MAB8ILLON, JEAN-BAPTISTE. 



MASSINOKR, PHIUP. 



144 



had bens I Mfr cri-1 for boot four years, at the end of which 

 thaw I nuked iolo print* His i>t appearances in print were in 

 mtekl paper, ae.1 the burthen of most of hi* verses was tbesufler- 

 ud the hopes of the poor, and UM M power of knowledge, virtue, 

 ad leanniranns' to derate th. to. A collection of three occasional 

 i wa fwbliebed in hi. native town of Tring, in shilling volume, 

 " i tod Chansons,' of which 250 copies were told. 



Bat a new and most powerful influence in Maasey'a life was the 

 Kttal exeitooMOt of 1 848. " As an errand-boy," be says, " I had of 



ears* many hardship* to undergo, and to bear with much tyranny ; 



atd tb* led me into reasoning u|m men and things, the cause* of 

 j, the anomalies of our societery state, politics, Ac. I studied 



political book* auch as Paine, Volney, Howitt, Louis Blanc, &c., 

 which gave me another element to mould into my verse, though I 

 am convinced that a post must sacrifice much if be write party- 

 political poetry. . . . The French Revolution of 1848 bad the greatest 

 ftVet on me of any circumstance connected with my own life." 

 Partaking in this excitement, Massey, together with some other 

 working-men, started in April 1849, a cheap paper called ' The Spirit 

 of Freedom,' which be edited, and to which be supplied both poems 

 and artietr* conceived in a spirit of fiery political earnestness. This 

 political n.anifeUtion cost him five situations in eleven months. 

 Latterly he was connected with some of the working-men's a-socia- 

 tioas that sprang up in London, with a view to the substitution of 

 of the practical plans of cooperative labour for the mere 

 I notion* of Chartism ; and it was thus that he became 

 I with the Rev. F. D. Maurice, the Rev. Charles Kingsley, and 

 others, who at that time were promoting this new movement among 

 the working-men of London. About this time he married. Still 

 mwtinv'rg to write lyric*, some of them in a political strain, but 

 other* domestic, impassioned and more purely imaginative, his name 

 had began to be known, in consequence of the publication of some 

 of these in the columns of weekly London newspaper*, when the 

 i in 1863 of his volume entitled 'The Ballad of Babe 

 , with other Lyrical Poems,' took the public by storm, and 

 t (scared him general fame. Welcomed with encomiums by 

 Lander and by all the press, it was eagerly read everywhere, and by 

 U>a year 1856, five editions of it were sold. This success was not 

 wtthoct its effect on the worldly circumstances of the author. After 

 ^"H*"*; bis employment in London, he was induced in 1856 to 

 minis to Edinburgh ; where he has since resided occupied in literary 

 labour, and hence be baa recently issued a new volume of poems 

 eatitlrd ' Craigcrook Castle ' (I860). This work, though subjected to 



than ite predecessor, has also met with a very 

 enthusiastic reception, and has fully maintained the author's repu- 

 tation. He bimMir >peaki modestly of it It is " my best, ' he says, 



* for the time being, bat, in other year*, if God so wills, I may win 



touch mom certain and a larger reach upon a harp of tenser strings." 

 Two of Mr. Msessy's children have died since he went to Edinburgh ; 

 and this and other misfortunes impart a tone of great personal pathos 

 to hi. la*t volume. 



MASS1LI.ON. JKAX-UAITISTE, was born the 24th of June 

 IMS, at Hierea, in Provence, and at a very early age entered the 

 College de roratoire of that town; but his father, intending him for 

 th* profession of a notary, withdrew him before be bad completed 

 hie stadia*, Mssailloa however eagerly sailed every opportunity of 

 ntarBUMt. and bis father was ultimately prevailed upon to allow him 

 tore-eater the college, which be did in 1481, and commenced the 

 tody of theology under P. de Beanjeu, afterwards bishop of Caatres, 

 Here be read the termooa of Lejeune, and, being pleased with them, 

 Bade some attempts in that species of composition himself, which, 

 although acknowledged to be successful, did not satisfy his own taste. 

 In 1CM he wae called to Paris to direct the seminary of St Magloire, 

 where he composed his Ant ecclesiastical conferences, which, although 

 in tone from bis sermons, were not wanting in vivacity, 



powerful appeals to th* feelings. In the pulpit be appeared without 

 plater* or any extravagant display of action ; nevertheless when he 

 fjvw i instil, his look and deportment became so expressive, that 

 at this time, when th* orators of the pulpit were held in high esti- 

 Mlloa M patterns of declamation, the celebrated actor Baron, struck 

 with th* beauty of Ma*illoos style, excUlmed, "There is indeed an 

 orator, but we are merely comedians." At Versailles he was as 

 ' as be had been at Paris. The court of Louis XIV. was 



iisMLUiiil of meet who might be touched though not convinced. 

 Meesfllon felt this, and painted the passions with so much truth and 

 ewab tnissstible force, that even those whose vicious tendencies he 



id to love sod admire him. 



