Massinger, Philip, 1583-1640 -- Criticism and interpretation
I., 1, 30-70, reminds us of him here and there. (The same applies to
Cleanthes’ speech, I., 1, 323-345.)
I., 1, 248: “personal opposition.” (_Cf._ _Believe as You List_,
IV., 2, 98.)
I., 1,362:
CLEANTHES. How do you fare, sir?
LEONIDES. Cleanthes, never better.
(In the _Henry VIII_ manner.)
II., 1, 41-61: The first courtier’s speech.
II., 2, 73-94: Lysander’s speech.
IV., 2, 1-130: see especially lines 3, 41, 72, 109.
V., 1, 54-82.
V., 1, 119-132: Lysander’s speech.
V., 1, 156-175.
V., 1, 232-250: Cleanthes’ speech. (Notice the parenthesis in lines
246-7.)
The play is usually assigned to 1599, on the strength of the passage
where Gnotho gets the clerk to alter the Parish Chronicle (III., 1).
Gayley thinks the mention of 1599 “purely dramatic” (_R. E. C._,
III., p. lv). He says the style is not like that of Middleton in
1599, and points out that Rowley was only fourteen years of age in
that year. “If Massinger had any share in the play, it was in
revision, after Middleton’s death in 1627.” Gayley dates the play
1614-16. It must be pointed out, however, that it is not easy to
alter 40 to 39. The author could have chosen a date whose figures
were more easy to deal with. I therefore think the usually accepted
date is right, though it does not, of course, settle the question of
authorship.
Massinger was fond of scenes in courts of justice, and it is highly
probable that he elaborated the details of Act V.
506 We find “horror” in IV., 2, 72 and 160; a certain number of the
alliterations referred to above (p. 121), I., 1, 66; II., 1, 210,
265; II., 2, 119; V., 1, 546, 550, 605, 650; and words doubled (I.,
1, 67, 88, 206, 220, 268, 354, 389; II., 1, 154, 275; II., 2, 91;
III., 1, 304, 363).
_ 507 Believe as You List_, IV., 1; _Love’s Triumph through Callipolis_;
Peele’s _Battle of Alcazar_.
508 Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. x. (Hazlitt).
509 There is a good edition of _A New Way to pay Old Debts_ by K.
Deighton (G. Bell, 1893). Brander Matthews has also edited the play,
prefixing a valuable estimate of the poet.
510 V., 3, 148:
O Philanax, as thy name
Interpreted speaks thee, thou hast ever been
A lover of the King.
_ 511 Picture_, I., 1, 6.
512 III., 1, 7. _Cf._ Ben Jonson’s _Staple of News_, IV., 4 Pennyboy
junior:
Thou appears’t
κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν, a canter.
513 III., 1, 102-3.
_ 514 Emperor of the East_, II., 1, 278 and 294.
515 III., 4, 40.
516 σκάνδικά μοι δός, μητρόθεν δεδεγμένος. (l. 478).
517 II., 5, 96.
518 Telephus frag., 722:
Σπάρταν ἔλαχες, κείνην κόσμει;
τὰς δὲ Μυκήνας ἡμεῖς ἰδίᾳ.
519 V., 1, 5.
520 ὡς γραφεύς τ᾽ ἀποσταθείς.
521 IV., 5, 61.
522 ἐπὶ δὲ καρδίαν ἔδραμε κροκοβαφὴς σταγών (l. 1121).
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