Footnotes
[1.]It is much to be wished that someone would essay the same task for Beaumont and Fletcher, though there the work would be less easy, partly from the looseness of the metres, partly from the corruption of the text, but chiefly from the presence of prose-passages bordering on verse.[2.]A. à Wood's Fasti Oxonienses, p. 313.[3.]Herein he resembled F. Beaumont. G. Langbaine, on the other hand, says that the Earl sent Massinger to Oxford, where he “closely pursued his studies.” But we must be careful how we believe Langbaine; his account of our poet begins thus: “This author was born at Salisbury, in the reign of King Charles the First, being son to Philip Massinger, a gentleman belonging to the Earl of Montgomery.” Here are three gross blunders at once.[4.]Boyle (N. S. S., xxi., p. 472) says that “Massinger's inveterate habit of repeating himself arose probably from his profession as an actor.” I know of no evidence for this hypothesis. Cf., however, p. 6, note 1.[5.]Cf. Mommsen's History of Rome, English translation, vol. ii., p. 440.[6.]Thus in the play of Lady Jane, of which The Famous History of Sir T. Wyatt is a fragment, we find five authors concerned. It will be remembered that Eupolis contributed to the Knights of Aristophanes.[7.]For some account of Field see Appendix XI.[8.]Daborne's letters bulk large in the Henslowe Correspondence. We have two plays of his: A Christian turn'd Turke, based on the story of the pirate Ward; and The Poor Man's Comfort, a tragi-comedy. Like Marston, he abandoned the stage in middle life and took orders, before 1618. It is therefore unlikely that he collaborated with Massinger in any of the plays which we possess.[9.]
Such a reference to Acta Sanctorum as is contained in these lines might be made by an Anglican:
Antoninus. It may be, the duty
And loyal service, with which I pursued her,
And sealed it with my death, will be remember'd
Among her blessed actions.—V. M., IV., 3, 28.
More stress might be laid on the metaphor contained in these lines:
Theophilus. O! mark it, therefore, and with that attention, As you would hear an embassy from heaven, By a wing'd legate.—V. M., V., 2, 103.
See the photograph at the beginning of the book. Cf. also Greg's Henslowe Papers, article 68. Fleay identifies the play referred to in the document as The Honest Man of Fortune, acted in 1613. In the first Dublin poem, after referring to the patronage which had befriended Jonson and Fletcher, Massinger goes on thus:
“These are precedents
I cite with reverence; my low intents
Look not so high; yet some work I might frame
That should not wrong my duty, nor your name;
Were but your lordship pleased to cast an eye
Of favour on my trod-down poverty.”
Cf. W. W. Greg's Henslowe's Diary, vol. ii., pp. 110-147. Mr. Greg points out (p. 113) that “there is no record of any speculations of Henslowe's own as far as the evidence of the Diary is concerned. The accounts are company accounts”—i.e., of The Rose and Fortune Theatres.
We have also at Dulwich a bond from R. Daborne and P. Massinger to Philip Henslowe for payment of £3, dated July 4th, 1615. Cf. Greg's Henslowe Papers, article 102.
No doubt he knew some foreign languages. His plays come from various sources, French, Italian, and Spanish, some of which, however, had been translated into English. The Renegado is traceable to a comedy of Cervantes, Los Baños de Argel, printed in 1615. The Emperor of the East is derived from a French translation of Zonaras. If, which is doubtful, The Duke of Milan owes anything to Guicciardini, his history had appeared in an English translation by Sir Geoffrey Fenton in 1579. Fleay has a curious theory that where French scenes are found in Fletcher they are due to Massinger.
Much interesting information on the great debt which Fletcher and other dramatists owed to Spanish literature will be found in F. E. Schelling's Elizabethan Drama, vol. ii., pp. 205-218 and 530. Schelling comes to the conclusion that Fletcher did not know Spanish; but he quotes an unpublished dictum of his friend Dr. Rosenbach, who holds it as certain that Massinger knew Spanish. The Island Princess is based on a Spanish play, of which no translation is known, Conquista de las islas Malucas, by De Argensola, 1609. Rosenbach attributes the play to Massinger! It is clear, however, that a translation may have been in circulation from which Fletcher took his materials, or somebody may have seen the play acted in Spain, and reported it to him. Further, Love's Cure is based on the Comedia de la Fuerza de la Costumbre, by Guillen De Castro, licensed at Valencia, February 7th, 1625, and published three months later. Fletcher died in August, 1625, and Stiefel thinks that he read Spanish, and that this is his last work. Rosenbach and Bullen assign the play to Massinger (cf. Appendix III., No. 29). It is highly desirable that the grounds which led Rosenbach to believe that Massinger knew Spanish should be made public.
Lines 39-45 run thus:
Let them write well that do this, and in grace.
I would not for a pension or a place
Part so with over candour: let me rather
Live poorly on those toys I would not father;
Not known beyond a player or a man,
That does pursue the course that I have ran.
Ere so grow famous.
Lines 41-42 are interesting as seeming to hint that Massinger preferred to waive publicity as to his collaboration with Fletcher and others. The poem was published by A. B. Grosart in Englische Studien, xxvi., pp. 1-7, and will be found with the original spelling and punctuation in [Appendix XVII].
III., 1, 38. Cf. also Frank Wellborn's petition, V., 1, ad finem. Compare the part played in Sir John Barnavelt by the English mercenaries in Holland; and especially IV., 2.
Orange. I have sent patents out for the choicest companies
Hither to be remov'd, first Colonel Vere's
From Dort, next Sir Charles Morgan's, a stout Company.
IV., 3. Barnavelt (to his daughter):
What! wouldst thou have a husband?
Go marry an English Captain, and he'll teach thee
How to defy thy father and his fortune.
II., 1. Barnavelt:
But have you tried by any means (it skills not
How much you promise) to win th' old soldier
(The English Companies in chief I aim at)
To stand firm for us?
Guardian, II., 1, 84. Similarly in The Bashful Lover, V., 3, 110, Matilda warns Lorenzo that “Heaven's liberal hand” has designed him to fight rather against the Turk than a Christian neighbour-king. Compare The Devil's Law-case (p. 138b).
Ercole. When our bloods
Embrac'd each other, then I pitied
That so much valour should be hazarded
On the fortune of a single rapier
And not spent against the Turk.
Very Woman, III., 1, 124:
Merchant. They have a city, Sir—I have been in it.
And therefore dare affirm it—where if you saw
With what a load of vanity 'tis fraughted,
How like an everlasting morris-dance it looks,
Nothing but hobby-horse and Maid Marian,
You would start indeed.
The play ends thus:
Make you good
Your promised reformation, and instruct
Our city dames, whom wealth makes proud, to move
In their own spheres, and willingly to confess,
In their habits, manners, and their highest port,
A distance 'twixt the city and the court.
Cf. also Maid of Honour, III., 1, 84; City Madam, III., 2, 153; IV., 4, 43; New Way, II., 1, 81 and 88. In The Renegado, I., 2, distinctions are drawn between the county ladies, the city dames, and the court ladies of England. Compare also the epilogue to Henry VIII:
Others, to hear the city
Abused extremely, and to cry “that's witty.”
Rape of Lucrece, II., 1; II., 3; The Devil is an Ass, III., 1; Westward Ho! I., 1; “I tell thee, there is equality enough between a lady and a city dame if their hair be but of a colour.” Ford contrasts the ladies of the city and the court in The Broken Heart, II., 1. In Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday, I., 1, the Lord Mayor says:
Too mean is my poor girl for his high birth,
Poor citizens must not with courtiers wed.
Cf. also A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, I., 1:
Maudlin. Besides, you have a presence, sweet Sir Walter,
Able to dance a maid brought up in the city;
A brave court-spirit makes our virgins quiver.
Eastward Ho! deals with the same contrast. Cf. also the Induction to The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and ib., IV., 5; Induction to Four Plays in One.
II.; 4, 79-106. The reference to the mills is as follows:
Builders of iron mills, that grub up forests
With timber trees for shipping.
Cf. Volpone, I., 1, 33-36.
Cf. The Honest Whore, Pt. II., IV., 1:
Matheo. England is the only hell for horses, and only paradise for women. Also Lamira's words in The Honest Man's Fortune, III., 3.
Cf. op. cit., p. 381. Cf. Prologue to Henry VIII., line 13; Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, line 12, and Chorus to Act I. in The Mayor of Queensborough.
If all my powers
Can win the grace of two poor hours,
Well apaid I go to rest.
Also Prologues to Two Noble Kinsmen, lines 28, 29; Alchemist, line 1; Love's Pilgrimage, line 8; Lover's Progress, line 18 (“three short hours”); and Shirley's Preface to the Folio of Beaumont and Fletcher.
There are many touches in Henry VIII which remind one of Massinger; and not a few passages in Massinger remind one of Henry VIII. Take as an example City Madam, III., 2, 111.
Luke. O my lord!
This heap of wealth, which you possess me of,
Which to a worldly man had been a blessing,
And to the messenger might with justice challenge
A kind of adoration, is to me
A curse I cannot thank you for; and, much less
Rejoice in that tranquillity of mind
My brother's vows must purchase. I have made
A dear exchange with him: he now enjoys
My peace and poverty, the trouble of
His wealth conferr'd on me; and that a burthen
Too heavy for my weak shoulders.
Lord Lacy. Honest Soul,
With what feeling he receives it!
Or this from The Bashful Lover, IV., 2, 87.
Alonso. She cause, alas!
Her innocence knew no guilt, but too much favour.
To me unworthy of it; 'twas my baseness,
My foul ingratitude—what shall I say more?
The good Octavio no sooner fell
In the displeasure of his prince, his state
Confiscated, and he forced to leave the Court,
And she exposed to want; but all my oaths
And protestation of service to her,
Like seeming flames, raised by enchantment, vanish'd;
This, this sits heavy here.
Cf. also City Madam, I., 2,126-134. I feel inclined to say that Massinger knew Henry VIII by heart. Cf. infra, pp. 84, 85.
The Two Noble Kinsmen is a remarkable play, full of fine poetry and lofty thought. On the other hand, its technique is very immature. The Gaoler's daughter's soliloquies are inartistic, and at times ludicrous. The play has at once the dignity of an early period and the complexity of style with which we are familiar in Shakspere's later manner. One thing is clear: Act I. is by a different hand from the rest. Perhaps Shakspere and Fletcher touched up an old anonymous play.
See, however, discussion infra, pp. [84-104].
Roman Actor, III., 2, 71; Virgin Martyr, V., 2, 206. Cf. Dr. Bradley's remarks (Oxford Lectures, p. 366, note) on the blinding of Gloucester in King Lear. When the Duke in Ford's Love's Sacrifice (V., 3) stabs himself and cries aloud:
Sprightful flood,
Run out in rivers! O, that these thick streams
Could gather head, and make a standing pool,
That jealous husbands here might bathe in blood;
the words can only produce an anticlimax in the spectator's mind, however effective they may be to the reader. Massinger is more dexterous in The Fatal Dowry, IV., 4, 154: “Yes, sir; this is her heart's blood, is it not? I think it be.” There is a similar difficulty about D'Amville in The Atheist's Tragedy (V., 2) knocking out his brains with the executioner's axe; and about Scaevola in The Rape of Lucrece (V. 4) burning off his hand. Cf. also Bajazet and Zabina in Tamburlaine, Pt. I., V., 1, and Tamburlaine himself in Pt. II., III., 2.
City Madam, II., 2, 128. Among the things which Anne demands from her suitor, is:
A fresh habit,
Of a fashion never seen before, to draw
The gallants' eyes, that sit on the stage, upon me.
