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In I, ii Massinger appears in his element, an episode permitting opportunities for the forensic fervor which was his especial forte. Such Scenes occur again and again in his plays: the conversion of the daughters of Theophilus by the Virgin Martyr, the plea of the Duke of Milan to the Emperor, of old Malefort to his judges in The Unnatural Combat, of Antiochus to the Carthagenian senate in Believe as You List. From the speech with which Du Croy opens court (I, ii, 1–3)—cf. the inauguration of the senate-house scene in The Roman Actor, C-G. 197 b,

—to the very end, it abounds with Massingerisms: Knowing judgment; Speak to the cause; I foresaw this (an especial favorite of the poet’s); Strange boldness!; the construction, If that curses, etc;—also cf. l. 117 ff. with

We have seen that the hand of Field has been asserted to appear in the last half of this Scene. This is probably due to the presence here of several rhymed couplets, which are uncommon in Massinger save as tags at the end of Scenes or of impressive speeches, but not absolutely unknown in his work; whereas Field employs them frequently—in particular to set off a gnomic utterance. If Field’s indeed, they can scarcely represent more than his revising touch here and there; everything else in this part of the Scene bespeaks Massinger no less clearly than does the portion which preceeds it. There continues the same stately declamation, punctuated at intervals by brief comments or replies, the same periodic sentence-structure, the same or even greater frequency of characteristic diction. Massinger again and again refers in his plays to the successive hardships of the summer’s heat and winter’s frost (l. 184—cf. C-G. 168 b, 205 a, 392 b, 488 b); stand bound occurs literally scores of times upon his pages (three times on C-G. 77 a alone);—typical also are in their dreadful ruins buried quick (l. 178—cf. C-G. 603 a, 625 a, Sir John van Olden B., Bullin’s Old Plays, II, 209), Be constant in it (l. 196—cf. C-G. 2 a, 137 a, 237 a, 329 a), Strange rashness!, It is my wonder (l. 293—cf. C-G. 26 b, 195 b; D. VIII, 438; XI, 34). Cf. also l. 156,

with C-G. 615 b,

 And ll. 284–6,

with C-G. 286 a,

And again, ll. 301–3,

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