Massinger may therefore have known the play, but I differ entirely from Boyle's estimate. He thinks Massinger wrote Acts I. and II., Tourneur Acts III., IV., V. I see no trace of Massinger in Act I., except the reference in line 541 to a “cup of nectar.” The sudden repentance of the heroine's father Helvetius, in Act II., 1, 253, reminds us of a trait of Massinger referred to above;[576] but the style of the first two acts is too feeble and vague, and the metre too halting for him.[577] I cannot suppose that at the age of twenty-seven Massinger could have taken part in writing a play where “A voice from within” the tomb says to the mourning husband, “I am not here!”[578]
Appendix XIV. “The Powerful Favorite”[579]
“The Powerful Favorite, or the life of Aelius Sejanus, by P. M., printed at Paris, 1628.” So runs the title in the English translation.
Two translations of Pierre Matthieu's book, “Histoire d'Aelius Sejanus,” appeared in the same year. One is padded out with additions; in the shorter and more exact translation, the initials on the title-page of the Bodleian copy have been filled out thus: P. Massinger.
We know that Massinger's political sympathies were against the Duke of Buckingham, and it is probable that a Life of Sejanus may have attracted attention at a time when the parallel was drawn and the unpopularity great; but it is simpler to suppose that P. M. stands for the French author. It would require some courage to publish under one's own name or initials a translation of the book.
It is noteworthy that in 1632, after Buckingham's death, a translation appeared by Sir T. Hawkins. The title which he gave his book was “Unhappy prosperitie expressed in the histories of Aelius Sejanus and Philippa, the Catanian.” Underneath he adds the words: “Written in French by P. Matthieu.”
Appendix XV. “Double Falsehood”
In 1728 there appeared at London a play with the following title: “Double Falsehood, or The Distressed Lovers; written originally by W. Shakespeare, and now revised and adapted to the stage by Mr. Theobald, the author of Shakespeare Restor'd.”