Philip Massinger Part 16

In _Eng. Stud._, ix. 234, Boyle, with some hesitation, regards this play as an early, anonymous, and unsuccessful attempt of Ma.s.singers. Whoever wrote it, the work is immature.

A. H. C. I find no trace of Ma.s.singer in this play, but a great deal of Tourneurs manner. _Cf._ Appendix XIII.

22. _Loves Cure._ (Ma.s.singer and (?) Middleton.)

M.: Act I.; Act IV.; Act V., 1, 2.

A. H. B. agrees that the play is due to Ma.s.singer and Middleton.

Fleay thinks that Ma.s.singer altered a play by Beaumont and Fletcher.

A. H. C.: It is to be noted that the Prologue expressly attributes the play to Beaumont and Fletcher. I find nothing like Ma.s.singer except a few touches in Act I., 1 and 3. The lightheartedness of the play reminds us alike of Fletcher and Middleton; the romantic atmosphere reminds us of the former, the inferiority of the metre of the latter.

23. _The Fatal Dowry._ (Ma.s.singer and Field.)

M.: Act I.; Act III. (to Enter Novall junior); Act IV., 2, 3, 4; Act V., 1, 2.

For further discussion _cf._ Appendix XI.

24. _The Virgin Martyr._ (Ma.s.singer and Dekker.)

M.: Act I.; Act III., 1, 2; Act IV., 3; Act V., 2.

For a discussion of this verdict _cf._ Appendix X.

25. _The Old Law._ (Ma.s.singer, Middleton, Rowley.)

Ma.s.singers share was slight, and can only have consisted in revision for a later performance. _Cf._ supra, pp. 141-2.

OTHER PLAYS ATTRIBUTED IN PART TO Ma.s.sINGER.

26. _The Laws of Candy._

A. H. B. thinks a large part was written by Ma.s.singer, and that Fletcher cannot be traced.

Boyle (_Eng. Stud._, vii. 75) thinks that though the metrical treatment is like Beaumonts, the play is evidently later in date, perhaps due to Shirley. Fleay (_Eng. Stud._, ix. 23) a.s.signs it to Ma.s.singer and Field.

Macaulay says probably by Ma.s.singer and another author (not Fletcher).

A. H. C.: I find no trace here of the Ma.s.singer that we know.

27. _The Captain._

Macaulay: By Fletcher and another, perhaps Ma.s.singer.

A. H. C.: This is one of the many plays in the Fletcher corpus which begins admirably and falls away into improbability. I find no trace of Ma.s.singer here, though the incident in Act IV., 5 reminds one of the banquet in _The Guardian_, Act III., 6.

28. _The Cure for a Cuckold_, a pleasant comedy written by John Webster and William Rowley; London, 1661.

It has been supposed by Fleay that the first act is due to Ma.s.singer. It must be pointed out that a large part of the play is written in prose, and that the verse parts are not like Ma.s.singer. If one or two phrases remind us of his style the stage is too crowded to make it likely that it is his design. The real reason, no doubt, for the a.s.sumption is that the incident of Clare and Lessingham is similar to one in _The Parliament of Love_.

Clare sends a letter to Lessingham in which she tells him she will marry him if he will kill his dearest friend.

Prove all thy friends, find out the best and nearest, Kill for my sake that friend that loves thee dearest.

But even so the incident is worked out with much variety in detail.

Mr. Rupert Brooke in his _Study on Webster_ (Appendix J) arrives at the conclusion that Websters play is subsequent to Ma.s.singers, both of them bearing a general resemblance to Marstons _Dutch Courtesan_. The stinging and incisive vigour of Marstons play is a great contrast to the romantic treatment of the subject in _The Parliament of Love_.

29. _The Island Princess._

This is rather a dull play, though it contains some fine pa.s.sages and isolated lines. It is well constructed, and contains one or two touches, such as I love a soldier (I., 2) and something shall be thought on (II., 7), which recall Ma.s.singer. And compare When the streams flow clear and fair, what are the fountains? (V., 2) with _The Bondman_, I., 3, 282.

The King in gaol reminds us of _Believe as You List_; the attempt of the Queen Quisara to convert Armusia to her faith reminds us of _The Renegado_. On the other hand, the metre is singularly like Fletchers throughout; the diction in many details is unlike Ma.s.singer, and there are no parentheses. Perhaps Fletcher was helped in this play by some young man such as Brome who was acquainted with Ma.s.singers style.

