reminds us of the sleep-walking scene in _Macbeth_. The ghosts in _The Unnatural Combat_(253) and _The Roman Actor_(254) are used like those in the finale of _Richard III_. Parallels in thought and diction are also numerous. Take _The Roman Actor_(255): ARETINUS. Are you on the stage, You talk so boldly? PARIS. The whole world being one, This place is not exempted. This goes back to Jaques in _As You Like It_.(256) In _The Maid of Honour_(257) Jacomo talks of “trailing the puissant pike;” the phrase of Pistol in _Henry V_.(258) In _The Emperor of the East_(259) Athenais makes use of the phrase “prophetic soul,” which we remember in _Hamlet_.(260) Leosthenes uses the same phrase in _The Bondman_(261) when the mutinous slave Cimbrio boasts of the excesses of his friends. The pun which Hircius makes on the cobbler’s awl(262) occurs in the first scene of _Julius Cæsar_. The madness of the English slave in _A Very Woman_(263) comes from the grave-diggers’ scene in _Hamlet_.(264) The “many-headed monster, multitude” of Theodosius in _The Emperor of the East_(265) takes us back to Coriolanus’ “beast with many heads”;(266) while the reference in the same play(267) to the “stomach” reminds us of the fable of Menenius.(268) In _The Bashful Lover_(269) Uberti discourses thus: I look on your dimensions, and find not Mine own of lesser size; the blood that fills My veins, as hot as yours, my sword as sharp, My nerves of equal strength, my heart as good. This reminds us of Shylock in _The Merchant of Venice_(270) and the King in _Henry V_.(271) Clarindore’s language in _The Parliament of Love_(272) is modelled on Malvolio in _Twelfth Night_.(273) The same is true of Sir Giles Overreach in _A New Way_.(274) Shakspere’s dislike of spaniels reappears in the same play.(275) No doubt we must make deductions for the common idioms of the day,(276) but the cumulative evidence of these parallels with the elder dramatist is overwhelming.(277) Massinger is very fond of introducing doctors in his plays; so no doubt are the other dramatists of this period. It is interesting to compare Paulo in _A Very Woman_ with Corax in _The Lover’s Melancholy_ of Ford, who deals successfully with two cases of mental derangement. Ford is more subtle, Massinger more dignified. Thus we find in _The Virgin Martyr_(278) a consultation about Antoninus’ health. Sapritius, the afflicted father, hails the doctors thus: O you that are half gods, lengthen that life Their deities lend us; turn o’er all the volumes Of your mysterious Æsculapian science T’ increase the number of this young man’s days.(279) Compare with this another passage in _The Duke of Milan_: SFORZA. O you earthly gods, You second natures, that from your great master, Who join’d the limbs of torn Hippolytus, And drew upon himself the Thunderer’s envy, Are taught those hidden secrets that restore To life death-wounded men!(280)