been unavoidable. Regarded, however, as a whole, the play is not impressive. Sophonisba is a fearless and magnanimous heroine, but her temper is too masculine; she talks too much and too bluntly, and is too fond of striking an attitude. Syphax, the villain of the play, is so prodigiously brutal as to appear perfectly grotesque; and the hero Massinissa bores us by his trite moral reflections. Marston strove to produce a stately tragedy, and was under the impression that his efforts had been crowned with success; but candid readers will judge the performance to be stiff and crude, wanting in energy and dramatic movement, too rhetorical, "climbing to the height of Seneca his style." In the prefatory address he has a hit at _Sejanus_ (to which in the previous year he had contributed a copy of eulogistic verses), informing us that "to transcribe authors, quote authorities, and translate Latin prose orations into English blank verse, hath, in this subject, been the least aim of my studies." But _Sejanus_ has certainly not less of dramatic interest than _Sophonisba_, and in other respects it is far superior. In 1607 was published the comedy of _What You Will_ (written, I suspect, shortly after the appearance of _Cynthia's Revels_), which is largely indebted for its plot to Plautus's _Amphitruo_. In the Induction, Marston again has his fling at Ben Jonson. Philomusus' heated denunciation of censorious critics, "Believe it, Doricus, his spirit Is higher blooded than to quake and pant At the report of Scoff's artillery," &c., was evidently written in derisive mimicry of Jonson's scornful addresses to the audience; and Doricus' remonstrance, "Now out upon't, I wonder what tight brain Wrung in this custom to maintain contempt 'Gainst common censure," &c., was unquestionably intended as a stiff rebuke to Jonson's towering arrogance. But these strokes of personal satire are not confined to the Induction. Quadratus' scathing ridicule of Lampatho Doria, in the first scene of the second act, was certainly aimed at some adversary of Marston's; and there can be little doubt that this adversary was Ben Jonson. Lampatho is described in the following terms by his admirer Simplicius Faber:-- "Monsieur Laverdure, do you see that gentleman? He goes but in black satin, as you see, but, by Helicon! he hath a cloth of tissue wit. He breaks a jest;[22] ha, he'll rail against the court till the gallants--O God! he is very nectar: if you but sip of his love, you were immortal." At first Lampatho speaks the language of an affected gallant; it is nothing but "protest" with him. Quadratus is disgusted with him:-- "A fusty cask Devote to mouldy customs of hoary eld." After listening to much abuse, Lampatho turns on his assailant:-- "So Phoebus warm my brain, I'll rhyme thee dead. Look for the satire: if all the sour juice Of a tart brain can souse thy estimate, I'll pickle thee."