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MASSINGER, PHILIP (1583-1640)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 869 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MASSINGER, See also:PHILIP (1583-1640) , See also:English dramatist, son of See also:Arthur Massinger or Messanger, was baptized at St See also:Thomas's, See also:Salisbury, on the 24th of See also:November 1583. He apparently belonged to an old Salisbury See also:family, for the name occurs in the See also:city records as See also:early as 1415. He is described in his matriculation entry at St See also:Alban See also:Hall, See also:Oxford (1602), as the son of a See also:gentleman. His See also:father, who had also been educated at St Alban Hall, was a member of See also:parliament, and was attached to the See also:house-hold of See also:Henry See also:Herbert, 2nd See also:earl of See also:Pembroke, who recommended him in 1587 for the See also:office of examiner in the See also:court of the See also:marches. The 3rd earl of Pembroke, the See also:William Herbert whose name has been connected with See also:Shakespeare's sonnets, succeeded to the See also:title in 16or. It has been suggested that he supported the poet at Oxford, but the significant omission of any reference to himin any of Massinger's prefaces points to the contrary. Massinger See also:left Oxford without a degree in 16o6. His father had died in 1603, and he was perhaps dependent on his own exertions. The lack of a degree and the want of patronage from See also:Lord Pembroke may both be explained on the supposition that he had become a See also:Roman See also:Catholic. On leaving the university he went to See also:London to make his living as a dramatist, but his name cannot be de-finitely affixed to any See also:play until fifteen years later, when The Virgin See also:Martyr (ent. at Stationers' Hall, Dec. 7, 1621) appeared as the See also:work of Massinger and See also:Dekker. During these years he worked in collaboration with other dramatists.

A See also:

joint See also:letter, from Nathaniel See also:Field, See also:Robert Daborne and Philip Massinger, to Philip See also:Henslowe, begs for an immediate See also:loan of five pounds to See also:release them from their " unfortunate extremitie," the See also:money to be taken from the See also:balance due for the " play of Mr See also:Fletcher's and ours." A second document shows that Massinger and Daborne owed Henslowe 3 on the 4th of See also:July 1615. The earlier See also:note probably See also:dates from 1613, and from this See also:time Massinger apparently worked regularly with See also:John Fletcher, although in See also:editions of See also:Beaumont and Fletcher's See also:works his co-operation is usually unrecognized. See also:Sir See also:Aston Cokayne, Massinger's See also:constant friend and See also:patron, refers in explicit terms to this collaboration in a See also:sonnet addressed to See also:Humphrey Moseley on the publication of his See also:folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher (Small Poems of See also:Divers Sorts, 1658), and in an See also:epitaph on the two poets he says: " Plays they did write together, were See also:great See also:friends, And now one See also:grave includes them in their ends." After Philip Henslowe's See also:death in 1616 Massinger and Fletcher began to write for the See also:King's Men. Between 1623 and 1626 Massinger produced unaided for the See also:Lady See also:Elizabeth's Men then playing at the See also:Cockpit three pieces, The Parliament of Love, The Bondman and The Renegado. With the exception of these plays and The Great See also:Duke of See also:Florence, produced in 1627 by the See also:Queen's servants, Massinger continued to write regularly for the King's Men until his death. The See also:tone of the dedications of his later plays affords See also:evidence of his continued poverty. Thus in the See also:preface to The Maid of See also:Honour (1632) he wrote, addressing Sir See also:Francis Foljambe and Sir Thomas Bland: " I had not to this time subsisted, but that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours." The See also:prologue to The See also:Guardian (licensed 1633) refers to two unsuccessful plays and two years of silence, when the author feared he had lost the popular favour. S. R. See also:Gardiner, in an See also:essay on " The See also:Political See also:Element in Massinger " (Contemp. See also:Review, Aug. 1876), maintained that Massinger's dramas are before all else political, that the events of his See also:day were as openly criticized in his plays as current politics are in the cartoons of See also:Punch.

