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.