MASSINGER

massinger, philip (1583-1640), english dramatist, son of arthur massinger or messanger, was baptized at st thomas's, salisbury, on the 24th of november 1583. he apparently belonged to an old salisbury family, for the name occurs in the city records as early as 1415. he is described in his matriculation entry at st alban hall, oxford (1602), as the son of a gentleman. his father, who had also been educated at st alban hall, was a member of parliament, and was attached to the household of henry herbert, 2nd earl of pembroke, who recommended him in 1587 for the office of examiner in the court of the marches. the 3rd earl of pembroke, the william herbert whose name has been connected with shakespeare's sonnets, succeeded to the title in 1601. it has been suggested that he supported the poet at oxford, but the significant omission of any reference to him in any of massinger's prefaces points to the contrary. massinger left oxford without a degree in 1606. 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 lord pembroke may both be explained on the supposition that he had become a roman catholic. on leaving the university he went to london to make his living as a dramatist, but his name cannot be definitely affixed to any play until fifteen years later, when _the virgin martyr_ (ent. at stationers' hall, dec. 7, 1621) appeared as the work of massinger and dekker. during these years he worked in collaboration with other dramatists. a joint letter, from nathaniel field, robert daborne and philip massinger, to philip henslowe, begs for an immediate loan of five pounds to release them from their "unfortunate extremitie," the money to be taken from the balance due for the "play of mr fletcher's and ours." a second document shows that massinger and daborne owed henslowe £3 on the 4th of july 1615. the earlier note probably dates from 1613, and from this time massinger apparently worked regularly with john fletcher, although in editions of beaumont and fletcher's works his co-operation is usually unrecognized. sir aston cokayne, massinger's constant friend and patron, refers in explicit terms to this collaboration in a sonnet addressed to humphrey moseley on the publication of his folio edition of beaumont and fletcher (_small poems of divers sorts_, 1658), and in an epitaph on the two poets he says:-- "plays they did write together, were great friends, and now one grave includes them in their ends." after philip henslowe's death in 1616 massinger and fletcher began to write for the king's men. between 1623 and 1626 massinger produced unaided for the lady elizabeth's men then playing at the cockpit three pieces, _the parliament of love_, _the bondman_ and _the renegado_. with the exception of these plays and _the great duke of florence_, produced in 1627 by the queen's servants, massinger continued to write regularly for the king's men until his death. the tone of the dedications of his later plays affords evidence of his continued poverty. thus in the preface to _the maid of honour_ (1632) he wrote, addressing sir 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 prologue to _the 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. gardiner, in an essay on "the political element in massinger" (_contemp. review_, aug. 1876), maintained that massinger's dramas are before all else political, that the events of his day were as openly criticized in his plays as current politics are in the cartoons of _punch_. it is probable that this break in his production was owing to his free handling of public matters. in 1631 sir henry herbert, the master of the revels, refused to license an unnamed play by massinger because of "dangerous matter as the deposing of sebastian, king of portugal," calculated presumably to endanger good relations between england and spain. there is little doubt that this was the same piece as _believe as you list_, in which time and place are changed, antiochus being substituted for sebastian, and rome for spain. in the prologue massinger ironically apologizes for his ignorance of history, and professes that his accuracy is at fault if his picture comes near "a late and sad example." the obvious "late and sad example" of a wandering prince could be no other than charles i.'s brother-in-law, the elector 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 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 montgomery, and afterwards 4th earl of pembroke, who had leanings to democracy and was a personal enemy of the duke of buckingham. in _the bondman_, dealing with the history of timoleon, buckingham is satirized as gisco. the servility towards the crown displayed in beaumont and fletcher's plays reflected the temper of the court of james i. the attitude of massinger's heroes and heroines towards kings is very different. camiola's remarks on the limitations of the royal prerogative (_maid