rise to power and the full prosperity of Henry Bolingbroke and his son, beginning with Richard II, and ending with Henry V. The plays of this series were written between the years 1593 and 1599. I cannot doubt that King John was posterior in date to the first group of Histories. The versification and general style belong to a later period in the development of Shakspere's art. In breadth of thought and comprehension of the many-sidedness of human nature, there is a great advance made upon the play of Richard III. Professor Dowden says that: "There is little in the play of King John which strengthens or gladdens the heart." Still, in this play, Shakspere takes a more human view of life than in the awful trilogy which tells the history of the Wars of the Roses. The tragic element has here more of pathos and less of horror. Shakspere has broken loose from alien influences, and is "himself alone." To the question whether King John preceded the second group of Histories, if we might settle the succession of Shakspere's plays according to our own feeling and liking, we should all, I think, answer "yes," and place the writing of the play earlier in point of time than Richard II. Were there no reason to the contrary, it would seem natural to infer that once Shakspere had begun the second series of his Histories, he did not interrupt the even course of their production in order to write of a reign which belonged to a much earlier time, and which bore no resemblance or relation to the period of English History that was now absorbing his thought and interest. And yet it may well have been, that as Shakspere not seldom during the same year wrote tragedy and comedy, or wrote of subjects which had nothing in common one with another, so in the case of King John he may have left the period of English History which described the rise to power of Henry IV, and, for some motive unknown to us, have written a play which had no connection with the second series of his Histories. Thus King John may have followed, not preceded, Richard II. Scholars disagree about the date of the play. Mr Furnivall, in his Trial Table on the Order of Shakspere's plays, assigns to Richard II the date 1593-4, and to King John the date 1595. On the other hand, Schlegel and Ulrici both believe in the earlier date of King John, the latter calling it "the Prologue" to the second group of Shakspere's Histories. The following list of parallel animal expressions in the Rape of Lucrece from my Introduction to the Leopold Shakspere, p. xxxiv, may interest the student of the Henry VI plays.—F. J. F. 2 and 3 HENRY VI o. Doves, 3 Henry VI, II. ii, 18 (? not Shakspere) 0. Boding screech-owls, 2 Henry VI, III. ii. 327; o. that fatal screech-owl, 3 Henry VI, II. vi. 56 n. Sucking lamb, 2 Henry VI, III. i. 71 a. (The strong Illyrian Pirate, 2 Henry VI, IV. i. 108) n. Harmless dove, 2 Henry VI, III. i, 71; 0. night-owl, 3 Henry VI, II. í. 130 o. The lurking serpent's mortal sting, 3 Henry VI, II. ii. 15 n. When the lion fawns upon the lamb, 3 o. Pent-up lion o'er the wretch that trembles under his devouring paws, 3 Henry VI, I. iii. 12 o. Some say the bee stings, 2 Henry VI, IV. ii. 89 a. Your falcon flew above the rest, 2 Henry VI, II. i. 5, 10 a. So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons, 3 Henry VI, I. iv. 41 n. Murdering basilisks (same as cockatrices), 2 Henry VI, III. ii. 324 o. cp. The partridge in the puttock's nest, 2 Henry VI, III, ii, 191 (Whose vulture thought, Venus, 551) n. Lamb.. ravenous wolf, 2 Henry VI, III. i. 77-8 n. Lambs pursued by hunger-starved wolves, 3 Henry VI, I. iv. 5 o. Hawks do tower so well, 2 Henry VI, II. i. 10 n. The jades that drag the night, 2 Henry VI, IV. i. 3 (? Marlowe) o. To beat a dog, 2 Henry VI, III. i. 171 o. An innocent lamb, 2 Henry VI, IV. ii. 87; o. poor harmless lambs, 3 Henry VI, II. v. 75 n. Drones rob bee-hives, 2 Henry VI, IV. 1. 109 (? not Shakspere) o. Hive of bees, 2 Henry VI, III. ii. 125 [1 Henry IV, III. ii. 75: Lear, I. iv. 235; Antony and Cleopatra, II. vi. 28] o. Venom toads, 8 Henry VI, II. ii. 138 (? not Shakspere) n. Adder, 2 Henry VI, III. ii. 76 n. Trembling lamb environed with wolves, 3 Henry VI, I. i. 242 o. Tiger's heart, o. tigers of Hyrcania, 3 Henry VI, I. iv. 137-155; o. lion, 3 Henry VI, II. ii. 11 o. The night-crow cried, 3 Henry VI, V. vi. 45 law: the Law allows it': Merchant of Venice, A.D. 1596. "let them bloud and spare not; the Lawe allowes thee to do it, it will beare no action: and thou beeing a Barber Surgeon, art priuiledgd to dresse flesh in Lent, or anie thing."-1596; T. Nash, Haue with "you to Saffron Walden, sign. B. bk. 'lone woman': 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 35. "Moreouer, Glycerie is a lone woman [hæc sola est mulier]; he will quickly picke a quarrell against her, and so turne her packing out of the towne."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 38, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'lumpish': Two Gentlemen, III. ii. 62. "All these things may well be said vnto me, that bee commonly spoken against a foole: as to be called a blockpate, a dulhead, an asse, a lumpish sot [caudex, stipes, asinus, plumbeus]."