It seems likely that _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ appeared the year following the production of _Dr Faustus_ in 1588. The year 1589 is also indicated by other evidence. In theme the play resembles Greene's _Tully's Love_ of that year. In verse it is not unlike _Orlando Furioso_, which had appeared in 1588. A striking piece of collateral evidence is adduced by Fleay, who, noting Edward's remark in Act I., "Lacy, thou know'st next Friday is Saint James'," is able to show that 1589 is the only year between 1578 and 1595 in which St James's day falls on Friday. Further confirmation of this date arises from a satirical thrust by Greene at the now unknown author of _Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester_, in his letter prefixed to _Farewell to Folly. Fair Em_ bears about the same relationship to _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ that this play bears to _Dr Faustus_. In other words, while it is not exactly an imitation, it is in many respects a reflection and a parody of the earlier play. The chief points in which _Fair Em_ parodies Greene's play are in the title, in which the author, "somewhat affecting the letter," plays upon Greene's "Fair Maid of Fressingfield"; in the relationship of a king with his courtier in the courtship of a mistress, in Lubeck's fidelity to William the Conqueror in the matter of his love for Mariana contrasted with Lacy's treachery to Edward in courting Margaret; in Em's scornful refusal to return to Mandeville after he has discarded her contrasted with Margaret's hasty forgiveness of Lacy after his unkind desertion; and in the fact that, while in _Friar Bacon_ Lacy is put into disguise to pursue his love suits, in _Fair Em_ it is the king who masquerades to gain a mistress. Greene no more relished the imitation of his work in 1591 than he did the following year, when he wrote _A Groatsworth of Wit_. His allusion to this play in his _Farewell to Folly_ epistle is identified by his quoting two lines that occur toward the end of the play, "A man's conscience is a thousand witnesses," and "Love covereth the multitude of sins." Upon such sentiments in the drama Greene throws ridicule in the following words: "O, 'tis a jolly matter when a man hath a familiar style and can indite a whole year and never be beholding to art! But to bring Scripture to prove anything he says, and kill it dead with the text in a trifling subject of love, I tell you is no small piece of cunning." The most important point in these lines is the indication that a year had been spent in the composition of the play Greene was ridiculing. If we are to accept it that _Fair Em_ is in any respect an imitation of _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ we must count at least a year before the production of _Fair Em_ to find the date of Greene's play. Accepting early 1591 as the point after which _Fair Em_ could not have been written,[13] _Friar Bacon_ must have been produced at least a year before that time, in 1589, or early in 1590. Supposing,