similarity may, of course, be only an accident, but presumably it is not. Then did Field borrow from Massinger, or did Massinger from Field? The most plausible theory is that _The Unnatural Combat_ was written immediately after _The Fatal Dowry_, when Massinger’s mind was so saturated with the contents of the tragedy just laid aside that he was liable to echo in the new drama the expressions and import of lines in the old, whether by himself or his collaborator. That at any rate the chronological relationship of the two plays is one of juxtaposition is further attested by the fact that in minor parallelisms,[4] too, to _The Fatal Dowry_, _The Unnatural Combat_ is richer than any other work of Massinger. Unfortunately _The Unnatural Combat_ is itself another play of whose date no more can be said with assurance than that it preceeds the entry of Sir Henry Herbert into office in 1623, though its crude horrors, its ghost, etc., suggest moreover that it is its author’s initial independent venture in the field of tragedy, his _Titus Andronicus_, an ill-advised attempt to produce something after the “grand manner” of half a generation back. Next in closeness to _The Fatal Dowry_ among the works of Massinger as regards the number of its reminiscences of phraseology stands his share of _The Virgin Martyr_; next in closeness as regards the _strikingness_ of these parallels stands his share of _The Little French Lawyer_. These two plays can be dated _circa_ 1620. * * * * * To sum up: _The Fatal Dowry_ appears to antedate the installation of Sir Henry Herbert in 1623. It was probably written while Field was with the King’s Men; with whom he became associated in 1616, and whom he probably quitted in 1619. The indications point to its composition during the latter part of this three-year period (1616-19), for it yields more and closer parallels to _The Virgin Martyr_ and _The Little French Lawyer_, dated about 1620, than to _The Knight of Malta_ and _The Queen of Corinth_, dated 1617-8,--closer, indeed, than to any work of Massinger save one, _The Unnatural Combat_, itself an undated but evidently early play, with which its relationship is clearly of the most intimate variety. * * * * * The following (at best hazardously conjectural) scheme of sequence may be advanced: