- PHILIP MASSINGER AND HIS ASSOCIATES Donald S. Lawless A SAE MOOGA UME E PHILIP MASSINGER AND HIS ASSOCIATES Donald S. Lawless Assistant Professor of English Ball State University A SAE MOOGA UME E bltn n Enlh, . 6 ll Stt Unvrt, Mn, Indn 6 O O SAE ® Donald S. Lawless 1967 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-65489 r - To Mother and to the memory of Father and Professor Charles Jasper Sisson ..■M■ Preface T HIS WORK IS AN ABRIDGMENT of Part I of my doctoral dissertation for the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham (England), wherein I treat of Philip Massinger and his known associates. But in this monograph I have, for an obvious reason, been unable to present the de- tailed studies of various members of the playwright's circle, which comprise Part II of the thesis; I have, however, in the notes often referred the reader to this part of the original work. One of the aims of this work is to present as comprehensive an account of Massinger's life as possible; and here I have been able to add to his biography, discovering, among other things, that on his mother's side he was related to the Crompton family of Stafford. I have also been able to show, to cite another example, that the Arthur Massinger who died in the parish of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, in June, 1603, was the poet's father. Besides treating of Massinger's personal life and dramatic activities as fully as possible, I have also tried to see him in relation to his patrons and other members of his circle (whom I have been able to trace), who are considered collectively. While it is dangerous to use the term "circle" in a very specific sense about the dramatist's associates, an attempt is made to group some of them and to determine their relations with him. A consideration of Massinger's associates is rewarding. In the first place, a survey of the friends and acquaintances of a dramatist like Massinger helps us to reconstruct, in a measure, the world in which he lived. It reveals some of his friendships and enables us to understand the kind of man he was. Furthermore, when we become aware of who his associates were and of what they were, numerous questions can be legitimately posed, which have a bearing upon the poet's own life. How, for example, did Massinger become acquainted with John Clavell, an erstwhile highwayman? Was he on friendly terms with Thomas Bellingham when the latter was convicted for duelling in 1617? Might he have discussed matters relating to the New World with George Donne and Sir Henry Moody? Might he have met the Duke of Buckingham through Lord Mohun? Did he discuss Ralegh with Sir Warham St. Leger? Under what circumstances did he meet Sir Thomas Jay, who was, to use the words of Sir James Mann, "a rather shadowy figure in the history of the Royal Armouries"? These examples serve to indicate the kinds of queries which arise from a consideration of his associates and, in turn, such answers as may be found obviously illuminate our knowledge of the poet's activities and of his intellectual interests. Quoted from a letter (23 December 1958) from Sir James Mann, then Master of the Royal Armouries, to this writer. Acknowledgments To the Cornell University Press for permission to quote extracts from The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, 1623-1673, ed. Joseph Quincy Adams, Cornell Studies in English, No. 3 (New Haven, 1917). To the Record Keeper of Principal Probate Registry, Somerset House, London, for permission to make use of various wills preserved there. To Dr. Oscar M. Villarejo for permission to make use of his Ph.D. thesis (Columbia University, 1953) "Lope de Vega and the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama." To the Governors of Dulwich College, London, for permission to make use of MS. XVIII, no. 8. To the Greater London Record Office for permission to quote from the "Sacramental Token Books" and the "Monthly Account Books" of the Parish of St. Saviour, Southwark. To the Corporation of Wardens of the Parish of St. Saviour, Southwark, for permission to quote from the Parish Registers, the "Sacramental Token Books," and the "Monthly Account Books" of the parish. To the Shakespeare Institute for permission to quote from its Play Register. To the Folger Shakespeare Library for permission to quote from the Gosse Copy of various plays by Massinger. To the Bodleian Library for permission to quote from The Subscription Register of the University of Oxford (1581-1615) and from Philip Massinger's The City-Madam (London, 1658) (Malone 185(4) ). To the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to quote from Lansdowne MSS. 63 and 67 and MS. P. 28875. Roy. 18. A. XX, fols. 1-4; Massinger's The Vnnaturall Combat (London, 