Among the poetic plays left to us by the Prince of Poets, Ahmed Shawqi, is the play "Lady Huda," which includes comedic glimpses, unlike his other plays: The Death of Cleopatra, Cambyses, Madman Layla, Antara, Ali Bek Al-Kabir, and The Princess of Andalusia.

"Lady Huda" addresses the character of the strong, capable, and resourceful woman around whom the play revolves, and is a development and maturation of the iron-willed strong woman character that we always find in each of Shawqi's plays.

Shawqi combines the capable woman with the resourceful woman in one creation. Lady Huda imposes her will on her multiple husbands, her friends, and neighbors, with a temperament of strength and cunning. She knows when to be greedy and when to be humble. She understands that her jewelry, possessions, and ornaments are her main support, not the "young spendthrift" she tries hard to cling to, by always claiming to be twenty. That is why Huda constantly tempts everyone with her wealth, both fixed and movable, to ensure that people gather around her, but in reality, she doesn't actually give it to anyone.

Moreover, Shawqi goes even further in portraying Huda's cunning by making her, from beyond the grave, mock the last of her husband victims. She promises him her fixed and movable possessions, so he marries her, only for Lady Huda to pass away and the man discovers that what Huda had promised was only an illusion. The play thus portrays a clear struggle between the women's council - led by "Lady Huda" - and the male society. Although it is written with a special affection for women, it criticizes both women and men. It is a play that belongs to the comedy of behavior genre.

Nevertheless, Lady Huda was unlucky. Her first husband was somewhat reasonable, but he died and didn't live with her for long. The rest of her husbands were of low character, ranging from crooks and drunkards to thieves, who lived off her and some even tried to seize her wealth. Such men exist in societies at all times and places.

If she had given birth and her children filled her life, she would not have remarried after her husband's death. But how could she live alone without companionship and protection?

Lady Huda married ten men, divorced some of them since she held the power, and most of them died. When she sensed her end was near, she left her jewelry to the daughters of her neighbors. She bequeathed her house and everything in it to her first husband's daughter, "Bahiya," whom she loved and had died while married to him. She dedicated her agricultural land to the House of Allah, the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and denied her last husband (Al-Sayed Al-Ajizi) any inheritance from her.

Lady Huda has her counterparts in society. She was a wealthy lady with bad luck who did not have children to fill her life. As for her husbands, they were a group of crooks seeking money and were without morals or principles, and their likes exist in all societies. She had a psychological complex due to her inability to bear children, but she was keen to protect her wealth from these crooks and prevented them from seizing her fortune. She was a miserable lady.

Although this play is humorous, it contains many lessons and reflections on life.

Lady Huda, describing her husbands, says:

They say a lot about my affairs, and their concern ** Is my marriage or my divorce talk

They say I've married nine ** And I've buried them all, my companions, in the dirt

I'm not Azrael (angel of death), nor do they have any wealth ** I married, but that was my fortune

And these are my thirty dowries, whenever ** Men leave, new ones come to me

And she says about her first husband: My husband died and I almost died from grief ** I was only twenty years old then

I got married after five years ** Who would see my actions as sinful?

Her second husband (Ali) was an uneducated and broke man, who married her for her wealth. She described him in a humorous, mocking manner:

May God have mercy on him, he was a snorer ** When he sat or stood, he snorted

And if he walked, other sounds would escape **

May God have mercy on him ** He went crazy for children

But when he died, he left me with nothing but debts

It seems that Lady Huda didn't remember her third husband, as she didn't talk about him. She seems to have forgotten him amidst her ten husbands.

Coincidentally, Lady Huda married a writer, who was her fourth husband. She said about him:

I won't forget my fourth husband ** He was neither useful nor an advocate

They said: a writer like none other ** They dubbed him the skilled writer

They dressed him up for me, so I chose him ** I chose nothing but a lost, idle man

May God have mercy on him ** He never despised money

If he went broke, he would only ask me for a riyal

The fifth was a military officer, but he was a drunk and gambler: He would come home at dawn, almost gambling away the stars and weapons when caught up in gambling (He didn't want me, but he wanted my gold). He was lost (I wouldn't buy an army for a feddan).

The sixth husband was a poor employee who stole some things from her (When he died, they only found two gold coins and a stolen rosary from my closet on the shelf since my father's death). She said about him:

He wouldn't kiss my cheeks, only my hands ** His eyes were always on my rings, wondering how to steal them

The seventh time, she married an old religious scholar (in his fifties) named Sheikh Abdul Samad. He didn't spend money on her, but he once hit her with a stick because she looked out the window. He then had a carpenter close the windows and nail them shut. However, he never opened his purse, preferring to eat without spending his own money.

In every marriage, Lady Huda claimed to be twenty years old, so she never aged.

The eighth husband was a contractor named Mehdi, who was wealthy but exploited her money and didn't spend on her. He lived with her for two years and then died, while she remained twenty years old. As for him (He never hesitated to eat my food and save his own money).

The ninth husband was a lawyer, a drunkard, and a failure at his job. She still saw herself as twenty years old. When drunk, he would say to her: (Where is the old lady? Where is my grandmother Huda? / Your cheeks are like two aged frogs / Your ears are like scorpions from misery / Your eyebrows and the lines on them / Are like two worms filled with blood / And between your eyes is a gap and indifference / An eye over there quarrels with an eye over here). He tried to hit her, but her female neighbors and their daughters came to her rescue and gave the lawyer a beating, so he ran away from the house and she divorced him.

The tenth husband was a wealthy man from the countryside who fled to Cairo to escape his debts. He married Lady Huda to take control of her fortune, and he breathed a sigh of relief when she died. He said to himself: (The money is now mine, old lady / The house and everything in it are mine. After ten men).

He didn't know that Lady Huda had spent all her fortune.

Huda was a strong-willed woman, and none of her husbands could take control of her wealth. Even though she gained her wealth as a gift from the masters she served, she treated men as toys to play with. Despite her wealth, she behaved in a manner similar to servants.