513 
MAS 
moderate fums. In two years, lie caufed 20,000 livres to 
be privately conveyed to the Hotel Dieu of Clermont. 
His peaceable difpofition was never more difplayed than 
while he was a birtiop. He took great pleafure in collect¬ 
ing the Fathers of the Oratory and thejefuitsat hiscoun- 
try-houfe, wdiere he endeavoured to make them forget 
their theological quarrels, and to unite in friendfhip and 
good-will towards each other; but he had not the fatif- 
faffion of feeing much fuccefs attend his truly benevolent 
and Chriftian defign. He died in 1742, about the age of 
fixty-nine, deeply lamented by his flock, who univerfally 
regarded him with filial reverence and affeflion. Soon 
after his death, four or five ftnall volumes of Sermons 
were publifhed under his name, and were often reprinted; 
but they were an impofition upon the public, containing, 
amidft a collection of difcourfes plundered from different 
authors, not more than twenty of Maffillon’s, and thcfe 
in a very imperfeft ftate. The only genuine edition of 
his works is that originally publifhed by his nephew, a 
member of the Congregation of the Oratory, in 1745 and 
1746, in fourteen vols. umo. of a larger, and twelve of 
a fmaller, fize. They contain a complete courfe of Ser¬ 
mons for Advent and Lent; the Petit Careme, already- 
mentioned ; feveral Funeral Orations, Panegyrics, &c. 
Ecclefiaftical Conferences; and Paraphrafes of feveral 
Pfalms. In 1748, the abbe de la Porte publifhed in 1 vol. 
12010. a judicious feleCtion of the molt ftriking and 
beautiful paflages from our author’s fermons, entitled, 
“Thoughts on various Moral and Religious Topics, See." 
which has fince been added as a lalt volume to the different 
editions of his works. D'Alembert's Elogt de MaJJillon. Moreri. 
MASS'INESS, or Mass'iveness,/ [from majfy, majjive .] 
Weight; bulk; ponderoufnefs.—It was more notorious 
for the daintinefs of the provifion ferved in it, than for 
the majjinefs of the difli. Hahewill. 
MASSIN'GALAS, a town of Tennaffee, North Ame¬ 
rica, with a poft-office: 427 miles weft-fouth-weft of 
Wafhington, 
MASS'INGHAM (Great), a fmall town in Norfolk, 
with a market on Fridays, and a fair on St. Simon and 
St. Jude’s day. 
MASS'INGHAM (Little), a village near Great Maf- 
fingham. 
Rougham is near Maflingham, in the road to St. Ed- 
mundfbury. It had formerly a monaftery ; and has now 
a charity-fchool.—Not far from this is Norton ; where 
Henry VIII. fet men to dig for gold, but in vain. 
MAS'SINGER (Philip), an early Englifh dramatic 
writer of great merit, was born in 1584 at Salifbury. His 
father, Arthur Maffinger, was in the fervice of Henry II. 
earl of Pembroke, in whofe family Philip probably had his 
education. In the 18th year of his age he was entered a 
commoner of St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford, where he appears 
to have been fupported at the expenfe of William then 
earl of Pembroke. It is afferted by Antony Wood, that 
in the univerfity he “ gave his mind more to poetry and 
romance than to logic and philofophywhich latter 
ftudies he was fent by his patron to cultivate, probably 
with a view of bringing him forward in fome profelfion. 
He left Oxford without a degree ; and, his father being 
dead, and his patron’s favour probably withdrawn, he 
found no other means of fupport than to employ his ta¬ 
lents as a writer for the ftage. 
It is extraordinary that a man of his undoubted genius 
fhould have remained fixteen years, from 1606 to 1622, 
fcarcely known to the public in the profeilion he had 
adopted ; for it was not till the latter date that his firffc 
printed play, the “ Virgin-Martyr,” made its appearance. 
The probability is, that he was chiefly employed during 
that interval in giving affiftance to other writers; for at 
that time partnerlhips in dramatic compofition were not 
unufual; and in particular there is reafon to fuppofe that 
he was a coadjutor to Fletcher in fome of the pieces that 
bore his name. A document has been produced by Mr. 
Malone from the records of Dulwich-college, which proves 
Vol. XIV. No. 931. 
