Chapter VII: Appendix: II

Did Massinger know Greek? It is perhaps worth while collecting the scanty evidence on the subject. We find a pun on the name Philanax in _The Emperor of the East_,(510) and Mathias plays on the name of his wife Sophia.(511) The phrase κατ᾽ ἐξοήν is used in _The Guardian_.(512) We find a Greek construction in _The Emperor of the East_:(513)

And that before he gives he would consider
The what, to whom, and wherefore.

On the other hand, we notice Theseus scanned as a trisyllable.(514)

There are one or two passages where the unexpected turn of the thought rather suggests a Greek original. Thus, in _The Renegado_(515) we are reminded of _The Acharnians_:(516)

GAZET. What places of credit are there?

CARAZIE. Chief gardener.

GAZET. Out upon’t! ’Twill put me in mind my mother was an herb
woman.

Another passage of THE RENEGADO(517) reminds us of a famous fragment of Euripides,(518) often mistranslated:

ASAMBEG. At Aleppo
I durst not press you so far: give me leave
To use my own will and command in Tunis.

In _The Virgin Martyr_(519) we find a parallel to _The Hecuba_:(520)

THEOPHILUS. As a curious painter,
When he has made some honourable piece,
Stands off, and with a searching eye examines
Each colour, how ’tis sweeten’d; and then hugs
Himself for his rare workmanship.

In _The Emperor of the East_(521) occurs a parallel quoted by Dr. Walter Headlam in his notes to _Agamemnon_:(522)

THEODOSIUS. What an earthquake I feel in me!
And on the sudden my whole fabric totters!
My blood within me turns, and through my veins,
Parting with natural redness, I discern it
Chang’d to a fatal yellow.

It is the general opinion of scholars that our Elizabethan dramatists owed very little to the Greek drama directly, but we cannot forget that Massinger had had a good education at Oxford, and was a widely read man.(523) His forensic skill often reminds us of Euripides; and if he did not know the works of his illustrious predecessor, he would have found in them a congenial spirit.(524)

The speech of Sanazarro to Giovanni in _The Great Duke of Florence_(525) reminds us of Creon’s arguments in Sophocles’ _Œdipus Tyrannus_, line 596 κ.τ.λ.

The scene in _The Bondman_,(526) when the senators frighten the mutinous slaves by shaking their whips, reminds us of the Scythians in _Herodotus_,(527) but it is also found in _Justin_,(528) and Gifford points out that it may really have been borrowed from a contemporary book of travels, Purchas’s _Pilgrims_.(529)

Massinger had a good working knowledge of mythology; thus, references in his plays to Hercules and Alcides abound, as they do in Shakspere. We find several false quantities in proper names: Caesarĕa, in _The Virgin Martyr_; Archidămus, in _The Bondman_; Eubŭlus, in _The Picture_; Nomothētae, in _The Old Law_(530); Cybēle, in _Believe as You List_.(531) We may compare Shakspere’s _Andronĭcus_; Anthrŏpos in _Four Plays in One_, _The Triumph of Time_; and Euphānes in _The Queen of Corinth_.(532)

It seems scarcely worth while to collect the passages which show Massinger’s knowledge of Latin; the authors he seems to have known best are Ovid, Juvenal, and Horace. Swinburne and others have commented on his indulgence in “the commonplace tropes and flourishes of the schoolroom or the schools.”(533)

APPENDIX III. THE COLLABORATED PLAYS

The plays in which Massinger is supposed to have collaborated with other authors are here set down, with the analyses made by Boyle (_D. N. B._, xxxvii., pp. 10-16) and the views of Mr. A. H. Bullen in his article on Fletcher (_D. N. B._, xix., pp. 303-311).(534)

1. _The Honest Man’s Fortune._ (Field, Daborne, Massinger, Fletcher.)

M.: Act III. or part of it.

A. H. B. agrees.

A. H. C.: I doubt whether Massinger had any share in this play. There are passages of ten-syllable lines in Act III., 1 which are quite unlike him, while 2 and 3 are interspersed with prose passages, a feature which Massinger as a rule avoids.

2. _Thierry and Theodoret._ (Massinger, Field, Fletcher, and possibly a fourth writer.)

M: Act I., 2; Act II., 1, 3; Act IV., 2.

A. H. B. attributes largely to Massinger, assigning Act III. to an unknown author.

A. H. C. assigns to Massinger Act II., 1 and 3, and with some hesitation Act I., 2; Act IV., 2.

3. _The Bloody Brother._ (Massinger, Field, Fletcher, and possibly a fourth writer.)

M.: Act I., Act V., 1.

A. H. B. thinks that Fletcher and Jonson wrote the play, and that Massinger revised it for a performance at Hampton Court in January, 1636-37.

A. H. C.: There are clearly three hands at work here, one of whom writes obscurely and uses a good deal of rhyme. Act I., 1 reminds us of Massinger in several touches, especially lines 269-70. The broken lines in this scene are complete, as is Massinger’s unfailing practice, but the ten-syllable line is more common than is usually the case with him. While