Cf. also Induction to The Malcontent; Induction to The Staple of News; Induction to Cynthia's Revels; Fitzdottrel in The Devil is an Ass, I., 3; Induction to Knight of the Burning Pestle; Woman-Hater, I., 3; Prologue to All Fools; and Dekker's The Guls Horne-booke, Chapter VI.
N. S. S., xxvi. 584. The “run-on” line ends with a preposition or other word which syntactically requires the next line. Take as an example Fatal Dowry, V., 2, 255:
For the fact, as of
The former, I confess it; but with what
Base wrongs I was unwillingly drawn to it,
To my few words there are some other proofs
To witness this for truth.
The “double” or “feminine” ending is the outstanding feature of Fletcher's verse. Cf. Fatal Dowry, V., 2, 137:
Rochfort. You say you are sorry for him;
A grief in which I must not have a partner.
'Tis I alone am sorry, that when I raised
The building of my life, for seventy years,
Upon so sure a ground, that all the vices
Practised to ruin man, though brought against me,
Could never undermine, and no way left
To send these grey hairs to the grave with sorrow,
Virtue, that was my patroness, betrayed me.
(Gifford inserts “when” in that third line.)
Five instances in nine lines. Fleay (Shakespeare Manual, p. 171) points out that in Shakspere's part of Henry VIII the proportion of double endings to blank verse is 1 to 3; in Fletcher's, 1 to 1·7. The weak and sugary effect of double endings is very apparent in Rowe's Fair Penitent, the eighteenth-century play, based on The Fatal Dowry.
Boyle (E. S., v. 74) takes six of Massinger's plays: The Unnatural Combat, The Duke of Milan, The Bondman, The City Madam, The Bashful Lover, and The Guardian. These are his conclusions: “The plays show in general a high percentage of double endings, generally 40 per cent, or more. The percentage of run-on lines is a little lower, but seldom sinks for more than a scene below 30 per cent. The light and weak endings together make 5 to 7 per cent. The versification is exquisitely musical. There are very few rhymes.” The corresponding figures for Fletcher are: double endings, over 50 per cent.; run-on lines, under 20 per cent.; and light and weak endings almost negligible; rhyme, rare. Shakspere in his later manner (e.g., The Tempest) has 33 per cent. double endings. (E. S., vi. 71.)
Dr. Bradley (Oxford Lectures, pp. 373-4) minimizes the objections to this custom, without, however, dwelling on the moral problem. Cf. also Mr. Percy Simpson's remarks in Shakspere's England, ii., p. 246. Prynne deals with it (Histriomastix, ed. 1633, pp. 214-216). He allows, reluctantly, that “men actors in women's attire are not altogether so bad, so discommendable as women stage-players,” but goes on to say: “since both of them are evill, yea extremely vitious, neither of them necessary, both superfluous as all playes and players are; the superabundant sinfulnesse of the one, can neither justifie the lawfulnesse, nor extenuate the wickednesse of the other.... This should rather bee the conclusion, both of them are abominable, both intolerable, neither of them laudable or necessary; therefore both of them to bee abandoned, neither of them henceforth to be tollerated among Christians.”
Ford, in Love's Sacrifice (III., 2), refers to the novelty of women-antics—i.e., of women acting in masques. It is clear that Queen Henrietta Maria, with her passion for appearing on the stage in masques, however much she may have been before the times, must have caused great scandal to the Puritan party. The complications which sometimes arise from the use of men for female parts may be illustrated from Middleton's amusing play, The Widow, where Martia is disguised as a man, Ansaldo, and, to escape further complications, is subsequently disguised as a woman, being a boy all the time. We find the same thing in the second Luce in The Wise Woman of Hogsdon.
A few instances of γνῶμαι may be given from Massinger; his debt to Shakspere will be clear:
Fatal Dowry, I., 1, 20:
There is a minute
When a man's presence speaks in his own cause
More than the tongues of twenty advocates.
Guardian, I., 1, 241:
For a flying foe
Discreet and provident conquerors build up
A bridge of gold.
