Τὸν μὲν γὰρ ἡγοῦμαι σοφόν, τῷ δ ἥδομαι.(177) Then it is said that Massinger’s work is not free from coarseness. The answer to this accusation may be made in more ways than one. I might with confidence reply to such critics: If you wish for real vulgarity of diction, read Marston; if you wish for real vulgarity of mind, read Middleton; if you wish for poisoned morals, read Ford and Tourneur; and then revise your judgment of Massinger. It is notorious that all the stage writers of the Elizabethan age are tarred with the same brush; there is much in Shakspere himself that we wish he had not written; still more is this true of Ben Jonson. In _The Virgin Martyr_, where we have the odious servants, Hircius and Spungius, it is generally believed that the parts of the play in which they appear are due to Dekker, not to Massinger, whose other works present nothing so disgusting. There are, at any rate, no lapses of taste in Massinger like those which we find in Fletcher; nothing like the fate of Rutilio in _The Custom of the Country_, or of Merione in _The Queen of Corinth_, or of the Father in _The Captain_. It must be confessed that Massinger’s conception of love is apt to be earthly, physical, sensuous; there is but little in his plays about the marriage of true minds,(178) too much about “Hymen’s taper” and “virgin forts.” Captivated by the charms of female beauty, his intellect is too concrete in its ideals to rise above mere morality to the mysteries of the diviner love. So far it must be allowed that his art interests and stimulates the passions of his audience without elevating them. But if at times we feel a monotonous limitation in his outlook in these matters, if we miss the healthy breezes of bracing commonsense and cheerful self-restraint, we are never pained by the triumph of what is low, corrupt, or morbid. When it is said that his women are impure it is necessary to enter a clear protest.(179) There are offensive and heartless women in Massinger, such as Domitia in _The Roman Actor_, and Beaumelle in _The Fatal Dowry_;(180) there are odious old women, like Borachia and Corisca. There are pert and vulgar ladies’ maids; but you have only to read _The Bondman_, _The Bashful Lover_, _A Very Woman_, _The Maid of Honour_, _The Great Duke of Florence_, _The Emperor of the East_, _The Picture_, to see that his world includes some charming female characters—not, indeed, so lovely as those of Shakspere, but still, types which show that he had not lost his faith in human nature, as, when we read Fielding, we feel regretfully almost obliged to allow, in spite of Sophia Western and Amelia, is the case with our great novelist.