that 'the Spanish Contract' is a version of NSS, reworked as a comedy
and thus is an intermediate stage on the road to 'The Welsh
Embassador'.

The more pressing matter, the question of the connection with 'The
Parliament of Bees', is also addressed by Julia Gasper. The crucial
evidence here relates to instances where details, meaningful only in
the context of NSS, have become embedded in the text of 'The
Parliament of Bees'. The most significant example of this occurs in
Scene 1, Line 29 of 'The Parliament of Bees' where a character asks
'Is Master Bee at leisure to speak Spanish / With a Bee of Service?'.
There is no connection between 'The Parliament of Bees' and Spain or
indeed, the Spanish language, so it would seem strong evidence that
NSS was the source for 'The Parliament of Bees' and not the other way
around. This evidence is supplemented by an analysis of NSS, Act 2
Scene 1, a scene common to both plays, when Balthazar sets out his
credentials of loyal service in seeking to advise the King. Gasper
points out that this scene in NSS contains elements from de Thou, not
to be found in The Parliament of Bees, principally the need to
intervene on behalf of Onaelia. The only plausible order of
composition for the plays therefore places NSS before 'The Parliament
of Bees'. Furthermore as Day's name has never been associated with
NSS, there is no reason to suppose he was involved in its
composition. The likelihood is therefore that he was lifting dialogue
from an earlier work by another writer in order to serve his own
convenience.

The remaining question to be considered concerns the relative claims
to authorship of Dekker and Rowley. In weighing the evidence, it is
important to consider that that the first records, those on the