by Fleay, i. 180, and Thorndike, 72, becomes trivial when we eliminate what merely fixes the historic time of the play to 1604-9, and proves nothing as to the time of composition. On the other hand, II. ii,
the cold Muscovite . . .
That lay here lieger in the last great frost,
points to a date later than the winter of 1621, as I cannot trace any earlier great frost in which a Muscovite embassy can have been in London (S. P. D. Jac. I, cxxiii, 11, 100; cxxiv. 40). Further, the critics seem confident that the dominant hand in the play as it exists is Massinger's, and that Beaumont and Fletcher show, if at all, faintly through his revision. The play belonged to the repertory of the King's men by 1641 (M. S. C. i. 364).
Wit at Several Weapons (?)
1647. Wit at several weapons. A Comedy. [Part of F_{1}. The epilogue at the reviving of this Play.]
1679. [Part of F_{2}.]
The history of the play is very obscure. It is neither in the Cockpit repertory of 1639 nor in that of the King's in 1641, and the guesses of Fleay, i. 218, that it may be The Devil of Dowgate or Usury Put to Use, licensed by Herbert for the King's on 17 Oct. 1623, and The Buck is a Thief, played at Court by the same men on 28 Dec. 1623, are unsupported and mutually destructive. The epilogue, clearly written after the death of Fletcher, tells us that twas well receiv'd before' and that Fletcher 'had to do in' it, and goes on to qualify this by adding—
that if he but writ
An Act, or two, the whole Play rose up wit.
The critics find varying amounts of Fletcher, with work of other hands, which some of them venture to identify as those of Middleton and Rowley. Oliphant, followed by Thorndike, 87, finds Beaumont, and the latter points to allusions which are not inconsistent with, but certainly do not prove, 1609-10, or even an earlier date. Macaulay, 196, also found Beaumont in 1883, but seems to have retired upon Middleton and Rowley in 1910 (C. H. vi. 138).
The Faithful Friends (?)
[MS.] Dyce MS. 10, formerly in the Heber collection.
S. R. 1660, June 29. 'The Faithfull Friend a Comedy, by Francis Beamont & John Fletcher'. H. Moseley (Eyre, ii. 271).
Edition by A. Dyce in Works (1812).
Fleay in 1889 (E. S. xiii. 32) saw evidence of a date in 1614 in certain possible allusions (I. i. 45-52, 123-6) to the Earl of Somerset and his wedding on 26 Dec. 1613, and suggested Field and Daborne as the authors. In 1891 (i. 81, 201) he gave the whole to Daborne, except IV. v, which he thought of later date, and supposed it to be the subject of Daborne's letter of 11 March 1614 to Henslowe, which was in fact probably The Owl (Greg, Henslowe Papers, 82). Oliphant thinks it
