  Act i. The metrical arrangement is most slovenly throughout. “Strat. As well as masque can be,” &c.— and all that follows to “who is return'd”—is plainly blank verse, and falls easily into it. Ib. Speech of Melantius:— “These soft and silken wars are not for me: The music must be shrill, and all confus'd, That stirs my blood; and then I dance with arms.” What strange self-trumpeters and tongue-bullies all the brave soldiers of Beaumont and Fletcher are! Yet I am inclined to think it was the fashion of the age from the Soldier's speech in the Counter Scuffle; and deeper than the fashion B. and F. did not fashion. Ib. Speech of Lysippus:— “Yes, but this lady Walks discontented, with her wat'ry eyes Bent on the earth,” &c. Opulent as Shakespeare was, and of his opulence prodigal, he yet would not have put this exquisite piece of poetry in the mouth of a no-character, or as addressed to a Melantius. I wish that B. and F. had written poems instead of tragedies. Ib.— “Mel. I might run fiercely, not more hastily, Upon my foe.” Read “I might run more fiercel?, not more hastily.” Ib. Speech of Calianax:— “Office! I would I could put it off! I am sure I sweat quite through my office!” The syllable off reminds the testy statesman of his robe, and he carries on the image. Ib. Speech of Melantius:— ... “Would that blood, That sea of blood, that I have lost in fight,” &c. All B. and F.'s generals are pugilists or cudgel-fighters, that boast of their bottom and of the claret they have shed. Ib. The Masque;—Cinthia's speech:— “But I will give a greater state and glory, And raise to time a noble memory Of what these lovers are.” I suspect that “nobler,” pronounced as “nobiler” - u -, was the poet's word, and that the accent is to be placed on the penultimate of “memory.” As to the passage— “Yet, while our reign lasts, let us stretch our power,” &c.— removed from the text of Cinthia's speech, by these foolish editors as unworthy of B. and F.—the first eight lines are not worse, and the last couplet incomparably better, than the stanza retained. Act ii. Amintor's speech:— “Oh, thou hast nam'd a word, that wipes away All thoughts revengeful! In that sacred name, ‘The king,’ there lies a terror.” It is worth noticing that of the three greatest tragedians, Massinger was a democrat, Beaumont and Fletcher the most servile jure divino royalists, and Shakespeare a philosopher;—if aught personal, an aristocrat. |
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