The speech of Sanazarro to Giovanni in The Great Duke of Florence[525] reminds us of Creon's arguments in Sophocles' Œdipus Tyrannus, line 596 κ.τ.λ.
The scene in The Bondman,[526] when the senators frighten the mutinous slaves by shaking their whips, reminds us of the Scythians in Herodotus,[527] but it is also found in Justin,[528] and Gifford points out that it may really have been borrowed from a contemporary book of travels, Purchas's Pilgrims.[529]
Massinger had a good working knowledge of mythology; thus, references in his plays to Hercules and Alcides abound, as they do in Shakspere. We find several false quantities in proper names: Caesarĕa, in The Virgin Martyr; Archidămus, in The Bondman; Eubŭlus, in The Picture; Nomothētae, in The Old Law[530]; Cybēle, in Believe as You List.[531] We may compare Shakspere's Andronĭcus; Anthrŏpos in Four Plays in One, The Triumph of Time; and Euphānes in The Queen of Corinth.[532]
It seems scarcely worth while to collect the passages which show Massinger's knowledge of Latin; the authors he seems to have known best are Ovid, Juvenal, and Horace. Swinburne and others have commented on his indulgence in “the commonplace tropes and flourishes of the schoolroom or the schools.”[533]
Appendix III. The Collaborated Plays
The plays in which Massinger is supposed to have collaborated with other authors are here set down, with the analyses made by Boyle (D. N. B., xxxvii., pp. 10-16) and the views of Mr. A. H. Bullen in his article on Fletcher (D. N. B., xix., pp. 303-311).[534]
1. The Honest Man's Fortune. (Field, Daborne, Massinger, Fletcher.)
M.: Act III. or part of it.
A. H. B. agrees.