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 251, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'meacock': Shrew, II. i. "Coquefredouille: m. A meacocke, milkesop, sneaksbie, worthlesse fellow."-1611; Cotgrave. 'mechanical': Mids. N. Dream, III. ii. "Patarino, a base mechanical fellow, a porter or daie labourer."—1598; Florio. 'moth': (mote) L. L. Lost. "Festucco, a little sticke, a fease, strawe, a tooth-picke, a moth, a little beame."-1598; Florio. 'napping, take napping': Shrew, IV. ii. 46. Oscitantes opprimimur. We are taken napping."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 17, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). See too Fool's Paradise, above. 'nick (of time)': Othello. "Ita attemperatè venit hodie. comes so iumpe, or in the very nicke to-day: in season, at the very point."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 101, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). He 314 XI. THE POLITICAL ELEMENT IN MASSINGER. BY PROFESSOR S. R. GARDINER. (Read at the 26th Meeting of the Society, Friday, June 9, 1876.)1 AMONGST the Caroline dramatists, Massinger takes a high place. If it cannot be said of his works, that "Every word is thought And every thought is pure," his coarseness is merely adventitious. The main intention of his work is moral. He never descends to paint immoral intention as virtuous because it does not succeed in converting itself into vicious act. It will probably be a surprise even to those who are far better acquainted with the history of literature than I can pretend to be, that in many of Massinger's plays we have a treatment of the politics of the day so plain and transparent, that any one who possesses only a slight acquaintance with the history of the reigns of the first two Stuarts can read it at a glance. It is quite unintelligible to me that, with the exception of a few cursory words in Mr Ward's 'History of Dramatic Literature,' no previous 2 inquirer should have stumbled on a fact so obvious. 507. 'First printed in the Contemporary Review for August 1876, p. 495— The following extracts, which have been kindly supplied by Mr Daniel, show that I overstated this. Except, perhaps, the extract relating to Buck. ingham, however, they do not materially touch my assertion. I am not dealing with political allusions to men like Coke, Michell, or Mompesson, but with direct interference with current politics with a distinct political object. The passages, however, deserve notice, as showing that others have suspected that there was more in Massinger than met the eye. "If Massinger is to be suspected of political allusions, this Play [The In speaking of the political element in Massinger, I mean something very different from those chance allusions and coincidences Bondman] betrays him. The character of Gisco the admiral does not suit him, but agrees very well with the Duke of Buckingham 'a raw young fellow, One never trained in arms, but rather fashioned To tilt with ladies' lips, than crack a lance,' etc. The 'green heads that determine of the state over their cups,' etc., were now in possession of all power, and playing their wildest schemes. And towards the end of the reign of James (the date of this play), it might well be said, by the friends to the safety of their country : ' in this plenty And fat of peace, your young men ne'er were train'd In martial discipline; and your ships unrigg'd, Rot in the harbour.' : One of those friends of his country was Massinger and it is hardly possible to point out, in any writer, ancient or modern, a finer strain of patriotism amidst the public danger, than that which animates the last scene of the first act."DR IRELAND (p. 119, Massinger, ed. 1845). "I am bound there To swear for my master's profit, as securely Here is, probably, an allusion to the celebrated definition of an ambassador, by Sir Henry Wotton: 'An honest man appointed to lye abroad for the good of his country,'-a definition, by the bye, which cost him dear; for Sir Henry, not satisfied with entertaining his countrymen, would needs translate his wit into Latin, for the amusement of foreigners. Lye, which was then the term for lodge or dwell, made a tolerable pun; but mentiendum, into which it was turned, had neither humour nor ambiguity in it, and sorely scandalized the corps diplomatic."-GIFFORD, Massinger, p. 121. The Renegado, I. i. Compare in The Maid of Honour, II. i. p. 231, See also in Maid of Honour, I. i. p. 227-8, sundry passages on which Gifford remarks :-" Davies, I think, says, that here is an allusion to the affairs of this country under James. However that may be, it is, at least, certain that the author, in this animated description, was thinking of England only. He could scarcely be so ignorant of the natural history of Sicily as not to know how little of his description applied to that island; while every word of it was perfectly applicable to this." “Old Novall [in the Fatal Dowry] might be designed only as an enemy to the cause of Charalois, and as a contrast to Rochfort. But the reprobation of |