It is plain therefore that the piece was intended for presentation on the stage; but it must have been a strange audience that could have listened to it. Dramatic interest there is none whatever. The piece is nothing more, than a laudation of the East India Company. In tables of statistics we have set before us the amount of merchandise brought from the East; and the writer dwells with enthusiasm on the liberality of the Company, and shows how new channels have been opened for industry. One extract will be enough:-- Nor doe our marchants tradinge into Spayne, The _Streights_, to _Venice_, _Lisbon_ or the like, Give entertaynment unto novices Which have not some experience of the sea. But when all doors of Charitie are shutt The _East India_ gates stand open, open wide, To entertayne the needie & the poore With good accomodation. Two monthes paye They have before hand for to make provision, Needfull provision for so longe a voyage, And two monthes paye theyr wives are yearely payd The better to mayntayne theyr poore estate Duringe the discontinuance of theyr husbands. Yf in the voyage he doe chance to [MS. doe] dye The widowe doth receave whatere's found due, Yf not by will disposed otherwise; Which often happeneth to be such a sume As they togeather never sawe the like. And when did any of these widowes begge For mayntenaunce in Churches as some doe? _Blackwall_ proclaymes theyr bountie; _Lymehouse_ speakes (Yf not ingrate) their liberalitie; _Ratcliffe_ cannot complayne nor _Wapping_ weepe, Nor _Shadwell_ crye agaynst theyr niggardnes. No, they doe rather speake the contrary With acclamations to the highest heavens. APPENDIX II. The following note is by Mr. Robert Boyle, of St. Petersburg, a Shakespearian scholar, whose name is well known to readers of the _Anglia_ and the _New Shakspere Society's Transactions_. Mr. Boyle, who has a close acquaintance with Massinger, on seeing the proof-sheets of _Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_, pointed out several repetitions of expressions used in other plays of Massinger. It will be understood that I do not adopt Mr. Boyle's conclusions unreservedly. Possibly in an Appendix to Vol. IV. I may return to a consideration of _Barnavelt_, but the present volume has already swollen beyond its limits. _Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_.