It may appear strange that in order to estimate Massinger we should have to read Fletcher as well; but to this the scientific study of English brings us.(89) Boyle declares that “we ought in future to have no more editions of Beaumont and Fletcher, but the plays of Beaumont, Fletcher, and Massinger arranged in nine groups.”(90) The verdict of experts cannot be disregarded in this matter; there is a real danger that Massinger’s merits will be underrated if we do not attempt to estimate the share which he took in writing the plays attributed to Fletcher. His friend Sir Aston Cokaine might have done us a great service here, but, unfortunately, he missed his opportunity. In a poem(91) relating to Shirley’s edition of Beaumont and Fletcher’s works published in 1647,(92) he points out that the title is inaccurate for two reasons: first, because many of the plays were written after Beaumont’s death; secondly, because Massinger wrote parts of some of them; it is a great pity that he did not tell us which these plays were. But worse still remains behind; if we are to believe Boyle, it is practically certain that Massinger and Fletcher wrote _Henry VIII_(93) and _The Two Noble __ Kinsmen_.(94) It must be pointed out that there are still good critics who attribute a large part of _Henry VIII_ to Shakspere, and a small part of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_. It would take us too far from our subject to enter in detail on these two difficult problems. Then, in the third place, there are the plays that are lost. In the eighteenth century there was a certain John Warburton, F.R.S. and F.S.A., Somerset herald, who collected no fewer than fifty-five genuine unpublished dramas of the golden period, which he handed over to the care of his cook until he could find someone to publish them. The cook appropriated these plays leaf by leaf for coverings for her pastry, and a certain number of Massinger’s—possibly as many as ten—perished among them. Here are the names of some of them: _The Forced __ Lady_, a tragedy; _The Noble Choice_, a comedy; _The Wandering Lovers_, a comedy; _Philenzo and Hippolita_, a tragi-comedy.(95) It may be a consolation when we grieve over this disaster(96) to reflect that many of the fifty-five plays may not have been worth reading; eight of them were early works of Massinger’s, and may have been immature or even unsuccessful. There is a presumption in favour of this supposition, for his more famous plays appeared separately in quarto, and most of them can still be procured from dealers in that form; we must suppose that Mr. Warburton had only what are called actors’—_i.e._, manuscript—copies. If a play never attained the distinction of being printed there may have been some defect which militated against its success.