Again, the comic element in Massinger is at times dull, forced, and ordinary; it does not take us very far to label a foolish Florentine gentleman with the name of “Sylli”;(201) the hungry soldier is rather a time-worn type,(202) nor can Greedy compare with Lazarillo. Though the situations are humorous, we do not split with laughter over Massinger, as we do in reading Aristophanes, or Shakspere, or Molière.(203) We do not find in him the mercurial lightness of _A Trick to Catch the Old One_, or the invincible absurdity of “The Roarers” in _The Fair Quarrel_. But it is necessary to remember that the comic business is of the kind which gains by acting, or indeed requires it, and to allow that towards the end of his life Massinger came forward as a grave and powerful satirist of contemporary men, reminding us of Ben Jonson, but, to my mind, excelling him; for he shows less asperity with greater lucidity and ease.(204) He is not unduly morose or bitter, yet he wins conviction with an admirable sanity and sobriety. The plays will repay good acting, and, after all, plays are meant to be acted; it is significant that the last of Massinger’s plays to hold the stage was his comedy, _The New Way to pay Old Debts_, and it is very much to be wished that it should be revived in England.(205) Some critics have accused Massinger of redundancy in style, a characteristic which clearly will strike different people in different ways. Thus, Hallam regards this feature as on the whole meritorious, giving “fulness, or what the painters would call impasto, to his style, and if it might not always conduce to effect on the stage, suitable on the whole to the character of his composition.” Mr. Bullen,(206) after an eloquent tribute to “Massinger’s admirable ease and dignity,” and to “his rare command of an excellent work-a-day dramatic style, clear, vigorous, and free from conceit and affectation,” proceeds to allow that “he is apt to grow didactic and tax the reader’s patience; and there is often a want of coherence in his sentences, which amble down the page in a series of loosely linked clauses.” I do not myself feel that this charge comes to very much.