30. _The Double Falsehood, or The Distressed Lovers._

This play scarcely deserves serious consideration. _Cf._ Appendix XV.

It will at once be seen how precarious and subjective is much of this attribution. For example, to trace four styles in a play is a difficult feat, yet Boyle does this in (2) and (3). Brander Matthews, in discussing the relation of Ma.s.singer and Fletcher, has some interesting remarks, ill.u.s.trated by modern parallels. He points out that collaboration may be either a chemical union or a mechanical mixture of the authors qualities, so that it is hard to decide which process has taken place in a particular play. These considerations lead him to doubt the finality of Boyles distribution of scenes.

Boyles strong points are his argument from metrical details and his intimate knowledge of the texts. I feel, however, that the metrical test is open to the charge of being mechanical when weighed against the impressions which we gain from the evidence of construction, style, and expressions. Ma.s.singer constructed his plays well, and modelled his characters carefully, whereas Fletcher, while excelling in isolated scenes, shrank from no improbability which might be necessary to carry the plot through. I am more conservative, therefore, than Professor Gayley, who says that in _The Spanish Curate_, _The Little French Lawyer_, _The Prophetess_, and _The Beggars Bush_ Ma.s.singers contribution was fully as important as Fletchers. The general design appears to be the work of the former. Fletcher fills in the details of comic business;(535) and that he has no doubt about Ma.s.singers part in _The Knight of Malta_, _The Lovers Progress_, and _The Elder Brother_.(536)

Next, with regard to style and expression, when we remember the intimacy of the two men, it is quite possible that Ma.s.singer imitated Fletcher consciously or unconsciously at some time of his life, and _vice versa_.

Or we may put it in this way: there was a certain amount of conventional stock-in-trade common to the two writers, such a phrase, for instance, as, To the temple when the inevitable marriage ceremony is to take place. It would be absurd to suppose that Fletcher never used such a phrase as write nil ultra, which is no doubt a distinguishing mark of Ma.s.singers style. Again, Fletcher may have worked over drafts of scenes in the first instance written by Ma.s.singer, and there is evidence for supposing that in many cases revision for a revival rather than co-operation is the clue.

Ma.s.singers good judgment would make him an excellent reviser.

It must, however, be allowed that the large amount of agreement between two experts such as Boyle and Bullen is remarkable. We cannot acquit those who produced the Folio of Beaumont and Fletcher in 1647 of negligence in omitting to give their due to Ma.s.singer and other collaborators. On the other hand, it might be argued that if Ma.s.singers share in Fletchers plays were as large as Boyle believes it to have been, the Folio would for very shame have acknowledged it; and it must be pointed out that the large ma.s.s of commendatory verses prefixed to the Folio entertains no doubt of the traditional authorship.(537)

Believing that the matter of first importance is to estimate Ma.s.singer from the plays which he undoubtedly wrote, I have not given above my evidence in full for the impressions which I have formed of the collaborated plays. The results of my study of these plays may be summarised as follows: Ma.s.singer wrote considerable portions of _The Prophetess_, _The False One_, and _Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_. His work can be traced in _Thierry and Theodoret_ and _The b.l.o.o.d.y Brother_. He wrote the greater part of Acts I. and V. of _The Queen of Corinth_, and of Acts I. and V. of _The Elder Brother_. He wrote much of the same acts in _The Little French Lawyer_, _The Spanish Curate_, _The Fair Maid of the Inn_. He may have a.s.sisted in _The Knight of Malta_. He revised for subsequent performance _The Custom of the Country_ and _The Lovers Progress_. He had nothing to do with _The Honest Mans Fortune_, _The Sea Voyage_, _The Double Marriage_, _The Beggars Bush_, _Loves Cure_, _The Laws of Candy_, _The Captain_, _The Cure for a Cuckold_, _The Island Princess_. In my opinion, Ma.s.singers hand can be most clearly discerned in (1) serious plays; (2) the serious parts of plays; (3) the first and last acts of a joint composition.(538)

APPENDIX IV. ON THE INFLUENCE OF SHAKSPERE

The instances quoted in the text can be supplemented by many others.

Compare the diction and thought of the following pa.s.sages:

_Maid of Honour_, IV., 3, 61:

Ministers of mercy, Mock not calamity.

_Hamlet_, I., 4, 39: