den), do not require any special
notice. Between these two last comes _The Captain_, a comedy neither of the
best nor yet of the worst. The tragi-comic _Queen of Corinth_ is a little
heavy; but in _Bonduca_ we have one of the very best of the author's
tragedies, the scenes with Caratach and his nephew, the boy Hengo, being
full of touches not wholly unworthy of Shakespere. _The Knight of the
Burning Pestle_ (where Fletcher, forsaking his usual fantastic grounds of a
France that is scarcely French, and an Italy that is extremely un-Italian,
comes to simple pictures of London middle-class life, such as those of
Jonson or Middleton) is a very happy piece of work indeed, despite the
difficulty of working out its double presentment of burlesque
knight-errantry and straightforward comedy of manners. In _Love's
Pilgrimage_, with a Spanish subject and something of a Spanish style, there
is not enough central interest, and the fortunes by land and sea of _The
Double Marriage_ do not make it one of Fletcher's most interesting plays.
But _The Maid in the Mill_ and _The Martial Maid_ are good farce, which
almost deserves the name of comedy; and _The Knight of Malta_ is a romantic
drama of merit. In _Women Pleased_ the humours of avarice and hungry
servility are ingeniously treated, and one of the starveling Penurio's
speeches is among the best-known passages of all the plays, while the
anti-Puritan satire of Hope-on-High Bomby is also noteworthy. The next four
plays are less noticeable, and indeed for two volumes, of the edition
referred to, we come to fewer plays that are specially good. _The Night
Walker_; or, _The Little Thief_, though not very probable in its incidents,
has a great deal of lively business, and is particularly noteworthy as
supplying proof of the singular popularity of bell-ringing with all classes
of the population in the seventeenth century,--a popularity which probably
protected many old bells in the mania for church desecration. Not much can
be said for _The Woman's Prize_, or, _The Tamer Tamed_, an avowed sequel,
and so to speak, antidote to _The Taming of the Shrew_, which chiefly
proves that it is wise to let Shakespere alone. The authors have drawn to
some extent on the _Lysistrata_ to aid them, but have fallen as far short
of the fun as of the indecency of that memorable play. With _The Island
Princess_ we return to a fair, though not more than a fair level of
romantic tragi-comedy, but _The Noble Gentlema