Massinger was a student and follower of Shakespeare. The form of his verse, especially in the number of run-on lines, ap proximates 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 peri lously 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. 5624) ; The Renegado, a Tragaecomedie (lic. 1624, pr. 1630) ; The Parliament of Love (lic. 1624; ascribed, no doubt erroneously, in the Stationers' Register, 166o, 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 per haps 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. 1848-49 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. 5633, 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.
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 hay
constructed an ingenious case for the joint authorship by Fletcher and Massinger of the two "Shakespearian" plays, Henry VIII. an Two Noble Kinsmen. (See the New Shakspere Society's Transac tions, 1884 and 1882.) 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 Cunning ham (1867), and selections by Mr. Arthur Symons in the Mermaid Series (1887-89). 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 and 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; F. G. Fleay, Biog. Chron. of the Eng. Drama (1891), under Fletcher; and Koeppel in Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. vi.; 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 jus tice of Sir L. Stephen's main strictures, found much to say in praise of the poet. Full discussion of the disputed plays will be found in A. H. Cruickshank, Philip Massinger (Oxford, 1928) ; see also the list which will be found at the end of ch. 5, Cambridge History of English Lit erature, vol. vi. (Iwo).