ABSTRACT
A couplet in the preliminaries of the 1614 edition, signed W.R., is almost certainly by William Rowley; since he probably knew the play, it should be included among the sources. John Stow’s A Survey of London may be quite readily identified as a source for A Woman Never Vext since Stow is the only writer to mention Walter Bruine and the foundation of St. Mary’s Spittle. The Survey went through three editions in Rowley’s lifetime, in 1598, 1603 and 1618, the last enlarged by a reviser. One should also notice that Stow’s Survey appears to have been a source for Heywood’s II If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody, first printed in 1606 and reprinted in 1610 and 1623. Stow’s verses are then quoted and, a little later, the first two lines of the ‘women are forgetful’ proverb.
