| 1657. No |  | Wit |  | like a Womans. A Comedy. By Tho. Middleton, |
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Gent. For Humphrey Moseley. [Prologue and Epilogue.]
The text represents a revival by Shirley in 1638, but Fleay, ii. 96, refers the original to 1613 as in III. i. 286 a character, after referring to the almanac for 1638, says he has ‘proceeded in five and twenty such books of astronomy’. Bullen accepts the date, but I feel no confidence in the argument. Stork, 47, attempts to trace Rowley’s hand.
The Widow (?)
S. R. 1652, Apr. 12 (Brent). ‘A play called The Widdow, written by John Fletcher & Tho: Middleton gent.’ Moseley (Eyre, i. 394).
1652. The Widdow A Comedie. As it was Acted at the private House in Black Fryers, with great Applause, by His late Majesties Servants. Written by Ben: Jonson John Fletcher. Tho: Middleton. Gent. Printed by the Originall Copy. For Humphrey Moseley. [Epistle to Reader by Alexander Gough. Prologue and Epilogue.]
Bullen places this ‘from internal evidence’ c. 1608–9, but thinks it revised at a later date, not improbably by Fletcher, although he cannot discover either Jonson’s hand or, ‘unless the songs be his’, Fletcher’s. Allusions to ‘a scornful woman’ (I. ii. 104) and to ‘yellow bands’ as ‘hateful’ (V. i. 52) are consistent with a date c. 1615–16.
The Mayor of Quinborough (?)
[MS.] A copy of the play, said to be ‘of no great antiquity’, is described in an appendix to Wit and Wisdom (Sh. Soc.), 85.
S. R. 1646, Sept. 4 (Langley). ‘Maior of Quinborough.’ Robinson and Moseley (Eyre, i. 244).