h
shown himself so noble, so full of honour, temperance, and all virtues
that can set off a prince; that, though I cannot render him that respect
I would, I am bound in thankfulness to admire him.'

Such a style is suitable to a man whose moods do not often hurry him
into impetuous, or vivacious, or epigrammatic utterance. As the Persian
poet says of his country: his warmth is not heat, and his coolness is
not cold. He flows on in a quiet current, never breaking into foam or
fury, but vigorous, and invariably lucid. As a pleader before a
law-court--the character in which, as Mr. Ward observes, he has a
peculiar fondness for presenting himself--he would carry his audience
along with him, but scarcely hold them in spell-bound astonishment or
hurry them into fits of excitement. Melancholy resignation or dignified
dissatisfaction will find in him a powerful exponent, but scarcely
despair, or love, or hatred, or any social phase of pure unqualified
passion.

The natural field for the display of such qualities is the romantic
drama, which Massinger took from the hands of Beaumont and Fletcher, and
endowed with greater dignity and less poetic fervour. For the vigorous
comedy of real life, as Jonson understood it, he has simply no capacity;
and in his rare attempts at humour, succeeds only in being at once dull
and dirty. His stage is generally occupied with dignified lords and
ladies, professing the most chivalrous sentiments, which are
occasionally too high-flown and overstrained to be thoroughly effective,
but which are yet uttered with sufficient sincerity. They are not mere
hollow pretences, consciously adopted to conceal base motives; but one
feels the want of an occasional infusion of the bracing air of common
sense. It is the voice of a society still inspired with the traditional
sentiments of honour and self-respect, but a little afraid of contact
with the rough realities of life. Its chivalry is a survival from a past
epoch, not a spontaneous outgrowth of the most vital elements of
contemporary development. In another generation, such a tone will be
adopted by a conscious and deliberate artifice, and be reflected in mere
theatrical rant. In the past, it was the natural expression of a
high-spirited race, full of self-confidence and pride in its own
vigorous audacity. In this transitional period it has a certain hectic
flush, symptomatic of approaching decay; anxious to give a wide berth
to realities, and most at hom