Philip Massinger Part 4

Compare also these lines from _The Guardian_:

And if you shew not An appet.i.te, and a strong one, Ill not say To eat it, but devour it, without grace too, For it will not stay a preface, I am shamed, And all my past provocatives will be jeerd at.(148)

From _The Picture_:

HONORIA. That you please, sir, With such a.s.surances of love and favour, To grace your handmaid, but in being yours, sir, A matchless queen, and one that knows herself so, Binds me in retribution to deserve The grace conferrd upon me.(149)

From _A Very Woman_:

PAULO. This friend was plighted to a beauteous woman, (Nature proud of her workmanship) mutual love Possessed them both, her heart in his heart lodged And his in hers.(150)

From _The Bashful Lover_:

ALONZO. By me, his nephew, He does salute you fairly, and entreats (A word not suitable to his power and greatness) You would consent to tender that, which he Unwillingly must force, if contradicted.(151)

From _The Parliament of Love_:

What coy she, then, Though great in birth, not to be paralleld For natures liberal bounties, (both set off With fortunes trappings, wealth); but, with delight, Gladly acknowledged such a man her servant?(152)

It has been pointed out by Zielinski that the perfection of language in regard to the formation of periods depends upon the presence and prevalence of abbreviated by-sentences,(153) by which expression he describes absolute constructions.

Secondly, he delights in an expedient which the poems of Robert Browning have made familiar to this generation, the frequent omission of the relative p.r.o.noun.(154) And so his sentences meander with a seemingly negligent grace to an unexpected conclusion. It is clear that such a style both requires and repays a careful study of the rhetorical art.

I give as an instance of this combination the words of Paulinus in _The Emperor of the East_. He is talking of the Emperors sister and Prime Minister Pulcheria:

She indeed is A perfect phnix, and disdains a rival.

Her infant years, as you know, promised much, But grown to ripeness she transcends, and makes Credulity her debtor. I will tell you In my blunt way, to entertain the time Until you have the happiness to see her, How in your absence she hath borne herself, And with all possible brevity; though the subject Is such a s.p.a.cious field, as would require An abstract of the purest eloquence (Derivd from the most famous orators The nurse of learning, Athens, shewd the world) In that man that should undertake to be Her true historian.(155)

The style of Ma.s.singer is not only lucid and dexterous; it is strong, partly because of its ease, and more mature and modern than that of many of his contemporaries. Miltons prose would have gained much in directness if he had studied Ma.s.singer. This strength does not show itself so much in isolated fine lines, for, as we have already seen, epigram was foreign to his nature, though from time to time we get such lines, as, for example, in _The Duke of Milan_:

One smile of hers would make a savage tame; One accent of that tongue would calm the seas, _Though all the winds at once strove there for empire_.(156)

Or, again, in the same play:

How coldly you receive it! I expected The mere relation of so great a blessing, _Borne proudly on the wings of sweet revenge_, Would have calld on a sacrifice of thanks.(157)

Or, again, in _A New Way_:

OVERREACH. The garments of her widowhood laid by, _She now appears as glorious as the spring_.(158)

Or in _The Roman Actor_:

Could I imp feathers to the wings of time, Or with as little ease command the sun _To scourge his coursers up heavens eastern hill_.(159)

We may remark in pa.s.sing that Ma.s.singers best single lines are usually decasyllabic.

It has been remarked by Mr. Swinburne, whose discerning judgment of the Jacobean dramatists has lavished just praise on Ma.s.singers art and style, that in the second act of _Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_, the student will say, This tune goes manly, and it is remarkable that our poet had formed in 1619 the style which marked him to the end of his life.(160)

An instance of this simple strength may be given from _The City Madam_, where Luke debates whether he shall agree to the proposition of the pretended Indians:

LUKE. Give me leave(_walks aside_) I would not lose this purchase. A grave matron!

And two pure virgins! Umph, I think my sister, Though proud, was ever honest, and my nieces Untainted yet. Why should not they be shippd For this employment? They are burthensome to me, _And eat too much_.(161)

When rudeness is necessary it is uttered with some vigour, as in _The Fatal Dowry_, where this is what Romont gets for his well-meant pains:

ROCHFORT. Sir, if you please To bear yourself as fits a gentleman, The house is at your service; but if not, Though you seek company elsewhere, your absence Will not be much lamented.(162)

The rejected lover in such a scene as the following has no illusions left him:

MUSTAPHA. All happiness

DONUSA. Be sudden.

Twas saucy rudeness in you, sir, to press On my retirements; but ridiculous folly To waste the time that might be better spent, In complimental wishes.

CORISCA. Theres a cooling For his hot encounter! (_aside_)

DONUSA. Come you here to stare?

If you have lost your tongue and use of speech, Resign your government; theres a mutes place void In my uncles court, I hear; and you may want me To write for your preferment.(163)

Two minor features of Ma.s.singers style may be mentioned here: