Chapter XXI: Act I: The metrical arrangement is most slovenly throughout

'Strat'. As well as masque can be, &c.

and all that follows to 'who is return'd'--is plainly blank verse, and falls easily into it.

Ib. Speech of Melantius:--

These soft and silken wars are not for me:
The music must be shrill, and all confus'd,
That stirs my blood; and then I dance with arms.

What strange self-trumpeters and tongue-bullies all the brave soldiers of Beaumont and Fletcher are! Yet I am inclined to think it was the fashion of the age from the Soldier's speech in the Counter Scuffle; and deeper than the fashion B. and F. did not fathom.

Ib. Speech of Lysippus:--

Yes, but this lady
Walks discontented, with her wat'ry eyes
Bent on the earth, &c.

Opulent as Shakspeare was, and of his opulence prodigal, he yet would not have put this exquisite piece of poetry in the mouth of a no-character, or as addressed to a Melantius. I wish that B. and F. had written poems instead of tragedies.

Ib.

'Mel'. I might run fiercely, not more hastily, Upon my foe.

Read

I might run more fiercely, not more hastily.--

Ib. Speech of Calianax:--

Office! I would I could put it off! I am sure I sweat quite through my
office!

The syllable _off_ reminds the testy statesman of his robe, and he carries on the image.

Ib. Speech of Melantius:--

--Would that blood,
That sea of blood, that I have lost in fight, &c.

All B. and F.'s generals are pugilists, or cudgel-fighters, that boast of their bottom and of the _claret_ they have shed.

Ib. The Masque;--Cinthia's speech:--

But I will give a greater state and glory,
And raise to time a _noble_ memory
Of what these lovers are.

I suspect that 'nobler,' pronounced as 'nobiler'--[Symbol (metrical): U-=shape below the line]--, was the poet's word, and that the accent is to be placed on the penultimate of 'memory.' As to the passage--

Yet, while our reign lasts, let us stretch our power, &c.

removed from the text of Cinthia's speech by these foolish editors as unworthy of B. and F.--the first eight lines are not worse, and the last couplet incomparably better, than the stanza retained.

Act ii. Amintor's speech:--

Oh, thou hast nam'd a word, that wipes away
All thoughts revengeful! In that sacred name,
'The king,' there lies a terror.

It is worth noticing that of the three greatest tragedians, Massinger was a democrat, Beaumont and Fletcher the most servile _jure divino_ royalist, and Shakspeare a philosopher;--if aught personal, an aristocrat.

A KING AND NO KING.