee turns up and woos Virginia, but she rebuffs him again.
John’s sailor-brother Jack, who has returned to claim his brother’s property and been living in the village for a year, decides to sell John’s house and property by auction. As a foretaste he brings some items down to the inn and begins auctioning them off, Virginia buys some of the items and makes a bid for the whole estate.
Of course ‘Jack Kemp’ is really John is disguise, who swam the Channel without an accompanying boat and then went travelling, playing the fool, in the Middle East and Asia.
The Post Office catches fire and during efforts to put it out it is discovered that Dee has been enriching himself by stealing money from letters, he also detained all of John and Virginia’s letters to each other. The villagers drag Dee in and are about to lynch him but Jack simply lets him go as says cannot act as judge because he is not impartial.
The next day, the year of deceiving the villagers being up, he reveals himself to the Duke and the villagers, who were completely taken in by his staid demeanour and false beard. The Duke agrees he has won his wager. Virginia appears, John woos her as Jack, she refuses him, and then he reveals his true identity and the lovers are reunited.
The villagers rejoice at the denouement and John’s miraculous reappearance and the villagers and the Duke offer him a wish in honour of his forthcoming marriage. John asks that the traditional play acted in the first act have a change made to it: the player playing St George is to receive an extra whack from the dying Dragon’s tail.
