A Warning for Fair Women was published anonymously in 1599, with the statement on the title-page that it had been “lately diuerse times acted by the right Honorable the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants.” The attribution of the play by Edward Phillips to John Lyly is too absurd for serious consideration. Almost as absurd is Collier's attribution of the play to Shakespeare. Fleay suggested Thomas Lodge, though not without hesitation, for he adds the warning: “I cannot state too emphatically that any attribution of this play to Lodge is conjectural, and founded less on positive evidence than on the method of exhaustion.” The “method” referred to is thus explained: “The other writers for the Chamberlain's men at this time were Shakespeare and Jonson. Objectors to my hypothesis of Lodge's authorship may adopt one of these, or (the usual resource) imagine some unknown playwright not elsewhere heard of.” But Lodge was probably not engaged in play-writing at this time; so that according to Fleay's “method” we should be forced to choose between Shakespeare and Jonson.