It is probable that this break in his See also:

production was owing to his See also:free handling of public matters. In 1631 Sir Henry Herbert, the See also:master of the See also:revels, refused to license an unnamed play by Massinger because of " dangerous See also:matter as the deposing of See also:Sebastian, King of See also:Portugal," calculated presumably to endanger See also:good relations between See also:England and See also:Spain. There is little doubt that this was the same piece as Believe as You See also:List, in which time and See also:place are changed, See also:Antiochus being substituted for Sebastian, and See also:Rome for Spain. In the prologue Massinger ironically apologizes for his See also:ignorance of See also:history, and professes that his accuracy is at See also:fault if his picture comes near " a See also:late and sad example." The obvious " late and sad example " of a wandering See also:prince could be no other than See also:Charles I.'s See also:brother-in-See also:law, the elector See also:palatine. An allusion to the same subject may be traced in The Maid of Honour. In another play by Massinger, not extant, Charles I. is reported to have himself struck out a passage put into the mouth of See also:Don Pedro, king of Spain, as " too insolent." The poet seems to have adhered closely to the politics of his patron, Philip Herbert, earl of See also:Montgomery, and afterwards 4th earl of Pembroke, who had leanings to See also:democracy and was a See also:personal enemy of the duke of See also:Buckingham. In The Bondman, dealing with the history of See also:Timoleon, Buckingham is satirized as Gisco. The servility towards. the See also:Crown displayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's plays reflected the See also:temper of the court of See also:James I. The attitude of Massinger's heroes and heroines towards See also:kings is very different. Camiola's remarks on the limitations of the royal See also:prerogative (Maid of Honour, See also:act 1v. sc. v.) could hardly be acceptable at court. Massinger died suddenly at his house near the Globe See also:theatre, and was buried in the See also:churchyard of St Saviour's, See also:Southwark, on the 18th of See also:March 164o. In the entry in the See also:parish See also:register he is described as a " stranger," which, however, implies nothing more than that he belonged to another parish.

The supposition that Massinger was a Roman Catholic rests upon three of his plays, The Virgin Martyr (licensed 1620), The Renegado (licensed 1624) and The Maid of Honour (c. 1621). The religious sentiment is certainly such as would obviously best See also:

appeal to an See also:audience sympathetic to Roman Catholic See also:doctrine. The Virgin Martyr, in which Dekker probably had a large See also:share, is really a See also:miracle play, dealing with the martyrdom of Dorothea in the time of See also:Diocletian, and the supernatural element is freely used. Little stress can be laid on this performance as elucidating Massinger's views. It is not entirely his work, and the See also:story is early See also:Christian, not Roman Catholic. In The Renegado, however, the See also:action is dominated by the beneficent See also:influence of a Jesuit See also:priest, Francisco, and the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is enforced. In The Maid of Honour a complicated situation is solved by the decision of the heroine, Camiola, to take the See also:veil. For this she is held up " to all posterity a See also:fair example for See also:noble maids to imitate." Among all Massinger's heroines Camiola is distinguished by genuine purity and heroism. His plays have generally an obvious moral intention. He sets himself to work out a See also:series of ethical problems through a See also:succession of ingenious and effective plots. In the See also:art of construction he has, indeed, few rivals.

But the virtue of his heroes and heroines is rather morbid than natural, and often singularly divorced from See also:

common-sense. His dramatis personae are in See also:general types rather than living persons, and their actions do not appear to See also:spring inevitably from their characters, but rather from the exigencies of the See also:plot. The heroes are too good, and the villains too wicked to be quite convincing. Moreover their respective goodness and villainy are too often represented as extraneous to themselves. This defect of characterization shows that English See also:drama had already begun to decline. It seems doubtful whether Massinger was ever a popular playwright, for the best qualities of his plays would appeal rather to politicians and moralists than to the See also:ordinary playgoer. He contributed, however, at least one great and popular See also:character to the English See also:stage. Sir See also:Giles Overreach, in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, is a sort of commercial See also:Richard III., a See also:compound of the See also:lion and the See also:fox, and the See also:part provides many opportunities for a great actor. He made another considerable contribution to the See also:comedy of See also:manners in The City Madam. In Massinger's own See also:judgment The Roman Actor was " the most perfect See also:birth of his See also:Minerva." It is a study of the See also:tyrant See also:Domitian, and of the results of despotic See also:rule on the See also:despot himself and his court. Other favourable examples of his grave and restrained art are The Duke of See also:Milan, The Bondman and The Great Duke of Florence. Massinger was a student and follower of Shakespeare.

The See also:

form of his See also:verse, especially in the number of run-on lines, approximates in some respects to Shakespeare's later manner. He is rhetorical and picturesque, but rarely rises to extraordinary felicity. His verse is never mean, but it sometimes comes perilously near to See also:prose, and in dealing with passionate situations it lacks See also:fire and directness. The plays attributed to Massinger alone are: The Duke of Milan, a Tragedy (c. 1618, pr. 1623 and 1638) ; The Unnatural Combat, a Tragedy (c. 1619, pr. 1639); The Bondman, an Antient Storie (licensed 1623, pr. 1624) ; The Renegado, a Tragaecomedie (lic. 1624, pr. 1630); The Parliament of Love (See also:lie. 1624; ascribed, no doubt erroneously, in the Stationers' Register, 166o, to W.

