THE father of Massinger was a domestic in the household of Henry, second earl of Pembroke. The capacity which he filled in that princely establishment, has not been discovered; but it was doubtless one of honour. In those days, gentlemen and the scions of nobility were eager to enter the service of some powerful nobleman. They were his confidential messengers to the sovereign and the nobility; they were his agents in his most important affairs; they swelled his retinue when he appeared at court, or on any public occasion; and he was often valued in proportion to the pomp which he displayed. The reason is, that though the feudal system was legally abolished, its spirit remained; and the connection between lord and vassal, as in more ancient times between patron and client, was, though much impaired, visible enough in most of our great households. Philip Massinger was born in 1584, probably at Wilton, the seat of the earl, in the neighbourhood of Salisbury. In the family of that peer, agreeably to the manner of the times, he received the rudiments of his education. In his sixteenth year his noble patron died; but as William, the third earl, continued both his father and himself on his establishment, he did not greatly lose by that event. In 1602, the year after the young nobleman's succession, Philip was sent to Oxford, where * Baker Biographia Dramatica; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary; Davies's Lite of Massinger; Langbaine's History of the Stage; Wood's Athene Oxonienses, by Bliss Gifford's Introduction to Massinger. We he was entered a commoner of St. Alban's Hall. Here he remained four years. Whether he was supported by the earl or his own father, is doubtful: Wood says by the former, and adds, that on account of his devoting most of his time to poetry and romances, instead of logic and philosophy, that nobleman was offended, and withdrew the customary support, so that he was forced to leave college abruptly. More likely, however, it was the death of his father which rendered this secession necessary. Nor is it certain that he was so much indebted to the earl as Antony contends. One thing is clear, - that after he left college that nobleman did nothing for him. As earl William was a man of high honour and integrity, it has been supposed that there was some deeper cause of offence than has been recorded by the old biographers. This is exceedingly probable. It is said by Mr. Gifford, that, during his residence at college, Massinger exchanged the religion of his father for one that, at the period in question, was "the object of persecution, hatred, and terror." "A close and repeated perusal," adds the critic, "of Massinger's works has convinced me that he was a catholic. The Virgin Martyr, The Renegado, The Maid of Honour, exhibit innumerable proofs of it, to say nothing of those casual intimations that are scattered over his remaining dramas. A consciousness of this might prevent him from applying to the earl of Pembroke for assistance; or a knowledge of it might determine that nobleman to withhold his hand." This supposition would certainly account both for his precipitate departure from college, and for the disruption of the bonds which had so long united his family with the house of Herbert. There must, surely, have been some cause for this disruption, or a stain must for ever rest on that house. The conduct of Massinger, whatever his opinions might be, was correct; it, therefore, did not occasion the misfortune. We are, however, by no means sure that Mr. Gifford's conjecture is founded in truth. Though our dramatist is more favourable to Lalasiatica ha introduces on the stage, than most of his contemporaries, who delight in abusing them, we do not see that he was a Roman catholic himself. The Virgin Martyr is, indeed, a tragedy from the heart; the subject was one in which the author delighted; but what protestant - at least, what protestant of the English church in the reigns of Elizabeth and James - could hesitate to adopt every word in that drama? The time is during the persecutions of Dioclesian, -a time, surely, when none of the corruptions which afterwards crept into the church, were suspected. The Maid of Honaur does not authorise the inference. She takes the veil, indeed; but because the author makes her do this, are we to conclude that he was of the same faith? The strongest passage for the conclusion is in The Renegado, where a relic concealed in the bosom of Paulina is supposed to protect her from the lust of the Turks. But even this does not, rigidly speaking, warrant it. During the period of Massinger, there were protestants who believed in the efficacy of some relics, or rather that faith in their efficacy would be available. There were many, too, who believed in the middle state. Thus Shakespear : " I am thy father's spirit, Was Shakespear a catholic? Assuredly there is as much reason to think him one, as Massinger. The truth is, that many of the Roman catholic opinions were adopted by the early protestants. The real presence, and sacerdotal absolution, were among them. For proof of this, we need only open the Book of Common Prayer, especially the one used in Elizabeth's reign. Let us not, however, be misunderstood. We do not positively assert that Massinger was not a catholic: all that we contend for is, that his plays do not afford internal evidence strong enough to warrant the inference.* See a few pages below. where other reasons are adduced for this view But whatever might be the cause which led to the estrangement of lord Pembroke from his dependent, one that had an hereditary claim on his protection, the misfortunes of the latter commenced with his departure from college. The stage was his only resource, - a precarious one at all times, and likely to be more so in proportion as the puritans increased. Many eminent men were dependent on it; but one only appears to have flourished by it. This was Shakespear, who yet derived more profit from his acting than from his writing, and from his share of the theatre than from both together. Ben Jonson could not have lived, had he not been a favourite at court, and pensioned by it. Beaumont and Fletcher were of good family, and had, probably, resources sufficient for their maintenance, independent of the stage. Greene, Peele, Marlowe, and a score besides, had, indeed, no other means of support; but they lived and died wretched. Unfortunately, Massinger, a name as dear to letters as any of them, Shakespear excepted, was doomed to be as wretched as any one of his contemporaries. It is strange that, though Massinger, probably, arrived in London soon after he left college, we have nothing of his before 1622 - when he was fast approaching his fortieth year. The reason, however, is, that he wrote in conjunction with other dramatists. We know that he assisted Fletcher in several pieces. This fact rests on the authority of sir Aston Cockayne, who knew them both; and on a letter which he, Field, and Daborne wrote to the well-known manager, Mr. Henslow. That letter we have consigned to the foot of the page *; and it will not be read without sorrow. "To our most loving friend, Mr. Philip Hinchlow, esquire, These, "Mr. Hinchlow, "You understand our unfortunate extremitie, and I doe not thincke you so void of of cristianitie but that you would throw so much money into the Thames as wee request now of you, rather than endanger so many innocent lives. You know there is xl. more at least to be receaved of you for the play. We desire you to lend us vl. of that; which shall be allowed to you, without which we cannot be bayled, nor I play any more till this be dispatch'd. It will lose you xxl. ere the end of the next weeke, besides the hinderance of the next new play. Pray, sir, conich humanity and now give us cause to acknowledge you "When it is added that, together with these, forty other manuscript plays of various authors were destroyed, it will readily be allowed that English literature has seldom sustained a greater loss than by the strange conduct of Mr. Warburton, who becoming the master of treasures which ages may not reproduce, lodges them, as he says, in the hands of an ignorant servant, and when, after a lapse of years, he condescends to revisit his hoards, finds that they have been burnt from an economical wish to save him the charges of more valuable brown paper! It is time to bring on shore the book-hunting passenger in Locher's Navis Stultifera, and exchange him for one more suitable to the rest of the cargo. The Second Maid's "Tardy, however, as Mr. Warburton was, it appears that he came in time to preserve three dramas from the general wreck; Tragedy; The Bugbear; and The Queen of Corsica. "These, it is said, are now in the library of the marquis of Lansdowne, where they will, probably, remain in safety till moths, or damps, or fires mingle their forgotten dust' with that of their late companions. "When it is considered at how trifling an expense a manuscript play may be placed beyond the reach of accident, the withholding it from the press will be allowed to prove a strange indifference to the ancient literature of the country. The fact, however, seems to be, that these treasures are made subservient to the gratification of a spurious rage for notoriety: it is not that any benefit may accrue from them either to the proprietors or others, that manuscripts are now hoarded, but that A or B may be celebrated for possessing what no other letter of the alphabet can hope to acJutoful passion of literary avarice (a compound |