Henslowe made a payment to Dekker and Middleton for 'the pasyent man & the onest hore' between 1 Jan. and 14 March 1604, on account of the Prince's men, and the mention of Towne in a stage-direction to Part i (ed. Pearson, ii. 78) shows that it was in fact acted by this company. Fleay, i. 132, and Hunt, 94, cite some allusions in Part ii suggesting a date soon after that of Part i, and this would be consistent with Henslowian methods. There is more difference of opinion about the partition of the work. Of Part i Fleay gives scc. i, iii, and xiii-xv alone to Dekker, and Hunt finds the influence of Middleton in the theme and plot of both Parts. Bullen, however
(Middleton, i. xxv), thinks Middleton's share 'inconsiderable', giving him only I. v and III. i, with a hand in II. i and in a few comic scenes of Part ii. Ward, ii. 462, holds a similar view.
Westward Ho! 1604
With Webster. S. R. 1605, March 2. 'A commodie called westward Hoe presented by the Children of Paules provided yat he get further authoritie before yt be printed.' Henry Rocket (Arber, iii. 283). [Entry crossed out and marked 'vacat'.] 1607. West-ward Hoe. As it hath beene diuers times Acted by the Children of Paules. Written by Tho: Decker, and Iohn Webster. Sold by John Hodgets.
Editions with Works of Webster (q.v.). The allusions cited by Fleay, ii. 269, Stoll, 14, Hunt, 101, agree with a date of production at the end of 1604. Fleay assigns Acts I-III and a part of IV. ii to Webster; the rest of Acts IV, V to Dekker. But Stoll, 79, thinks that Webster only had 'some slight, undetermined part in the more colourless and stereotyped portions . . . under the shaping and guiding hand of Dekker', and Pierce, 131, after an elaborate application of tests, can only give him all or most of I. i and III. iii and a small part of I. ii and III. ii. Brooke finds traces of Webster in I. i and III. iii and Dekker in II. i, ii and V. iii, and has some useful criticism of the 'tests' employed by Pierce.
Northward Ho! 1605
With Webster. S. R. 1607, Aug. 6 (Buck). 'A booke Called Northward Ho.' George Elde (Arber, iii. 358). 1607. North-Ward Hoe. Sundry times Acted by the Children of Paules. By Thomas Decker, and Iohn Webster. G. Eld.
Editions by J. S. Farmer (1914, S. F. T.) and in Works of Webster (q.v.).
The play is a reply to Eastward Ho! which was itself a reply to Westward Ho! and was on the stage before May 1605, and it is referred to with the other two plays in Day's Isle of Gulls, which was on the stage in Feb. 1606. This pretty well fixes its date to the end of 1605. I do not think that Stoll, 16, is justified in his argument for a date later than Jan. 1606, since, even if the comparison of the life of a
