I met this crown.
Here, again, Massinger gives the general forensic statement, Shakespeare the particular image. “Indirect crook’d” is forceful in Shakespeare; a mere pleonasm in Massinger. “Crook’d ways” is a metaphor; Massinger’s phrase only the ghost of a metaphor.
Massinger: And now, in the evening,
When thou shoud'st pass with honour to thy rest,
Wilt thou fall like a meteor?
Shakespeare: I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.
Here the lines of Massinger have their own beauty. Still, a “bright exhalation” appears to the eye and makes us catch our breath in the evening; “meteor” is a dim simile; the word is worn.
Massinger: What you deliver to me shall be lock’d up