538 I have read with interest and care E. H. C. Oliphant’s articles in _Englische Studien_ (xiv., xv., xvi.). He finds more work of Beaumont in the plays than other scholars. Though his knowledge of the whole subject is great, his analysis seems to me too subtle; thus in _The Fair Maid of the Inn_ we find, according to Mr. Oliphant, scenes written by (1) Massinger, (2) Massinger and Rowley, (3) Beaumont and Massinger, (4) Beaumont, Fletcher, and Massinger. Fletcher’s part in the play is ultimately reduced to a few lines in IV., 1! I cannot agree with him that Massinger wrote any of _The Coxcomb_, _The Faithful Friends_, or _Love’s Pilgrimage_. In _The Faithful Friends_ the metre is very careless, and the occasional bursts of bombast are not like Massinger. There are touches of his style in the play, which suggest that a pupil may have helped Fletcher. _The Coxcomb_ and _Love’s Pilgrimage_ seem to me very characteristic works of Beaumont and Fletcher. Mr. Oliphant has also discovered (_Modern Language Review_, III., pp. 337-355) that Massinger wrote a considerable portion of _The Tempest_ and _Cymbeline_. It is not long since that we were reminded, in other departments of art, of Lucas and Leonardo, of Ozias Humfrey and Romney. The critical scent which Mr. Oliphant requires of his readers postulates a super-dog careering through the literary thickets of the English language. Let us rather read and enjoy our composite plays, without meticulous analysis. _ 539 Cf._ _A Woman killed with Kindness_, III., 1: And in this ground, increased this molehill Unto that mountain which my father left me. _The Maid in the Mill_, V., 2, Bustopha: Oh mountain, shalt thou call a molehill a scab upon the face of the earth? _ 540 Cf._ _False One_, III., 1, 28: Let indirect and crooked counsels vanish. 541 Compare also _Eastward Ho!_ Act II.: GOLDING. Let me beseech you, no, sir: the superfluity and cold meat left at their nuptials will with bounty furnish ours.—Act III., 2: QUICKSILVER. Your father, and some one more, stole to church with them in all the haste, that the cold meat left at your wedding might serve to furnish their nuptial table. 542 For this frequent effect in Homer _cf._ _Iliad_, I., lines 100, 103, 132, 139, 144, 160, 184, 195, etc. In the _Agamemnon_ and _Alcestis_, to take no other plays, note the following: _Agamemnon_ 15, 1047, 1079, 1123; _Alcestis_, 154, 181, 203, 339, 347, 619.