Guardian, IV., 1, 99:
O dear madam,
We are all the balls of time, toss'd to and fro,
From the plough unto the throne, and back again;
Under the swing of destiny mankind suffers.
(Cf. Plautus' Captivi, Prologue, 22, “Enimvero di nos quasi pilas homines habent;” Pericles, II., 1, 63; and The Duchess of Malfi, p. 99a; Parliament of Bees, char, vii.)
Bashful Lover, IV., 1, 69:
Fortune rules all;
We are her tennis-balls.
(Cf. also Greg's Henslowe Papers, p. 143.)
Bashful Lover, III., 2, 3:
A diamond,
Though set in horn, is still a diamond
And sparkles, as in purest gold.
Very Woman, IV., 1, 90:
Revenge, that thirsty dropsy of our souls,
Which makes us covet that which hurts us most,
Is not alone sweet, but partakes of tartness.
Duke of Milan, I., 1, 60:
Dangers that we see
To threaten ruin, are with ease prevented;
But those strike deadly that come unexpected.
Great Duke of Florence, III., 1, 138:
Love
Steals sometimes through the ear into the heart,
As well as by the eye.
Picture, II., 1, 79:
Ill news, madam,
Are swallow-wing'd, but what's good walks on crutches.
Virgin Martyr, IV., 1, 103:
Pleasures forc'd
Are unripe apples; sour, not worth the plucking.
A New Way, IV., 1, 187:
Though I must grant
Riches, well-got, to be a useful servant,
But a bad master.
Bondman, I., 3, 100:
He that would govern others, first should be
The master of himself, richly endu'd
With depth of understanding, height of courage,
And those remarkable graces which I dare not
Ascribe unto myself.
Bondman, III., 1, 6:
But turbulent spirits, raised beyond themselves
With ease, are not so soon laid; they oft prove
Dangerous to him that call'd them up.
Maid of Honour. The same name is found in Ben Jonson's unfortunate New Inn, produced in 1629. Cf. also City Madam, II., 2, 182:
Mary. Whose sheep are these, whose oxen? The Lady Plenty's.
Plenty. A plentiful pox upon you.
New Way, IV., 2, 2:
Did not Master Marrall
(He has marr'd all I am sure) strictly command us?
New Way, IV., 2, 68:
No, though the great Turk came, instead of turkies
To beg any favour, I am inexorable.
IV., 3, 133:
Vitelli. Your intent to win me
To be of your belief, proceeded from
Your fear to die. Can there be strength in that
Religion, that suffers us to tremble
At that which every day, nay hour, we haste to?
Donusa. This is unanswerable, and there's something tells me
I err in my opinion.
IV., V. Cf. especially IV., 1, 138:
Lorenzo. Stay, I feel
A sudden alteration.
Martino. Here are fine whimsies.
III., 4, 148. On the other hand, Paulo in A Very Woman (III., 3, 5) observes:
To choke up his spirits in a dark room,
Is far more dangerous.
IV., 1. The language of Ding'em in The City Madam (IV.; 1, 15) takes us back to Pistol:
Thy word's a law,
And I obey. Live, scrape-shoe, and be thankful,
Thou man of muck and money, for as such
I now salute thee; the suburbian gamesters
Have heard thy fortunes, and I am, in person,
Sent to congratulate.
Cf. also A New Way, I., 2, 59:
Furnace. “I am appeased, and Furnace now grows cool.”
I., 2, 318. Cf. Prophetess, I., 2, 31:
I presently, inspired with holy fire,
And my prophetic spirit burning in me,
Gave answer from the gods.
Double Marriage, II., 4, 30:
Who stole her? Oh! my prophetic soul!
I., 2, 40. Cf. also A New Way, I., 3, 88, and Emperor of the East, V., 2, 83:
I am flesh and blood, as you are, sensible
Of heat and cold, as much a slave unto
The tyranny of my passions as the meanest
Of my poor subjects.
Thus Gardiner's dislike of Anne Boleyn (V., 1, 22) is true to history, though artistically a blemish on the play, because redundant.
