Loue lies ableeding, if it should not proue
Her vttmost art to shew why it doth loue.
Thou being the Subiect (now) It raignes vpon:
Raign’st in Arte, Iudgement, and Inuention:
For this I loue thee: and can doe no lesse
For thine as faire, as faithfull Shepheardesse.
If so, the date 1608–10 is suggested, and I do not think that it is possible to be more precise. No trustworthy argument can be based with Gayley, 342, on the fact that Davies’s epigram follows that praising Ostler as ‘Roscius’ and ‘sole king of actors’; and I fear that the view of Thorndike, 65, that 1608 is a ‘probable’ conjecture is biased by a desire to assume priority to Cymbeline. There were two Court performances in the winter of 1612–13, and Fleay, i. 189, suggests that the versions of I. i and V. iv, v which appear in Q1 were made for these. The epistle to Q2 describes them as ‘dangerous and gaping wounds ... received in the first impression’. There is general agreement that most of the play, whether Davies knew it or not, is Beaumont’s. Most critics assign V. iii, iv and some the whole or parts of I. i, ii, II. ii, iv, and III. ii to Fletcher.
The Coxcomb. 1608 < > 10
1647. The Coxcomb. [Part of F1. Prologue and Epilogue.]
1679. [Part of F2. ‘The Principal Actors were Nathan Field, Joseph Taylor, Giles Gary, Emanuel Read, Rich. Allen, Hugh Atawell, Robert Benfeild, Will Barcksted.’]