licensed 17 April 1624; played by the queen's men. 5. ‘The Parliament of Love’ was first printed by Gifford from an imperfect manuscript in 1805; licensed for the Cockpit 3 Nov. 1624. It was entered on the ‘Stationers' Registers’ 29 June 1660, and ascribed to W. Rowley. 6. ‘A New Way to Pay Old Debts,’ 4to, 10 Nov. 1632, a comedy; acted by the queen's men at the Phœnix. There is an allusion to the taking of Breda, July 1625. Mr. Fleay dates it before May 1622; but it probably belongs to 1625 or 1626. No entries by Sir Henry Herbert are known between 10 Feb. 1625 and 22 Jan. 1626. The first two acts contain passages in Fletcher's peculiar metre, but his contributions must have been slight (he died in August 1625). This comedy retained its popularity longer than any other of Massinger's plays, and kept possession of the stage even into the present century. Genest notices thirteen revivals between 1748 and 1827. 7. ‘The Roman Actor,’ 4to, 1629; played at Blackfriars by the king's men; licensed 11 Oct. 1626, and written immediately before, as it alludes to a terrible storm which swept over London during the same autumn. Massinger calls it the most perfect birth of his Minerva; revived after thirty years at Lincoln's Inn Fields 13 June 1722, and at Drury Lane in 1796 and (in one act) in 1822. 8. ‘The Maid of Honour,’ 4to, 1632, was played by the queen's men at the Phœnix. It is probably a recast of an older play by Massinger. Fulgentio, the king's favourite, can only refer to Buckingham. It was altered by Kemble and produced at Drury Lane 27 Jan. 1785, with Kemble and Mrs. Siddons in the chief parts. 9. ‘The Picture,’ 4to, 1630; licensed 8 June 1629. An altered version, by the Rev. H. Bate Dudley [q. v.], was produced at Covent Garden 8 Nov. 1783. The plot bears some resemblance to the mediæval story of the ‘Wright's Chaste Wife’ (Early English Text Soc. 1866), but was doubtless taken by Massinger from Bandello's ‘Novelle’ (21 Nov.), through Painter's ‘Palace of Pleasure’ (28 Nov.). Musset borrowed from the same story of Bandello the plot of his ‘Barberini’ (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vii. 81, 160). Bandello doubtless himself derived the tale from the ‘Gesta Romanorum’ (cap. lxiv.). 10. ‘The Great Duke of Florence,’ 4to, 1635, was licensed 5 July 1627 for the queen's servants. 11. ‘The Emperor of the East,’ 4to, 19 Nov. 1631; licensed 4 March 1631 for the king's men. There is a curious parallel between a passage in act iv. 4 and one in Molière's ‘Malade Imaginaire’ (1673), act iii. (the last few lines in Toinette's first long speech) (ib. 3rd ser. viii. 348). 12. ‘Believe as you List;’ entered on the ‘Stationers' Registers’ 1653. This was the play sent back by Herbert 11 Jan. 1631 because it contained dangerous matter. It was discovered in manuscript in 1844, and printed for the Percy Society in 1848. 13. ‘The City Madam,’ 8vo, 1658; licensed 25 May 1632. It has lately been doubted whether this play was Massinger's, but the parallel passages connecting it with Massinger's work, the characterisation, and the metre equally exclude the idea of participation, on the part of Jonson or any other. It was revived for Baddeley's benefit at Drury Lane 29 April 1783. 14. ‘The Guardian,’ published 1655 by Moseley, together with ‘A Very Woman’ (by Massinger and Fletcher, see below) and the ‘Bashful Lover.’ It was licensed for the king's men 31 Oct. 1633; performed at court 12 Jan. 1634; and was ‘well liked.’ 15. ‘The Bashful Lover,’ published as above, licensed 9 May 1636. The play has an allusion to the death of Wallenstein, 25 Feb. 1634. Revived at Covent Garden, 30 May 1798, as ‘Disinterested Love.’
II. Plays by Massinger and others.—In these plays Massinger's hand can only be detected by internal evidence of style, characterisation, and metre. Fletcher was Massinger's collaborateur in each of those numbered 1 to 20, but in a few cases other hands are also visible. Those marked † are by Fletcher and Massinger alone, and first appeared in the 1647 folio of Beaumont and Fletcher's ‘Works.’
1. ‘The Honest Man's Fortune.’ An undated letter, addressed to Philip Henslowe by Field, Daborne, and Massinger, mentions that the three were engaged with Fletcher on a play for Henslowe. Fletcher did not probably begin to write for Henslowe before the burning of the Globe, on 29 June 1613, and the letter was probably drawn up soon after that event. The balance of evidence seems to identify the play mentioned with the ‘Honest Man's Fortune,’ acted by the Lady Elizabeth's men in 1613, and reallowed for the king's men on 8 Feb. 1624–5 by Sir Henry Herbert, whose copy of that date is in the Dyce Library. It was first printed in the 1647 folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's works. Act iii. must be pronounced Massinger's (cf. iii. i. 120, and Two Noble Kinsmen, i. i. 118). Act v. is undoubtedly Fletcher's.
2. ‘Thierry and Theodoret’ (printed in 1621) and 3. ‘The Bloody Brother’ (printed in 1639) were by Massinger, Field, Fletcher, and another author. They were probably written in 1613 or 1614. The fourth author wrote act iv. 1 of the ‘Bloody Brother’ and act iii. 2 of ‘Thierry and Theodoret,’ and the grammatical peculiarities of those passages
