_ 535 R. E. C._, p. lxxxii.
_ 536 R. E. C._, pp. lxxxiii-lxxxiv.
537 In particular G. Hill’s poem deserves attention.
538 I have read with interest and care E. H. C. Oliphant’s articles in
_Englische Studien_ (xiv., xv., xvi.). He finds more work of
Beaumont in the plays than other scholars. Though his knowledge of
the whole subject is great, his analysis seems to me too subtle;
thus in _The Fair Maid of the Inn_ we find, according to Mr.
Oliphant, scenes written by (1) Massinger, (2) Massinger and Rowley,
(3) Beaumont and Massinger, (4) Beaumont, Fletcher, and Massinger.
Fletcher’s part in the play is ultimately reduced to a few lines in
IV., 1! I cannot agree with him that Massinger wrote any of _The
Coxcomb_, _The Faithful Friends_, or _Love’s Pilgrimage_. In _The
Faithful Friends_ the metre is very careless, and the occasional
bursts of bombast are not like Massinger. There are touches of his
style in the play, which suggest that a pupil may have helped
Fletcher. _The Coxcomb_ and _Love’s Pilgrimage_ seem to me very
characteristic works of Beaumont and Fletcher. Mr. Oliphant has also
discovered (_Modern Language Review_, III., pp. 337-355) that
Massinger wrote a considerable portion of _The Tempest_ and
_Cymbeline_. It is not long since that we were reminded, in other
departments of art, of Lucas and Leonardo, of Ozias Humfrey and
Romney. The critical scent which Mr. Oliphant requires of his
readers postulates a super-dog careering through the literary
thickets of the English language. Let us rather read and enjoy our
composite plays, without meticulous analysis.
_ 539 Cf._ _A Woman killed with Kindness_, III., 1:
And in this ground, increased this molehill
Unto that mountain which my father left me.
_The Maid in the Mill_, V., 2, Bustopha:
Oh mountain, shalt thou call a molehill a scab upon the face of the
earth?
_ 540 Cf._ _False One_, III., 1, 28:
Let indirect and crooked counsels vanish.
541 Compare also _Eastward Ho!_ Act II.: GOLDING. Let me beseech you,
no, sir: the superfluity and cold meat left at their nuptials will
with bounty furnish ours.—Act III., 2: QUICKSILVER. Your father, and
some one more, stole to church with them in all the haste, that the
cold meat left at your wedding might serve to furnish their nuptial
table.
542 For this frequent effect in Homer _cf._ _Iliad_, I., lines 100, 103,
132, 139, 144, 160, 184, 195, etc. In the _Agamemnon_ and
_Alcestis_, to take no other plays, note the following: _Agamemnon_
15, 1047, 1079, 1123; _Alcestis_, 154, 181, 203, 339, 347, 619.
543 The quadrisyllabic scansion of such a word as “remission”
(_Parliament of Love_, II., 2, 107) has not, in my opinion, any
metrical significance in Massinger. It is, indeed, very frequently
found, so frequently as to be no criterion of his style. I fancy
that it may be more often found in passages which he wrote against
time, or when his head was tired.
544 Page 59, n. 1.
545 The autograph and Herbert’s Imprimatur are reproduced in facsimile
in the Percy Society volume. But would Massinger have referred to
himself as _Mr._ Massenger [_sic_]?
_ 546 Apology_, ii. 203. C. Cibber, in a list of dramatic authors, makes
reference to Massinger’s plays. He says: “Mr. Massinger, I believe,
was author of several other dramatic pieces: one I have seen in MS.,
which I am assured was acted, by the proper quotations, etc. The
title runs thus: ‘Believe as you list, written by Mr. Massinger,
with the following licence: “This play, called ‘Believe as you
list,’ may be acted this 6th of May, 1631. Henry Herbert.” ’ ”
Malone (_Shakspere_, vol. iii., p. 230) gives the date (_i.e._, of
the actual performance as May 7th, 1631.
547 The references are as follows: II., 2, 368; III., 1, 20; IV., 3,
initial stage direction.
