A Fair Quarrel is a Jacobean tragicomedy, a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that was first published in 1617. Performance and Publication The play was written sometime between 1612 and 1617, and probably after October 1614, on the basis of suspected borrowings from Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair. The first quarto was printed by George Eld for the booksellers John Trundle and Edward Wright, and was published in two states or impressions: Q1a is missing the "roaring school" scene (Act IV, scene iv), while Q1b includes the scene as an appendix. The second quarto, issued in 1622 and printed by Augustine Matthews for Thomas Dewe, places the "roaring school" scene in its proper place. The play was dedicated to Robert Grey, Esq., the dedication signed by Rowley. The play was originally performed by Prince Charles's Men, the company to which Rowley belonged at the time, and the title page of both quartos states that it was "acted before the King". After the deaths of both authors, the play became the property of Queen Henrietta's Men. By 1639 it was in the repertory of Beeston's Boys, and it was revived at least once during the Restoration era, in 1662. Authorship The play was attributed to Middleton and Rowley on the title page of Q1 in 1617; internal evidence confirms the correctness of the attribution. The usual collaborative practice of Middleton and Rowley is for Middleton to take primary responsibility for the serious main plot and for Rowley, a comic actor by profession, to handle the comic subplot – which normally means that Middleton's share is more extensive than Rowley's. The rule is not rigidly applied, however; in The Changeling, Rowley composed the play's opening and closing scenes as well as the subplot, so that the shares of the two writers are roughly equal. In A Fair Quarrel, Middleton as usual handles the main plot, and subplot materials are the work of Rowley. But A Fair Quarrel is structured on three levels: the main plot tells the story of Captain Ager and his mother, the second-level plot relates the story of Fitzallen and Jane, and the third is the overt comedy material about the clowns Chough and Trimtram. As a result of this structure and division of labour, Rowley is the author of roughly two-thirds of the play, and Middleton only one third. David Lake divides their respective shares this way.