The way in which in IV., 1, and elsewhere, historical details are dragged in is quite unlike Massinger, and very like Shakspere. Cf. lines 17-19, 24-29, 38-42, 47-49, 51, 52, 101-103.
Picture, II., 2, 336:
Honoria. I am full of thoughts,
And something there is here I must give form to,
Though yet an embryon.
Bondman, I., 3, 315; II., 1, 74-77; V., 2, 103; Renegado, III., 3, 97; The Virgin Martyr, III., 2, 98; Guardian, II., 3, 140; Emperor of the East, V., 1, 129; Bashful Lover, IV., 1, 200; Roman Actor, IV., 2, 105. Cf. also Emperor of the East, III., 3, 13; Thierry and Theodoret, I., 2.
It is a touch which goes back to Ovid's Metamorphoses, vi. 619: “Magnum quodcumque paravi: quid sit, adhuc dubito.”
Maid of Honour, III., 3, 142; Roman Actor, I., 1. 87; II., 1, 186; IV., 2, 85; Great Duke of Florence, I., 1, 135; III., 1, 14; V., 3, 10; Fatal Dowry, V., 2, 187; Parliament of Love, IV., 1, 8; IV., 4, 18; Guardian, II., 1, 53; III., 4, 6; A Very Woman, II., 2, 60; Picture, I., 3, 176; II., 2, 158, 307; V., 3, 47; Duke of Milan, I., 1, 74; III., 1, 221; V., 4, 18; Emperor of the East, II., 1, 73, 147; III., 1, 28; III., 2, 82; V., 3, 189; Renegado, I., 2, 78; II., 4, 95. Cf. also Beggar's Bush, V., 2. Ford uses “royal magnificence” in the same way in Perkin Warbeck (II., 1). In Ben Jonson's Staple of News (IV., 1) we find “very communicative and liberal, and began to be magnificent.” In Greene's James IV, I., 1:
Your mightiness is so magnificent,
You cannot choose but cast some gift apart.
The word “munificent” occurs in New Way, IV., 2, 109.
Some idea of the way in which the two poets collaborated may be obtained from the facts collected in [Appendix III.] Diderot, in a passage quoted by Twining, in his edition of Aristotle's Poetics (p. 253), recommends collaboration: “On seroit tenté de croire qu'un drame devrait être l'ouvrage de deux hommes de génie, l'un qui arrangeât, et l'autre qui fit parler” (De la Poés. Dram., p. 288). What Euripides thought of the arrangement will be seen in The Andromache, lines 476-77:
τόνων θ᾽ ὕμνου συνεργάταιν δυοῖν
ἔριν Μοῦσαι φιλοῦσι κραίειν.
It is clear that the early death of Beaumont was a disaster to Fletcher.
Stress is laid more than once on Massinger's modesty in the commendatory verses from his friends. Cf. Sir Thomas Jay's verses prefixed to A New Way, and Prologue to A Very Woman, lines 5, 6; Prologue to The Bashful Lover, line 4. This feature may account for a lack of worldly wisdom and self-assertion, which prevented him from reaping the full fruits of the fame which he deserved as Fletcher's collaborator in so many plays. Gerard Langbaine, in his Account of the English Dramatic Poets (Oxford, 1691), pp. 353-60, deals thus with Massinger: “He was extremely beloved by the poets of that age, and there were few but what took it as an honour to club with him in a play—witness Middleton, Rowley, Field, and Dekker, all which join'd with him in several labours. Nay further, to shew his excellency, the ingenious Fletcher took him in as a partner in several plays. He was a man of much modesty and extraordinary parts.” In The New Year's Gift to his patroness, to be found in MS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, we have an indication that Massinger was ashamed of the profession of author; we read (lines 19-21):
Nor slight it, Madam, since what some in me
Esteem a blemish, is a gift as free
As their best fortunes.
The last lines of the poem (43-46) show the familiar combination of modesty and independence:
What I give I am rich in, and can spare;
Nor part for hope with aught deserves my care;
He that hath little and gives nought at all
To them that have, is truly liberal.