548 Beside the Henslow document there are to be seen at Dulwich College
four signatures of Massinger, in a beautiful clear hand; three of
these are attached to leases of Alleyn’s, and the fourth is added to
Daborne’s signature to the document mentioned by Cunningham in his
Preface (p. xii.). The poem “_Sero sed serio_” is to be found in
B.M. Royal MSS. XVIII., A. 20. The signature is identical with the
Dulwich signatures. The poem itself is in another hand, with many
flourishes.
The only reason for supposing it to be the poet’s, besides his
poverty, is an erasure in line 14, which runs thus:
then
Being,^silent then,
which looks like a correction made by the author himself, _currente
calamo_. The hand of _The Second Maiden’s Tragedy_ does not resemble
that of _Believe as You List_. The hand of _Sir John Van Olden
Barnavelt_ is uniform throughout. It is neat and full of flourishes,
especially in the letter L. It is, of course, possible that
Massinger wrote this in 1619. The stage directions are in a bolder
hand and deep black ink. They are plainly part of the MS., and not
later insertions like those in _Believe as You List_. I incline to
think the writing is all due to an amanuensis. There is very little
correction in the play, except that several long passages are very
thoroughly scrawled out.
_ 549 Cf._ Appendix VIII.: I., 1, 26; I., 2, 186; II., 1, 51; II., 2,
217; II., 2, 368; III., 1, 20; IV., 3, stage direction.
_ 550 Cf._ Appendix VIII.: I., 1, 60; I., 2, 67; I., 2, 72; II., 2, 52;
II., 2, 56; III., 3, 151; III., 3, 234; IV., 1, 7.
_ 551 Cf._ Appendix VIII.: II., 2, 285; IV., 1, 5; IV., 3, 44.
_ 552 Cf._ Appendix VIII.: II., 2, 98; II., 2, 240; III., 3, 166; IV., 4,
45.
_ 553 Cf._ p. 15, n. 1.
554 Koeppel (_Quellen-Studien_) traces the story to P. V. P. Cayet’s
_Chronologie Septenaire_, Paris, 1605. He does not seem to have
consulted _The Strangest Adventure_, a copy of which may be seen in
the British Museum. _The True History of the Late and Lamentable
Adventures of D. S._ (London, 1602) begins with the imprisonment at
Naples, and agrees with Cayet almost verbally until the latter part.
_The Continuation of the Lamentable Adventures_ (London, 1603) is
very dull, and contributes nothing except the advice of an old man
to Sebastian, which may have suggested the first scene of the play.
The two tracts are to be found in Harleian Miscellany (iv., 403; v.,
443). _Cf._ also Scott-Saintsbury’s _Dryden_, vii., p. 309, _n._ The
English pamphlets are based on the _Aventure Amirable_, published in
1601. (_Cf._ Bullen’s _Peele_, i, 227.) Massinger must have used
Cayet for the incidents in the latter part of the play.
555 After Berecinthius says “His stature! speech!” in I., 2, 186.
556 I., 2, 187.
557 I., 2, 188.
558 I., 2, 189.
559 The “Austrian lip” is one of the features Mistress Carol ascribes to
Fairfield in Shirley’s _Hyde Park_ (III., 2).
560 I., 2, 186.
561 I., 1, 64.
562 I., 1, 135.
_ 563 Shakespeare Society’s Papers_, vol. iv., art. xiv.
_ 564 Shakespeare Society’s Papers_, p. 138.
565 Famous names. “Taylor acted Hamlet incomparably well.” Colley
Cibber’s _Apology_, 2, 142
566 V., 2, 139.
567 See p. 180, n. 1, and _cf._ _The Alchemist_, IV., 1.
_ 568 Cf._ _The Sea Voyage_, III. 1.
_ 569 Cf._ 178, n. 6.
570 For repetition of a word _cf._ II., 3, 51; III., 2, 31; III., 3,
105; IV., 5, 27, 45, 85, 98, 142.
571 The line would make better sense if it were emended thus:
I’ll have no other penance _than_ to practise,
To find some means that he deserves thee best.
572 Mr. Bullen (vol. iv., App., p. 381) shows that the play was produced
in August, 1619, after some objections had been raised to it by the
Bishop of London.
_ 573 Old Plays_, vol. ii., App. 2, contains much information from Boyle
about Massinger’s style. _Inter alia_, he says, “Fletcher as usual
spoiled Massinger’s fine conception of Barnavelt, and made him whine
like Buckingham in _Henry VIII_.”
