George Chapman (1559?-1634), who is best known for his fine translation of Homer's _Iliad_, turned dramatist in middle life, but found it difficult to enter into the feelings of characters unlike himself. His best two plays, _Bussy D'Ambois_ and _The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_, are tragedies founded on French history. Thomas Middleton, gifted in dramatic technique and dialogue and noted for his comedy of domestic manners, was the author of _Michaelmas Term_, _A Trick to Catch the Old One_, _The Changeling_ (in collaboration with William Rowley, 1585?-1640?). John Marston (1576?-1634) wrote _Antonio and Mellida_, a blood and thunder tragedy, and collaborated with Jonson and Chapman to produce _Eastward Hoe_, an excellent comic picture of contemporary life. _The Shoemaker's Holiday_ of Thomas Dekker (1570?-1640) is also a good comedy of London life and manners. Philip Massinger (1584-1640), a later collaborator with Fletcher, wrote _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, a play very popular in after times. Thomas Heywood (1572?-1650), one of the most prolific dramatists, claimed to have had "either an entire hand or at the least a main finger," in two hundred and twenty plays. His best work is _A Woman Killed with Kindness_, a domestic drama that appealed to the middle classes. A Tragic Group.--Three dramatists: John Webster (1602-1624), Cyril Tourneur (1575?-1626), and John Ford (1586-1640?), had a love for the most somber tragedy. In tragic power, Webster approaches nearest to Shakespeare. Webster's greatest play, _The Duchess of Malfi_ (acted in 1616), and _The White Devil_, which ranks second, show the working of a master hand, but Webster's genius comes to a focus only in depicting the horrible. He loves such gloomy metaphors as the following:-- "You speak as if a man Should know what fowl is _coffined_ in a baked meat Afore you cut it open." Tourneur's _The Atheist's Tragedy_ is in Webster's vein, but far inferior to _The Duchess of Malfi_. Ford's _The Broken Heart_ is a strong, but unpleasant, tragedy. He is so fascinated with the horrible that he introduces it even when it is not the logical outcome of a situation. His best but least characteristic play is _Perkin Warbeck_, which is worthy of ranking second only to Shakespeare's historical plays. End of the Elizabethan Drama.--James Shirley (1596-1666), "the last of the Elizabethans," endeavored to the best of his ability to continue the work of the earlier dramatists. _The Traitor_ and _The Cardinal_ are two of the best of his many productions. He was hard at work writing new plays in 1642, when the Puritans closed the theaters. He was thus forced to abandon the profession that he enjoyed and compelled to teach in order to earn a livelihood.