Du Croy Or we shall hardly Allow your innocence. with C-G. 39 a and b: The last passage cited for comparison also exhibits another feature normal to the work of this dramatist: the splitting of an observation, frequently a single sentence, between two speakers; so ll. 38–9, and again, l. 59. The Scene and play are rounded off with the pointing of a moral, so indispensable to Massinger’s satisfaction. To sum up, therefore, disregarding for practical purposes the slight touches of Field in I, ii, ll. 146–end; III, i, ll. 317–343; V, ii, ll. 80–end; and perhaps in V, i;—and the apparent Massinger touches in IV, i, and possibly at one or two other points in the Field Scenes, we may divide the play as follows: Massinger: I; III, ll. 1–343; IV, ii, iii, iv; V. Massinger: Field: II; III, ll. 344–end; IV, i. Field: A metrical analysis of the play is appended in tabular form, in which I have computed separately the figures for each portion of any Scene on which there has been a question. It will be noted that the single simple test of the mid-line speech-ending would, with but two exceptions—one (III, i, c) doubtful, and the other (V, ii, b) too short a passage to afford a fair test—have made a clean-cut and correct determination of authorship in every case. 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. The structural fault
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