574 It is also to be found in Dodsley’s _Old English Plays_, ed. W. C.
Hazlitt, 1875, vol. x.
575 The name Goffe is so carefully obliterated that it is uncertain; but
it is curious to note that Goffe and Massinger are in juxtaposition
in the passage of _Don Zara del Fogo_ referred to _supra_, p. 77 n.
3.
_ 576 Supra_, p. 74.
577 Mr. Phelan (pp. 48-49) argues that this play is really the lost play
by Massinger, entitled _The Tyrant_. Tieck translated the play as
being by Massinger. Mr. P. Simpson has pointed out to me that _The
Second Maiden’s Tragedy_ is entered on the Stationers’ Register for
September 9th, 1653, immediately after several of Massinger’s plays.
He justly observes that the juxtaposition is fortuitous.
578 Act IV., 4.
_ 579 Cf._ Phelan, _op. cit._, p. 3.
580 Sir A. W. Ward (II., 5282) seems disposed to assign it to Shirley.
581 Compare this with the scene in Ford’s _’Tis Pity She’s a Whore_
where Annabella gives the Friar a letter from an upper window.
582 Compare _A Trick_, I., 1:
What trick is not an embryon at first?
“Embryon” is a favourite word of Massinger’s.
I., 1: WITGOOD. I shall go nigh to catch that old fox, mine Uncle;
though he make but some amends for my undoing, yet there’s some
comfort in’t, he cannot otherwise choose, though it be but in hope
to cozen me again, but supply any hasty want that I bring to town
with me.
II., 1: LUCRE. There may be hope some of the widow’s lands too may
one day fall upon me if things be carried wisely.
_A New Way_, IV., 1, 77:
OVERREACH. ’Tis not alone
The Lady Allworth’s land, for these once Wellborn’s,
As by her dotage on him I know they will be,
Shall soon be mine.
_A Trick_, I., 2: WITGOOD. Thou knowest I have a wealthy uncle, i’
th’ city, somewhat the wealthier for my follies.
_A Trick_, I., 3: HOARD. Thou that canst defeat thy own nephew,
Lucre, lay his lands into bonds, and take the extremity of thy
kindred’s forfeitures.
_A New Way_, I., 1, 48:
TAPWELL. Which your uncle, Sir Giles Overreach, observing
(Resolving not to lose a drop of them)
On foolish mortgages, statutes, and bonds,
For a while supplied your looseness, and then left you.
II., 1, 81:
OVERREACH. And ’tis my glory, though I come from the city,
To have their issue whom I have undone,
To kneel to mine as bondslaves.
_A Trick_, II., 1: Lucre. You’ve a fault, nephew; you’re a stranger
here; well, heaven give you joy.
_A New Way_, III., 2, 276:
OVERREACH. My nephew!
He has been too long a stranger; faith you have!
Pray, let it be mended.
_A Trick_, III., 1: I would forswear ... muscadine and eggs at
midnight.
_A New Way_, IV., 2, 84:
CREDITOR. Your worship broke me
With trusting you with muscadine and eggs.
_A Trick_, IV., 4: Hoard’s anticipations of his future pomp may have
suggested the thoughts which Sir Giles entertains about his
daughter’s future estate when married to Lord Lovel.
_Cf._ _A New Way_, IV., 3, 130-141.
_A Trick_, IV., 5:
SIR LAUNCELOT. I would entreat your worship’s device in a just and
honest cause, sir.
DAMPIT. I meddle with no such matters.
_A New Way_, II., 1, 23:
OVERREACH. The other wisdom,
That does prescribe us a well-governed life,
And to do right to others, as ourselves,
I value not an atom.
583 Compare the way in which Massinger, in _The Great Duke of Florence_,
transfers to Italy _A Knacke to Know a Knave_. (Hazlitt’s _Dodsley_,
vi.)
584 Lines in another hand inserted in a space left blank at the top of
p. 555.
585 Marginal note in a third hand.
_ 586 I.e._, precedents.
587 To take.
588 In the Malone copy in the Bodleian line 23 has disappeared, and at
the end of line 22 rather less of the letters is preserved than at
the beginning.
589 The misprint is in the original.
590 Add references in Letters, edited by C. Ainger, vol. i., pp. 23, 24,
136, 154.