Very significant are the words of Paulo in A Very Woman (IV., 1, 153):
Who fights
With passions, and o'ercomes them is endued
With the best virtue, passive fortitude.
Cf. Roman Actor, I., 1, 118; III., 1, 113; Duke of Milan, III., 1, 73; and Renegado, I., 1, 79:
All that I challenge
Is manly patience.
Cf. Sejanus, quoted above, p. 115, n. 11. Queen of Corinth, III, 2:
Euphanes. To shew the passive fortitude the best.
And Lover's Progress, IV., 4:
alcidon. With all care put on
The surest armour, anvil'd in the shop
Of passive fortitude.
This point is emphasized in Swinburne's excellent sonnet on Massinger.
Massinger has some notable compound epithets from time to time; take as examples, “pale-cheek'd stars” in Parliament of Love, IV., 2, 61; “on black-sail'd wings of loose and base desires,” Parliament of Love, V., 1, 215; “Such is my full-sail'd confidence in her virtue,” Picture, II., 2, 318; “the brass-leaved book of fate,” Believe as You List, I., 2, 136.
“Your must and will
Shall in your full-sailed confidence deceive you,”
A Very Woman, II., 2, 21.
Prologue 2, 7:
In each part,
With his best of fancy, judgment, language, art,
Fashion'd and form'd so, as might well, and may
Deserve a welcome, and no vulgar way.
V., 2, 256. Cf. IV., 2, 75:
Hold but thy nature, Duke, and be but rash,
And violent enough.
Cf. also I., 2, 30; I., 3, 369; III., 3, 252.
Touches which remind one of Massinger occur, but they are few and far between—e.g.:
I., 1, 30-70, reminds us of him here and there. (The same applies to Cleanthes' speech, I., 1, 323-345.)
I., 1, 248: “personal opposition.” (Cf. Believe as You List, IV., 2, 98.)
I., 1,362:
Cleanthes. How do you fare, sir?
Leonides. Cleanthes, never better.
(In the Henry VIII manner.)
II., 1, 41-61: The first courtier's speech.
II., 2, 73-94: Lysander's speech.
IV., 2, 1-130: see especially lines 3, 41, 72, 109.
V., 1, 54-82.
V., 1, 119-132: Lysander's speech.
V., 1, 156-175.
V., 1, 232-250: Cleanthes' speech. (Notice the parenthesis in lines 246-7.)
The play is usually assigned to 1599, on the strength of the passage where Gnotho gets the clerk to alter the Parish Chronicle (III., 1). Gayley thinks the mention of 1599 “purely dramatic” (R. E. C., III., p. lv). He says the style is not like that of Middleton in 1599, and points out that Rowley was only fourteen years of age in that year. “If Massinger had any share in the play, it was in revision, after Middleton's death in 1627.” Gayley dates the play 1614-16. It must be pointed out, however, that it is not easy to alter 40 to 39. The author could have chosen a date whose figures were more easy to deal with. I therefore think the usually accepted date is right, though it does not, of course, settle the question of authorship.
Massinger was fond of scenes in courts of justice, and it is highly probable that he elaborated the details of Act V.
V., 3, 148:
O Philanax, as thy name
Interpreted speaks thee, thou hast ever been
A lover of the King.
III., 1, 7. Cf. Ben Jonson's Staple of News, IV., 4 Pennyboy junior:
Thou appears't
κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν, a canter.
Telephus frag., 722:
Σπάρταν ἔλαχες, κείνην κόσμει;
τὰς δὲ Μυκήνας ἡμεῖς ἰδίᾳ.
Notice that in all these false quantities the stress is laid on the syllable which bears the Greek accent; that is to say, the words are scanned as a Byzantine Greek of the time would have pronounced them. Cf. in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Pt. II., IV., 4: “As in the theoria of the world.” A similar suggestion is anonymously made in The Times Literary Supplement, March 20th, 1919, for another line of Marlowe: “Our Pythagôras' Metempsýchosis.”
