of the judgment of most of his critics. It is, of
course, not merely that he is fond of adding little moral tags of
questionable applicability to the end of his plays. 'We are taught,' he
says in the 'Fatal Dowry,'

By this sad precedent, how just soever
Our reasons are to remedy our wrongs,
We are yet to leave them to their will and power
That to that purpose have authority.

But it is, to say the least, doubtful whether anybody would have that
judicious doctrine much impressed upon him by seeing the play itself.
Nor can one rely much upon the elaborate and very eloquent defence of
his art in the 'Roman Actor.' Paris, the actor, sets forth very
vigorously that the stage tends to lay bare the snares to which youth is
exposed and to inflame a noble ambition by example. If the discharge of
such a function deserves reward from the Commonwealth--

Actors may put in for as large a share
As all the sects of the philosophers;--
They with cold precepts--perhaps seldom read--
Deliver what an honourable thing
The active virtue is; but does that fire
The blood, or swell the veins with emulation
To be both good and great, equal to that
Which is presented in our theatres?

Massinger goes on to show, after the fashion of Jaques in 'As You Like
It,' that the man who chooses to put on the cap is responsible for the
application of the satire. He had good reasons, as we have seen, for
feeling sensitive as to misunderstandings--or, rather, too thorough
understandings--of this kind.

To some dramatists of the time, who should put forward such a plea, one
would be inclined to answer in the sensible words of old Fuller. 'Two
things,' he says, 'are set forth to us in stage plays; some grave
sentences, prudent counsels, and punishment of vicious examples: and
with these desperate oaths, lustful talk, and riotous acts, are so
personated to the life, that wantons are tickled with delight, and feed
their palates upon them. It seems the goodness is not portrayed with
equal accents of liveliness as the wicked things are; otherwise men
would be deterred from vicious courses, with seeing the woful success
which follows them'--a result scarcely to be claimed by the actors of
the day. Massinger, however, shows more moral feeling than is expended
in providing sentiments to be tacked on as an external appendage, or
satisfied by an obedience to the demands of poetic justice. He is not
content with k