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.