Massinger, Philip

(1583-1640)

   He was born near Salisbury, Wiltshire, the son of Arthur Massinger, the agent of Henry Herbert, second earl of Pembroke of Wilton House. Philip may have been a page in the Wilton household and the earl supported his attendance at St. Alban Hall, Oxford. However, on his conversion to Roman Catholicism he lost favor with his patron and left university in 1606 without graduating. In London he became a renowned playwright, writing plays for the theatrical manager Philip Henslowe. He collaborated with playwrights John Fletcher (see entry), Nathan Field, Thomas Dekker (see entry) to produce some 55 plays. In 1625 he succeeded Fletcher as the chief playwright of the King's Men and remained with the company until his death. He died suddenly in his house on the Bankside, Southwark, near the Globe Theatre, East London. His body was accompanied by a group of comedians to nearby St. Saviour's Church. Some of his poems: "Death Invoked," "Music Above, A Song of Pleasure," "Song by Pallas," "The Emperor of the East," "The Forest's Queen," "The Maid of Honour," "The Renegade," "The Virgins Character."

   Sources: An Anthology of Catholic Poets. Shane Leslie, ed. Macmillan, 1952. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Poetry Archive, Poems by Philip Massinger (www.poetryarchive.com). Songs from the British Drama. Edward Bliss Reed, ed. Yale University Press, 1925. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Golden Book of Catholic Poetry. Alfred Noyes, ed. J.B. Lippincott, 1946. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Plays and Poems of Philip Massinger (five volumes). Philip Edwards and Colin Gibson, eds. Clarendon Press, 1976. The Poems of Philip Massinger, with Critical Notes. Ball State University, Indiana, 1968.