Chapter 6

We need not add this wind by our observance To sails too full already.

This reminds us of the common Massinger simile,--

Too large a sail for your small bark.

And _Virg. Mar_., I. 1. 85,--

You pour oil On fire that burns already at the height.

Both similes occur in almost all Massinger's plays.

The situation on page 219 has a striking resemblance to a similar scene with Cranmer in _Henry VIII_. Both Maurice and Cranmer are to be disgraced by being kept waiting outside while their enemies were at Council. I cannot help here repeating what I have expressed before, that _Henry VIII_. as we have it is not the work of Shakespeare and Fletcher, but of Massinger and Fletcher, with only fragments of the Shakespeare play.