Revision
In his Preface to the first edition of the play, Dryden admitted that "The Plot was not Originally my own...." Critic Alfred Harbage argued that Richard Brome was the likely author of the work in its original form. (Harbage made this argument regarded two plays connected with the Dryden canon, The Wild Gallant and The Mistaken Husband.) Harbage noted that in The Wild Gallant Lady Constance fakes a pregnancy with a pillow under her dress, just as Annabelle does in Brome's The Sparagus Garden. Other elements in the play's plotting and style also indicate Brome, in Harbage's view. The play's stylistic inconsistencies have been observed by other critics — one referring to the "Jonsonian" aspects of the play; but Brome was a dedicated follower of Jonson, and the play's "Jonsonian" features can just as easily be considered "Bromian."
If Harbage's argument is valid, it contains a measure of irony: Dryden mixed Brome with Suckling in his potpourri of influences and borrowings, and Suckling and Brome were theatrical rivals.
Read more about this topic: The Wild Gallant