had'st this spirit, thou dar'st not
hope it.
Who trained thee up in arms but I? Who taught thee
Men were men only when they durst look down
With scorn on death and danger, and contemn'd
All opposition till plumed Victory
Had made her constant stand upon their helmets?
Under my shield thou hast fought as securely
As the young eaglet covered with the wings
Of her fierce dam, learns how and where to prey.
All that is manly in thee I call mine;
But what is weak and womanish, thine own.
And what I gave, since thou art proud, ungrateful,
Presuming to contend with him to whom
Submission is due, I will take from thee.
Look therefore for extremities and expect not
I will correct thee as a son, but kill thee
As a serpent swollen with poison; who surviving
A little longer with infectious breath,
Would render all things near him like itself
Contagious. Nay, now my anger's up,
Ten thousand virgins kneeling at my feet,
And with one general cry howling for mercy,
Shall not redeem thee.

_Malef. jun._ Thou incensed Power
Awhile forbear thy thunder! let me have
No aid in my revenge, if from the grave
My mother----

_Malef. sen._ Thou shalt never name her more."

[_They fight._

_The Duke of Milan_ is sometimes considered Massinger's masterpiece; and
here again there are numerous fine scenes and noble _tirades_. But the
irrationality of the _donnee_ (Sforza the duke charges his favourite not to
let the duchess survive his own death, and the abuse of the authority thus
given leads to horrible injustice and the death of both duchess and duke)
mars the whole. The predilection of the author for sudden turns and twists
of situation, his neglect to make his plots and characters acceptable and
conceivable as wholes, appear indeed everywhere, even in what I have no
doubt in calling his real masterpiece by far, the fine tragi-comedy of _A
New Way to Pay Old Debts_. The revengeful trick by which a satellite of the
great extortioner, Sir