of honour_, act iv. sc. v.) could hardly be acceptable at court. massinger died suddenly at his house near the globe theatre, and was buried in the churchyard of st saviour's, southwark, on the 18th of march 1640. in the entry in the parish 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 appeal to an audience sympathetic to roman catholic doctrine. _the virgin martyr_, in which dekker probably had a large share, is really a miracle play, dealing with the martyrdom of dorothea in the time of 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 story is early christian, not roman catholic. in _the renegado_, however, the action is dominated by the beneficent influence of a jesuit 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 veil. for this she is held up "to all posterity a fair example for 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 series of ethical problems through a succession of ingenious and effective plots. in the 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 common-sense. his _dramatis personae_ are in general types rather than living persons, and their actions do not appear to spring inevitably from their characters, but rather from the exigencies of the 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 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 ordinary playgoer. he contributed, however, at least one great and popular character to the english stage. sir giles overreach, in _a new way to pay old debts_, is a sort of commercial richard iii., a compound of the lion and the fox, and the part provides many opportunities for a great actor. he made another considerable contribution to the comedy of manners in _the city madam_. in massinger's own judgment _the roman actor_ was "the most perfect birth of his minerva." it is a study of the tyrant domitian, and of the results of despotic rule on the despot himself and his court. other favourable examples of his grave and restrained art are _the duke of milan_, _the bondman_ and _the great duke of florence_. massinger was a student and follower of shakespeare. the form of his 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 prose, and in dealing with passionate situations it lacks 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_ (lic. 1624; ascribed, no doubt erroneously, in the stationers' register, 1660, to w. rowley; first printed by 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_ (lic. 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_ (lic. 1627, pr. 1635); _the emperor of the east, a tragaecomoedie_ (lic. and pr. 1631), founded on the story of theodosius the younger; _believe as you list_ (rejected by the censor in january, but licensed in may, 1631; pr. 1848-1849 for the percy society); _the city madam, a comedie_ (lic. 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 jonson; _the guardian_ (lic. 1633, pr. 1655); and _the bashful 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 temperance and justice" of this piece are, according to swinburne, foreign to fletcher's genius, and afford a striking example of massinger's 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 mss. used by john warburton's cook for 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. boyle has constructed an ingenious 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 sees the touch of massinger in the first two acts of the _second maiden's tragedy_ (lansdowne ms., lic. 1611), a play with which the names of fletcher and tourneur are also associated by different critics. _the fatall dowry, a tragedy_ (c. 1619, pr. 1632), which was adapted without acknowledgment by nicholas rowe in his _fair penitent_, was written in conjunction with nathaniel field; and _the virgin martir, a tragedie_ (lic. 1620, pr. 1621), with thomas dekker. massinger's independent works were collected by coxeter (4 vols., 1759, revised edition with introduction by thomas davies, 1779), by j. monck mason (4 vols., 1779), by william gifford (4 vols., 1805, 1813), by hartley coleridge (1840), by lieut.-colonel cunningham (1867), and selections by mr arthur symons in the _mermaid series_ (1887-1889). gifford's remains the standard edition, and formed the basis of cunningham's text. it contains "an essay on the dramatic writings of massinger" by dr john ferriar. massinger has been the object of a good deal of criticism. a metrical examination of the plays in which massinger was concerned is given in _englische studien_ (halle, v. 74, vii. 66, viii. 39, ix. 209 and x. 383), by mr r. boyle, who also contributed the life of the poet in the _dictionary of national biography_. the sources of his plays are dealt with by e. koeppel in _quellen studien zu den dramen chapman's, massinger's und ford's_ (strassburg, 1897). for detailed criticism, beside the introductions to the editions quoted, see a. w. 