1639); Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts (London, 1633); Massinger's The Great Duke of Florence (London, 1636); Massinger, Middleton, and Rowley's The Excel- lent Comedy, called The Old Law: or A New Way to Please You (London, 1656). To Canon J. R. Satterthwaite, Vicar of the Guild Church of St. Dunstan- in-the-West, London, for permission to quote from the Parish Registers. vi To Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., for permission to quote from Thomas A. Dunn's Philip Massinger: The Man and the Playwright (London, 1957). To the Honourable Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana for per- mission to quote from Thomas A. Dunn's Philip Massinger: The Man and the Playwright (London, 1957). To Percy Dobell & Son for permission to quote from A Little Ark Con- taining Sundry Pieces of Seventeenth-Century Verse, ed. G. Thorn-Drury (London, 1921). To Dr. Alice Senob for permission to make use of her doctoral dissertation, an edition of Massinger's The Renegado (The University of Chicago, 1939). To the Most Honourable Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, Fifth Marquess of Salisbury, for permission to make use of the Calendar of the Manuscripts . Preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (London, 1883-1940). To Dr. Bertha Hensman for permission to make use of her Oxford D. Phil. thesis, "The Collaboration of Massinger and Fletcher" (The University of Oxford, 1960). To the Historical Manuscripts Commission for permission to make use of various Reports of the Commission. To Dr. Charles Lacy Lockert, Jr., and to Princeton University for permission to make use of The Fatal Dowry by Philip Massinger and Nathaniel Field, ed. Charles Lacy Lockert, Jr. (Lancaster, Pa., New Era Printing Company, 1918)—originally a Ph.D. thesis for Princeton University. To Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to quote from Felix E. Schelling's Elizabethan Drama, 1558-1642 . (Boston and New York, 1908). To the Council of the Bibliographical Society for permission to make use of W. W. Greg's A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration (London, 1939-1959). To Johanne M. Stochholm for permission to quote from her edition of Massinger's The Great Duke of Florence (Baltimore, 1933)—originally a Ph.D. thesis for Bryn Mawr College. To the Oxford Historical Society for permission to make use of the Reg- ister of the University of Oxford, 1571-1622, ed. Andrew Clark (Oxford, 1887-1889). vii To Basil Blackwell for permission to quote from A. H. Cruickshank's Philip Massinger (Oxford, 1920) and William Heminges' Elegy on Randolph's Finger, ed. G. C. Moore Smith (Oxford, 1923). To Professor Cyrus Hoy for permission to use material from his articles entitled "The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon," Studies in Bibliography (1956-1962). To the Malone Society for permission to make use of C. J. Sisson's edition of Believe as You List by Philip Massinger, Malone Society Reprint [Lon- don, 1928) and The Parliament of Love, ed. Kathleen M. Lea and checked by W. W. Greg, Malone Society Reprint [London, 19291 To the Oxford University Press for permission to quote from Donald S. Lawless' "Massinger, Smith, Horner, and Selden," Notes and Queries, n. s., IV (February, 1957), 55-56, and Donald S. Lawless and J. H. P. Pafford's "John Clavell, 1603-42. Highwayman, Author and Quack Doctor," Notes and Queries, n. s., IV ( January, 1957), 9. Transcripts of Crown-copyright records in the Public Record Office, London, and references to and quotations from the printed Calendars of the public records appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Quotations from Trinity College, Dublin, MS. G. 2. 21 appear by per- mission of the Board of Trinity College, Dublin. Quotations from G. E. Bentley's The Jacobean and Caroline Stage (Oxford, 1941-1956) and from "Brief Lives," Chiefly of Contemporaries, Set down by John Aubrey, between the Years 1669 & 1696, ed. Andrew Clark (Ox- ford, 1898) are by permission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford. And "for help along the way" (when this work was being prepared as a doctoral thesis), I wish to thank Professors John Cutts, Allardyce Nicoll, T. J. B. Spencer, Mark Eccles, Baldwin Maxwell, Norman Sanders, the late R. C. Bald, and the late C. J. Sisson, as well as Dr. Eric Ives, Dr. Stanley Wells, and Mr. E. A. J. Honigmann. I also wish to express my appreciation for generous help given to me by countless librarians and officials, especially at the British Museum, the Public Record Office, the Literary Department of Somerset House, the Bodleian Library, the University of Birmingham, the University of Oxford, the University of London, Trinity College, and the Greater London Record Office.