MAS 
Mafllnger's dramatic connexion with Fletcher and others, 
and at the fame time gives melancholy evidence of his 
dilfrefied circumftances; fince he is one of three who 
united in a fupplicatory application to a manager for a 
loan of five pounds to refcue them from gaol. There is 
all’o proof of the exigence of feveral manufeript plays of 
Maflinger’s, with which he probably fupplied the tempo¬ 
rary demands of the theatre, and provided for his own 
wants, before fame was fo much an object with him as a 
fubfiftence. Of his life very few circumftances are re¬ 
corded ; and it feems to have been fpent in an unvaried 
attention to his bufinefs as a dramatift, and in the culti¬ 
vation of a few patrons, of whom the molt diftinguilhed 
appears to have been Philip earl of Montgomery. He 
feems never to have rifen above indigence ; and in his de¬ 
dications he more than once affirms that he fhould have 
found it difficult to fubfift, had he not received the aid of 
his benefactors. Maffinger died from a fudden indifpofi- 
tion in March 1639-40, at his houfe on the Bankfide, 
Southwark; and vuas buried in the church-yard of St. Sa¬ 
viour’s, by the fide of his brother-poet Fletcher. By 
thofe of his cotemporaries who mention him, he is fpoken 
of as a man of Angular modelfy, gentlenefs, and urbanity ; 
nor does he appear ever to have made an enemy. Indi¬ 
gence feems to have deprefled his fpirits; for his dedica¬ 
tions are written in an humble (train, with free confeffions 
of his poverty, but without queruloufnefs. The lift of 
plays compofed wholly or in part by Maffinger amounts 
to 38, of which 18 only are printed in the fulleft edition 
of his works. Their popularity feems never to have been 
equal to that of the compofitions of Shakelpeare, Jonfon, 
and Beaumont and Fletcher; nor have any of them pre- 
fent pofleffion of the ftage, with the exception, perhaps, 
of his comedy of “ A new Way to pay old Debts,” which 
occafionally makes its appearance. His pieces have the 
irregularicy of plot common at that period, with a mixture 
of low and grofs feenes, fometimes probably fupplied by 
an inferior hand. What is perhaps a greater defeat, there 
are few of his plots which have not fomething extrava¬ 
gant, unnatural, or drfguiting, which accounts for their 
difappearance from the theatre, though many of theif 
feenes and characters are highly interefting. The por¬ 
traits, too, are drawn more from general ideas in his own 
conception than from the obfervation of real nature; and 
his knowledge of the human heart is much inferior to that 
of Shakelpeare, with whom in fome points he may juftly 
be paralleled. One of his mod ftriking tragedies, the 
“ Fatal Dowry,” has afforded the outline of the Fair Peni¬ 
tent of Rowe. Maffinger is generally pure in his morality , 
though he has the grolfnefs and indelicacy of language 
from which fcarcely any writer of that age is free. His 
comedy has much of this fault, and often degenerates into 
low buffoonery, though it is not devoid of true humour. 
The lateft and beft edition of the works of Maffinger is 
that of Mr. Gifford, in 4 vols. 8vo. 1805 ; from whofe life 
of the author prefixed, the fubftance of the preceding ac¬ 
count is taken. 
MASSINISS'A, a king of a fmall part of Africa, who 
at firft alfifted the Carthaginians in their wars againft 
Rome ; but afterwards joined the Romans, and became 
the firmed: ally they ever had. See Numidia, and the 
article Rome. 
MASSPSA, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Aladulia: 
twelve miles eaft of Adana. 
MASS'IVE, or MASS'\\adj. \majjif, Fr.] Heavy ; weigh¬ 
ty ; ponderous ; bulky; continuous.—If thefe liquors or 
glaffes were fo thick and rn.ajfy that no light could get 
through them, I queftion not but they' would, like all 
other opaque bodies, appear of one and the fame colour 
in all pofitions of the eye. Newton's Optics. 
No fideboards then with gilded plate were prefs’d, 
No fweating (laves with majfizie ciiflies drefs’d. Drydeit. 
Th’ intrepid Theban hears the burfting (ky, 
Sees yawning rocks and in majfy fragments fly. Pope. 
6 P MASSOLI'NO 