See also:

Rowley; first printed by See also:Gifford from an imperfect MS. in 1805); A New Way to Pay Old Debts, a Comoedie (c. 1625, pr. 1632); The Roman Actor. A Tragaedie (See also:tic. 1626, pr. 1629) ; The Maid of Honour (dating perhaps from 1621, pr. 1632) ; The Picture, a Tragecomedie (lic. 1629, pr. 1630) ; The Great Duke of Florence, a Comicall Historie (lie. 1627, pr. 1635) ; The See also:Emperor of the See also:East, a Tragaeeomoedie (lic. and pr. 869 1631), founded on the story of See also:Theodosius the Younger; Believe as You List (rejected by the See also:censor is See also:January, but licensed in May, 1631; pr.

1848–1849 for the See also:

Percy Society) ; The City Madam, a Comedie (lie. 1632, pr. 1658), which Mr Fleay (Biog. Chron. of the Eng. Drama, i. 226), however, considers to be a rifaciamento of an older play, probably by See also:Jonson; The Guardian (lic. 1633, pr. 1655); and The Bashful See also:Lover (lic. 1636, pr. 1655). A Very Woman, or The Prince of Tarent, licensed in 1634 as the work of Massinger alone, is generally referred to his collaboration with Fletcher. The " exquisite See also:temperance and See also:justice " of this piece are, according to See also:Swinburne, See also:foreign to Fletcher's See also:genius, and afford a striking example of Massinger's See also:artistic skill and moderation.

Twelve plays of Massinger are said to be lost, but the titles of some of these may be duplicates of those of existing plays. Five of these lost plays were See also:

MSS. used by John See also:Warburton's See also:cook for See also:pie-covers. The numerous plays in which Massinger's co-operation with John Fletcher is generally assumed are dealt with under BEAUMONT and FLETCHER. But it may be here noted that Mr R. See also:Boyle has constructed an ingenious See also:case for the joint authorship by Fletcher and Massinger of the two " Shakespearian " plays, Henry VIII. and Two Noble Kinsmen (see the New Shakspere Society's Transactions, 1884 and 1882). Mr Boyle See also:sees the See also:touch of Massinger in the first two acts of the Second See also:Maiden's Tragedy (See also:Lansdowne MS., lie. 1611), a play with which the names of Fletcher and See also:Tourneur are also associated by different critics. The Fatall See also:Dowry, a Tragedy (c. 1619, pr. 1632), which was adapted without See also:acknowledgment by See also:Nicholas Rowe in his Fair Penitent, was written in See also:conjunction with Nathaniel Field; and The Virgin Martir, a Tragedie (lic. 1620, pr. 1621), with Thomas Dekker.

Massinger's See also:

independent works were collected by Coxeter (4 vols., 1759, revised edition with introduction by Thomas See also:Davies, 1779), by J. Monck See also:Mason (4 vols., 1779), by William Gifford (4 vols., 1805, 1813), by See also:Hartley See also:Coleridge (184o), by Lieut.-See also:Colonel Cunning-See also:ham (1867), and selections by Mr Arthur See also:Symons in the Mermaid Series (1887–1889). Gifford's remains the See also:standard edition, and formed the basis of See also:Cunningham's See also:text. It contains " An Essay on the Dramatic Writings of Massinger " by Dr John Ferriar. Massinger has been the See also:object of a good See also:deal of See also:criticism. A metrical examination of the plays in which Massinger was concerned is given in Englische Studien (See also:Halle, v. 74, vii. 66, viii. 39, ix. 209 and x. 383), by Mr R. Boyle, who also contributed the See also:life of the poet in the See also:Dictionary of See also:National See also:Biography.

The See also:

sources of his plays are dealt with by E. Koeppel in Quellen Studien zu den Dramen See also:Chapman's, Massinger's and See also:Ford's (See also:Strassburg, 1897). For detailed criticism, beside the introductions to the editions quoted, see A. W. See also:Ward, Hist. of Eng. Dram. Lit. (1899), iii. 1–47, and F. G. Fleay, Biog. Chron. of the Eng.

Drama (1891), under Fletcher; a general estimate of Massinger, dealing especially with his moral standpoint, is given in Sir See also:

Leslie See also:Stephen's See also:Hours in a Library (3rd series, 1879) ; Swinburne, in the Fortnightly Review (July 1889), while acknowledging the justice of Sir L. Stephen's See also:main strictures, found much to say in praise of the poet.

End of Article: MASSINGER, PHILIP (1583-1640)

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