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.