“Academy,” in The Emperor of the East, I., 1, 45, seems accented on the last syllable.
Cf. A Woman killed with Kindness, III., 1:
And in this ground, increased this molehill
Unto that mountain which my father left me.
The Maid in the Mill, V., 2, Bustopha:
Oh mountain, shalt thou call a molehill a scab upon the face of the earth?
Cf. False One, III., 1, 28:
Let indirect and crooked counsels vanish.
Beside the Henslow document there are to be seen at Dulwich College four signatures of Massinger, in a beautiful clear hand; three of these are attached to leases of Alleyn's, and the fourth is added to Daborne's signature to the document mentioned by Cunningham in his Preface (p. xii.). The poem “Sero sed serio” is to be found in B.M. Royal MSS. XVIII., A. 20. The signature is identical with the Dulwich signatures. The poem itself is in another hand, with many flourishes.
The only reason for supposing it to be the poet's, besides his poverty, is an erasure in line 14, which runs thus:
then
Being,^silent then,
which looks like a correction made by the author himself, currente calamo. The hand of The Second Maiden's Tragedy does not resemble that of Believe as You List. The hand of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt is uniform throughout. It is neat and full of flourishes, especially in the letter L. It is, of course, possible that Massinger wrote this in 1619. The stage directions are in a bolder hand and deep black ink. They are plainly part of the MS., and not later insertions like those in Believe as You List. I incline to think the writing is all due to an amanuensis. There is very little correction in the play, except that several long passages are very thoroughly scrawled out.
The line would make better sense if it were emended thus:
I'll have no other penance than to practise,
To find some means that he deserves thee best.
Compare A Trick, I., 1:
What trick is not an embryon at first?
“Embryon” is a favourite word of Massinger's.
I., 1: Witgood. I shall go nigh to catch that old fox, mine Uncle; though he make but some amends for my undoing, yet there's some comfort in't, he cannot otherwise choose, though it be but in hope to cozen me again, but supply any hasty want that I bring to town with me.
II., 1: Lucre. There may be hope some of the widow's lands too may one day fall upon me if things be carried wisely.
A New Way, IV., 1, 77:
Overreach. 'Tis not alone
The Lady Allworth's land, for these once Wellborn's,
As by her dotage on him I know they will be,
Shall soon be mine.
A Trick, I., 2: Witgood. Thou knowest I have a wealthy uncle, i' th' city, somewhat the wealthier for my follies.
A Trick, I., 3: Hoard. Thou that canst defeat thy own nephew, Lucre, lay his lands into bonds, and take the extremity of thy kindred's forfeitures.
A New Way, I., 1, 48:
Tapwell. Which your uncle, Sir Giles Overreach, observing
(Resolving not to lose a drop of them)
On foolish mortgages, statutes, and bonds,
For a while supplied your looseness, and then left you.
II., 1, 81:
Overreach. And 'tis my glory, though I come from the city,
To have their issue whom I have undone,
To kneel to mine as bondslaves.
A Trick, II., 1: Lucre. You've a fault, nephew; you're a stranger here; well, heaven give you joy.
A New Way, III., 2, 276:
Overreach. My nephew!
He has been too long a stranger; faith you have!
Pray, let it be mended.
A Trick, III., 1: I would forswear ... muscadine and eggs at midnight.
A New Way, IV., 2, 84:
Creditor. Your worship broke me
With trusting you with muscadine and eggs.
A Trick, IV., 4: Hoard's anticipations of his future pomp may have suggested the thoughts which Sir Giles entertains about his daughter's future estate when married to Lord Lovel.
Cf. A New Way, IV., 3, 130-141.
A Trick, IV., 5:
Sir Launcelot. I would entreat your worship's device in a just and honest cause, sir.
Dampit. I meddle with no such matters.
A New Way, II., 1, 23:
Overreach. The other wisdom,
That does prescribe us a well-governed life,
And to do right to others, as ourselves,
I value not an atom.