ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES LONG, ONE OF THE LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY'S TREASURY, THIS EDITION OF THE WORKS OF PHILIP MASSINGER, IS INSCRIBED,K AS A SINCERE TESTIMONY OF RESPECT FOR HIS PUBLICK CHARACTER, AND OF GRATITUDE FOR MANY ACTS OF FRIENDSHIP AND PERSONAL KINDNESS, BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, THE EDITOR. INTRODUCTION. PHILIP HILIP MASSINGER, the Author of the following Plays, was born in the year 1584. Of his mother nothing is known, but his father was Arthur Massinger,' a gentleman His father was Arthur Massinger,] "I cannot guess," Davies says, "from what information Oldys, in his manuscript notes, (to Langbaine,), gives the Christian' name of Arthur to Massinger's father, nor why he should reproach Wood for calling him Philip; since Massinger himself, in the Dedication of the Bondman, to the earl of Montgomery, says expressly that his father Philip Massinger lived and died in the service of the honourable house of Pembroke." Life of Massinger prefixed to the last edition. This preliminary observation augurs but ill for the accuracy of what follows. Oldys, who was a very careful writer, got his information from the first edition of the Bondman, 1623, which, it appears from this, Mr. Davies never saw. In the second edition, published many years after the first, (1638,) he is, indeed, called Philip; but that is not the only errour in the Dedication, which, as well as the Play itself, is most carelessly printed. attached to the family of Henry, second earl of Pembroke: "Many years," says the Poet, to his descendant, Philip earl of Montgomery," my father spent in the service of your honourable house, and died a servant to it." The writers of Massinger's life have thought it necessary to observe in this place, that the word servant carries with it no sense of degradation. This requires no proof: at a period when the great lords and officers of the court numbered inferiour nobles among their followers, we may be confident that neither the name nor the situation was looked upon as humiliating... Many considerations united to render this state of dependance respectable, and even honourable. The se cretaries, clerks, and assistants, of various departments, were not then, as now, nominated by the government; but left to the choice of the person who held the employment; and as no particular dwelling was officially set apart for their residence, they were entertained in the house of their principal. That communication, too, between noblemen of power and trust, both of a publick and private nature, which is now committed |