In this fifth section of the present study, the shares of Fletcher's
collaborators loom larger than do Fletcher's own. Of the five plays
considered herein, his work is clearly evident in only one, The Maid
in the Mill, written in collaboration with William Rowley. There are
traces of Fletcher in a single scene of The Fair Maid of the
Inn,
but they are faint, and the supposition would seem to be that Fletcher's
share in this, presumably the last play on which he worked, was assumed
by Ford who, writing in collaboration with Massinger and Webster, brought
the play to completion after his death. In the three remaining plays, I find
traces of Fletcher in only one, The Nice Valour. Studies of
the
authorship problem prior to this one have suggested the possibility of
Middleton's presence in this play, and I think that the extant text is, in all
essential respects, his work, though whether he is present in the play as
Fletcher's reviser or collaborator is impossible
to say. But to prove his presence on the basis of linguistic evidence alone
is not possible. There is nothing inconsistent between the linguistic pattern
of The Nice Valour and that which emerges from Middleton's
unaided plays, but evidence of a conclusive sort is lacking. So it is with the
fourth play considered, The Laws of Candy. Previous studies
of the authorship problem have suggested Ford as the sole or partial author
of this play, and I am personally persuaded that it is his; but again the
linguistic evidence is such that, while it does not rule out the possibility of
attributing the play to Ford, neither does it establish his presence in it. And
so, while I have attributed the major share of The Nice
Valour
to Middleton, and all of The Laws of Candy to Ford, I
cannot
suppose the authorship of either play to be proved on the basis of the
evidence set forth below. With regard to the remaining play that is
considered here, Wit at Several
Weapons, I feel on somewhat surer ground, for I am able to adduce
some linguistic
evidence which connects this play with the acknowledged collaborations of
Middleton and Rowley, whose joint work I think it is.