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 leslie stephen's _hours in a library_ (3rd series, 1879); swinburne, in the _fortnightly review_ (july 1889), while acknowledging the justice of sir l. stephen's main strictures, found much to say in praise of the poet. massinissa (c. 238-149 b.c.), king of massylian or eastern numidia. he was educated, like many of the numidian chiefs, at carthage, learnt latin and greek, and was an accomplished as well as a naturally clever man. although his kingdom was nominally independent of carthage, it really stood to it in a relation of vassalage; it was directly under carthaginian influences, and was imbued to a very considerable extent with carthaginian civilization. it was to this that massinissa owed his fame and success; he was a barbarian at heart, but he had a varnish of culture, and to this he added the craft and cunning in which carthaginian statesmen were supposed to excel. while yet a young man (212) he forced his neighbour syphax, prince of western numidia, who had recently entered into an alliance with rome, to fly to the moors in the extreme west of africa. soon afterwards he appeared in spain, fighting for carthage with a large force of numidian cavalry against the romans under the two scipios. the defeat of the carthaginian army in 206 led him to cast in his lot with rome. scipio africanus is said to have cultivated his friendship. massinissa now quitted spain for a while for africa, and was again engaged in a war with syphax in which he was decidedly worsted. scipio's arrival in africa in 204 gave him another chance, and no sooner had he joined the roman general than he crushed his old enemy syphax, and captured his capital cirta (constantine). here occurs the romantic story of sophonisba, daughter of the carthaginian hasdrubal, who had been promised in marriage to massinissa, but had subsequently become the wife of syphax. massinissa, according to the story, married sophonisba immediately after his victory, but was required by scipio to dismiss her as a carthaginian, and consequently an enemy to rome. to save her from such humiliation he sent her poison, with which she destroyed herself. massinissa was now accepted as a loyal ally of rome, and was confirmed by scipio in the possession of his kingdom. in the battle of zama (202) (see punic wars), he commanded the cavalry on scipio's right wing, and materially assisted the roman victory. for his services he received the kingdom of syphax, and thus under roman protection he became master of the whole of numidia, and his dominions completely enclosed the carthaginian territories, now straitened and reduced at the close of the second punic war. it would seem that he had thoughts of annexing carthage itself with the connivance of rome. in a war which soon followed he was successful; the remonstrances of carthage with rome on the behaviour of her ally were answered by the appointment of scipio as arbitrator; but, as though intentionally on the part of rome, no definite settlement was arrived at, and thus the relations between massinissa and the carthaginians continued strained. rome, it is certain, deliberately favoured her ally's unjust claims with the view of keeping carthage weak, and massinissa on his part was cunning enough to retain the friendship of the roman people by helping them with liberal supplies in their wars against perseus of macedon and antiochus. as soon as carthage seemed to be recovering herself, and some of massinissa's partisans were driven from the city into exile, his policy was to excite the fears of rome, till at last in 149 war was declared--the third punic war, which ended in the final overthrow of carthage. the king took some part in the negotiations which preceded the war, but died soon after its commencement in the ninetieth year of his age and the sixtieth of his reign. massinissa was an able ruler and a decided benefactor to numidia. he converted a plundering tribe into a settled and civilized population, and out of robbers and marauders made efficient and disciplined soldiers. to his sons he bequeathed a well-stored treasury, a formidable army, and even a fleet. cirta (q.v.), his capital, became a famous centre of phoenician civilization. in fact massinissa changed for the better the whole aspect of a great part of northern africa. he had much of the arab nature, was singularly temperate, and equal to any amount of fatigue. his fidelity to rome was merely that of temporary expediency. he espoused now one side, and now the other, but on the whole supported rome, so that orators and historians could speak of him as "a most faithful ally of the roman people." see livy xxiv. 49, xxviii. 11, 35, 42, xxix. 27, xxx. 3, 12, 28, 37, xlii. 23, 29, xliii. 3; polybius iii. 5, ix. 42, xiv. 1, xxxii. 2, xxxvii. 3; appian, _hisp._ 37, _punica_, 11, 27, 105; justin xxxiii. 1; a. h. j. greenidge, _hist. of rome_ (london, 1904).