==========+====+=====+=====+====+====+====+===+====+====+====+========= A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L ----------+----+-----+-----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+--------- I, i | -- | 196 | 64 | 33 | 56 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 42 | 22 |Massinger I, ii (a) | -- | 145 | 64 | 45 | 48 | 33 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 14 |Massinger I, ii (b) | -- | 158 | 57 | 36 | 57 | 36 | 0 | 12 | 30 | 16 |Massinger | | | | | | | | | | |(Field | | | | | | | | | | |revision) II, i | -- | 145 | 29 | 20 | 22 | 15 | 4 | 16 | 19 | 17 |Field II, ii | 82 | 273 | 57 | 21 | 52 | 19 | 9 | 12 | 47 | 50 |Field III, i (a)| -- | 316 | 142 | 45 |114 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 67 | 29 |Massinger III, i (b)| -- | 27 | 10 | 37 | 11 | 41 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 6 |Massinger | | | | | | | | | | |(with | | | | | | | | | | |Field?) III, i (c)| -- | 161 | 28 | 17 | 45 | 28 | 0 | 10 | 19 | 11 |Field IV, i | 88 | 124 | 27 | 22 | 27 | 22 | 4 | 6 | 26 | 24 |Field IV, ii | -- | 104 | 33 | 32 | 38 | 37 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 10 |Massinger IV, iii | -- | 22 | 8 | 36 | 12 | 55 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |Massinger IV, iv | -- | 195 | 71 | 36 | 67 | 34 | 0 | 6 | 32 | 8 |Massinger V, i | -- | 107 | 38 | 36 | 31 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 5 |Massinger V, ii (a) | -- | 80 | 22 | 28 | 27 | 34 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 2 |Massinger V, ii (b) | -- | 41 | 15 | 37 | 14 | 35 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 3 |Massinger | | | | | | | | | | |(Field | | | | | | | | | | |revision) V, iii | -- | 229 | 98 | 43 | 50 | 22 | 0 | 4 | 34 | 19 |Massinger ----------+----+-----+-----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+--------- CRITICAL ESTIMATE No less an authority than Swinburne has pronounced _The Fatal Dowry_ the finest tragedy in the Massinger _corpus_. Certainly it would be the most formidable rival of _The Duke of Milan_ for that distinction. It occupies an anomalous position among the works of the “stage poet.” His dramas are, as a rule, strongest in construction; he went at play-making like a skillful architect, and put together and moulded his material with steady hand. They are likely to be weakest in characterization. Massinger could not get inside his figures and endow them with the breath of life; they remain stony shapes chiseled in severely angular and conventional lines, like some old Egyptian bas-relief. But _The Fatal Dowry_ is strong in characterization and defective in construction.