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There is no record of a Revels license for Shirley's The Constant Maid. The Stationers' Register entry of April 28, 1640 and the first quarto printed by R. Raworth correctly credit Shirley, but the title-page carries no information concerning acting company or playhouse. Nason suggests that the work was probably written for a Dublin acting company during Shirley's stay in Ireland.[5] There is no reason to suppose that the play was performed at the Phoenix, the playhouse for which Shirley had been the regular dramatist earlier in his career. Scholars have therefore found it difficult to account for the title-page inscription for the second quarto printed in 1661 with a variant title: "[within rows of ornaments] LOVE will finde out the Way. / An Excellent / COMEDY. // By T. B. // As it was Acted with great Applause, / by Her Majesties Servants, at / the Phoenix in Drury Lane. // [lace ornament] // LONDON: / Printed by Ja: Cottrel, for Samuel Speed, at the Signe of the / Printing-Press in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1661."

Bentley notes the initials "T. B." are also affixed to the epilogue of this printing; he therefore suggests that they were carried to the title-page through a printer's error.[6] In this paper we note that the inscription concerning performance at the Phoenix may have been a printer's error brought about by the use of standing type. An advertisement following the epilogue offers evidence concerning the circumstances under which the play was printed in 1661: "There is lately Printed two excellent Comedies, en-/tituled, The Old Couple: By Thomas May Esquire. / The City-Night-Cap, or Crede quod habes & habes. / By Robert Davenport. / Both these, with variety of other Playes, are to be / sold by Samuel Speed, at the Printing Press in St. / Pauls Church-Yard. 1661."

If we examine the works mentioned in this advertisement, we see that The Old Couple is dated 1658 and that its title-page carries no information about acting company or playhouse.[7] The title-page of The City Night Cap, however, shows some obvious similarities to the title-page of Love Will Find Out the Way. The title-page of the Davenport play reads as follows:

[within rows of ornaments] THE / City-Night-Cap: / Or, / Crede quod habes, & habes. / A / Tragi-Comedy. // By Robert Davenport. // As it was Acted with great Applause, / by Her Majesties Servants, at / the Phoenix in Drury Lane. // LONDON: / Printed by Ja: Cottrel, for Samuel Speed, at the Signe of the / Printing-Press in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1661." Two reliable contemporary references corroborate this title-page inscription: (1) Sir Henry Herbert's office-book notes a license on October 14, 1624: "For the Cockpit [Phoenix] Company; a new Play, called, The City Night Cap: Written by Davenport."[8] (2) The records of the Lord Chamberlain for August 10, 1639 include this title in a list of plays protected for the King and Queen's Young Company who were then performing at the Phoenix.[9] Thus The City Night Cap was probably first produced at the Phoenix and remained in the repertory of that playhouse for at least fifteen years.

Collation of Henry E. Huntington Library copies of the two title-pages reveals the following similarities and differences: (1) Both pages are set within flower borders of the same design, but the individual elements of the borders are in entirely different settings. (2) The titles and author designations differ, except for the word "By" which appears to have been printed from the same setting of type. (3) The City Night Cap title-page carries three rules; Love Will Find Out the Way carries four. The first and third rules in The City Night Cap exactly match the second and third rules of Love Will Find Out the Way. (4) The three-line inscription referring to the Phoenix appears to have been printed from the same setting of type. (5) The three-line imprint is also derived from the same setting of type, but with a minor variation in the horizontal position of the lowest line. It is therefore evident that after the title-page of one of the plays was printed, six lines of type were left standing, as well as the word "By" and two of the rules; these were used again in the printing of the second work.

A clue concerning the order in which the plays were printed is provided by comparing the advertisement cited above with a similar advertisement appended to The City Night Cap: "There is lately Printed an excellent Comedy, enti/tuled, The Old Couple: By Thomas May Esquire. / Also another called, Love will finde out the Way: By / T. B. / Both these, with variety of other Playes, are to be / sold by Samuel Speed, at the Printing Press in St. / Pauls Church-Yard. 1661." Collation of the two advertisements indicates that the same setting of type was used for the last three lines and for the reference to "The Old Couple: By Thomas May Esquire." The wordings of the first lines are significantly different, however. Although the advertisement in The City Night Cap mentions both The Old Couple and Love Will Find Out the Way, the first line refers to "an excellent Comedy." The first line of the advertisement found in Love Will Find Out the Way

states specifically that two plays have been printed. This difference suggests that The City Night Cap was printed first, and that when standing type for the advertisement was emended for inclusion at the end of Love Will Find Out the Way, the wording of the first line was changed from singular to plural form so that it would agree with the text that follows it.

If this conjecture is correct, it lends support to the following hypotheses concerning the sequence of events in Cottrel's shop: (1) The printer's copy for The City Night Cap correctly identified the author, playhouse, and acting company. This information was set for the title-page; after the printing of that forme at least six lines of type, two rules, and the word "By" were left standing. (2) The manuscript (or heavily emended quarto of The Constant Maid) used as copy for Love Will Find Out the Way carried no information concerning author or playhouse. The compositor found the initials "T. B." signed to the epilogue of the revised text and used these for author designation on the title-page. The imprint was needed again; when this standing type and two of the rules were set in the forme, the compositor also included the standing type for the inscription concerning the Phoenix. This part of the title-page statement may therefore have as little basis in fact as the statement that "T. B." is the author of the play.