In 1704 be preached bis second Lent sermon at the court, and 

 With so much encores that Louis XIV. promised he would hear him 

 very two years; but for some reason unknown, Macsillon was never 

 gain at Versailles. In 1709 be delivered the funeral oration of the 

 Prune de Conti, which, though much applauded as delivered from 

 the pulpit, was greatly criticised when it appeared in print. After 

 th* ds^h of FUohier in 1710, Maosillon remained the lart of the 



orators of the grand sieele. In 1717 Massillon was made Bishop of 

 Clermont, and preached before the king his laat Lent sermon, which 

 U considered to be his ' chef-d'oeuvre ; ' and in 1719 he was conse- 

 crated in the king's presence by Cardinal de Floury. Massillon 

 abolished in bis diocese those indecorous processions that the ages of 

 ignorance had perpetuated, and also certain superstitious customs 

 spoken of in the 'Origines de Clermont.' He died on the 18th of 

 September 1742, of apoplexy. 



The fame of this celebrated man stands perhaps higher than that 

 of any preacher who has preceded or followed him, by the number, 

 variety, and excellence of bis productions, and their eloquent and 

 harmonious style. Grace, dignity, and force, and an inexhaustible 

 fecundity of resources, particularly characterise his works. His ' Avent 

 et Careme,' consisting of six volumes, may be justly considered as so 

 many ' chef d'ceuvrea.' Massillon, in his sermons, endeavoured to 

 convince the young king Louis XV. that he derived his authority 

 from the people, and should n.-ver exercise it but for their advantage, 

 nor deceive himself by thinking that he could do no wrong. The 

 most interesting of his works, next to his sermons, are his 'Con- 

 ferences,' which are discourses addressed to the young ecclesiastics 

 under his direction in the seminary of St. Magloire. Massillou'a 

 works were collected and published by his nephew, in 12 vols. 8vo, 

 in 1746 and 1748. 



MASSINGER, PHILIP, born at Salisbury, in 1584, was the son 

 of Arthur Massinger, one of the Earl of Pembroke's retainers, who 

 appears to have been employed as a special messenger to Queen Eliza- 

 beth. In 1602 he was entered at St Alban's Hall, Oxford, where ho 

 was supported by the Earl of Pembroke. Here, as Anthony a Wood 

 informs us, he spent his time in reading " poetry and romances " 

 rather than " logic and philosophy, which he ought to have done, as 

 he was patronised to that cud." Perhaps it is unnecessary to fall 

 upon Anthony so harshly as Gifford does for this assertion. The 

 biographer merely means to say that it was a kind of dishonesty to 

 spend the time for which he was indebted to another person in 

 studies alien to those which his benefactor wished him to pursue. 

 Be this as it may, his works are a sufficient contradiction to the accu- 

 sation of wasted time ; and if the Earl of Pembroke lost a chaplain, 

 the world has gained what is worth many homilies. 



Massinger took no degree, and also seems to have lost his patron's 

 favour. The reason is uncertain, but Gifford supposes that the poet 

 changed his religion at Oxford, and consequently alienated his 

 Protestant friends. Whether he ever did change bis religion at all 

 rests on Gilford's inference from certain expressions in his works ; 

 bat be this as it may, he was driven to betake himself to dramatic 

 composition about the time of his arrival in London. It is probable 

 that he did not for some years attempt anything- beyond assisting 

 others in the composition of plays, for we hear little or nothing of 

 him as an author until the appearance of his ' Virgin Martyr ' in 

 1622, sixteen years after his arrival in London. There is evidence 

 moreover to prove that after Beaumont's death in 1615, he assisted 

 Fletcher in the composition of some of the numerous plays (between 

 thirty and forty) which appeared under that author's name during 

 the succeeding ten years. During the rest of his life, Massinger was 

 employed in writing plays, the last of which appeared only six weeks 

 before his death, which took place the 17th of March 1640, at the 

 Bankoide. His name is noticed in the Burial Register of St. Saviour's 

 with the addition " a stranger," which however by no means refers 

 to his poverty and obscurity as hat been too readily taken for granted, 

 but merely that he was not a parishioner of St. Saviour's. 



Massinger's situation as last in order of time of the great dramatic 

 poets of the 16th ami 17th centuriex, U probably the reason why he 

 was so utterly lost sight of for seventy years after his death. The 

 first thing we hear of his works is Howe's intention of editing them, 

 which he afterwards changed into an actual piracy, by which he 

 adapted the 'Fatal Dowry' to suit the taste of the ISth century, 

 and published it as his own, uuder the name of the ' Fair Penitent.' 

 Gifford gives a complete list of Massinger's plays, with the dates of 

 their appearance, which range from 1621 to 1640. They are thirty- 

 seven in number, including those of which he wrote only a part, but 

 which went under his name. Of these eighteen remain, and ten, if 

 not twelve more, might have been added to their number had it not 

 been for the folly of Warburton, through whose carelessness the 

 manuscripts were destroyed by a servant. 



There is a peculiar interest in Massinger's plays derived from the 

 state of the times in which they were written, and the bearing and 

 influence which they must have exercised on those national feelings 

 from which, as is probable, they took their own actual shape. No 

 one who reads the play called ' The City Madam ' can help seeing in 

 it the exposition of a state of society likely to give birth to troubles, 

 as well as the direct exhibition of many of those opinions and feelings 

 which took such active part in the Revolution then impending. }Ve 

 see there portrayed a city opulent to extravagance, courtiers needy 

 and unprincipled, and a landed proprietor of no family not scrupling 

 to compare himself with one of the barons of the realm, and appearing 

 to advantage aa a blunt honest man contrasted with a noble, over- 

 bearing and insolent, though not intended by the poet to exhibit any 

 vices except those incident to all members of bis order. Still more 

 striking are the political doctrines contained in ' The Maid of Honour.' 



