Critics and scholars who have attempted to differentiate the shares of the two collaborators in the play have not reached a full consensus, though the general tendency has been to attribute the romantic main plot of Mary Fitz-Allard largely to Dekker, and the Moll Cutpurse subplot mainly to Middleton.[6] David Lake, in his study of authorship problems in Middleton's canon, produces the following division of authorship.
- Dekker: Act I; Act III, scenes ii–iii; Act IV, scene ii; Act V, scene i;
- Middleton: Act II; Act III, scene i; Act IV, scene i; Act V, scene ii.
Lake also favours the view of Fredson Bowers that the play was printed from a manuscript in Dekker's autograph.[7] Paul Mulholland emphasizes that "most scenes reveal evidence of both dramatists", while "Few scenes point conclusively to either dramatist as the main writer". He quotes with approval Cyrus Hoy's observation that "the designation 'Middleton and Dekker' is the only one appropriate for much of the play".[8]
