MASSINGER, Putur (1553 1G40). An English dramatist, son of Arthur Massinger, a retainer of Henry Herbert, second Earl of Pembroke. The elder Massinger was edu cated at Saint Alban Hall, Oxford; was after wards a fellow of Merton College, and member of Parliament. Philip entered Saint Alban Hall in 1602, but he left without a degree in 160G, the year in which his father probably died. Mas singer went to London, probably not before 1610, and began writing for the stage. The ex tent of his work has not yet been definitely de termined, for he collaborated on a large scale. He seems to have written single-handed about fifteen plays, and in conjunction with others fully twenty-five. His most common collaborator was Fletcher; and many of the plays they wrote to gether must be sifted from those that have long passed under the name of Beaumont and Fletcher.
Massinger studied his art well, and thus ad justed his plays to the stage perhaps better than any of his eontemporaries. Pis best-known comedy, .1 New Way to Puy Old Debts (first per formed between 1622 and 1626), kept the stage well on into the nineteenth century. Sir Giles Overreach, the leading character in the play, is without much doubt a portrait of a notorious extortioner of the time named Sir Giles Monipes son. Indeed, political satire is one of the char
acteristics of Slassinger's plays, particularly of Believe as You List, The Emperor of the East, The Maid of Honour, and The Bondman. In the last play (performed late in 1623 or early in 1624), the object of attack is Buckingham. Good examples of Massinger's power are The Virgin Martyr (partly Dekker's) and Barna rult (partly Fletcher's). Through his life he kept up friend ly relations with the Herbert:. From Philip, the fourth Earl of Pembroke. lie received, it is said, a pension of £30 or more. He died at Southwark, in 5l arch, 1640, and was hulled in the Church yard of Saint Saviour's. There is no satisfae tory edition of Massinger. The best is by Wil liam Gifford (4 vole., 1803; second ed. 1816; re printed by Cunningham, 1867). Consult also: Dramatic Works of .11assinger and Ford, ed. by H. Coleridge (London, 1840; revised 1883) ; Selected Plays, ed. by Symons, for "Mermaid Series" (London, 18S7-39) ; and for Massinger's share in plays ascribed to Beaumont and Fletch er, Transactions of Shakespeare Society (London, 1880-86) ; also Fleay in the last-named publication (ib., 1874).