Authorship
The consensus of critical judgement accepts the play as a Beaumont and Fletcher collaboration in which Beaumont's is the dominant hand. Cyrus Hoy, in his survey of authorship problems in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators, provided this breakdown of the two authors' respective shares:
- Beaumont — Act I; Act II; Act III, scenes 2-4; Act IV, 1; Act V, 1, 3, and 4;
- Beaumont and Fletcher — Act III, scene 1; Act IV, 2 and 3; Act V, 2 and 5.
Fletcher revised five scenes in Beaumont's play, scenes that deal with the chastity test. This dramaturgic element was a preoccupation with Fletcher, and recurs in his plays with Beaumont and other collaborators and his solo works as well. Other critics have agreed in substance, though not in all particulars, with Hoy's division.
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