"
After this we ought surely to rejoice, that any one hardy enough to become
an Editor of Old Ballads is left amongst us.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
THE FATHER OF PHILIP MASSINGER.
Gifford was quite right in stating that the name of the father of
Massinger, the dramatist, was Arthur, according to Oldys, and not Philip,
according to Wood and Davies. Arthur Massinger (as he himself spelt the
name, although others have spelt it Messenger, from its supposed etymology)
was in the service of the Earl of Pembroke, who married the sister of Sir
Philip Sidney, in whose family the poet Daniel was at one time tutor. I
have before me several letters from him to persons of note and consequence,
all signed "Arthur Massinger;" and to show his importance in the family to
which he was attached, I need only mention, that in 1597, when a match was
proposed between the son of Lord Pembroke and the daughter of Lord
Burghley, Massinger, the poet's father, was the confidential agent employed
between the parties. My purpose at present is to advert to a matter which
occurred ten years earlier, and to which the note I am about to transcribe
relates.
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