The Plays of Philip Massinger ... with Notes Critical and Explanatory, by W. Gifford. (Essay on the Dramatick Writings of Massinger by J. Ferriar.).

Publisher Marketing: Title: The Plays of Philip Massinger ... With notes critical and explanatory, by W. Gifford. (Essay on the Dramatick Writings of Massinger by J. Ferriar.). Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging from Bardic poetry to Victorian verse. Containing many classic works from important dramatists and poets, this collection has something for every lover of the stage and verse. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Massinger, Philip; Gifford, William; 1805. 4 vol.; 8 . 11783.e.5. Contributor Bio:  Massinger, Philip Philip Massinger was born in Salisbury in 1583, the son of a Wiltshire family (the surname is often spelled Messenger). His father was employed in the household of Henry Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, at Wilton, his office being that of house-steward and agent to the Earl. Massinger was educated probably first at Salisbury grammar school, and afterwards at Oxford, which he left without a degree for reasons unknown. By 1613 he was writing plays for the theatre-manager Henslowe, to whom he applied for money when imprisoned with two fellow-dramatists Daborne and Field for debt. It is estimated that in some thirty years Massinger either wrote or had a hand in some 53 plays. His earliest collaborations and original plays were written for the King's Men, the company of which Shakespeare had been a member and a writer, playing at the Globe and Blackfriars theatres. John Fletcher had succeeded Shakespeare as the King's Men's principal dramatist, and it was Fletcher with whom Massinger chiefly collaborated, Fletcher from whom he learnt much of his dramatic art, and Fletcher whom he succeeded in 1626 (after a short period of writing for the Queen's Men, playing at the Cockpit, or, as it was called when rebuilt after a fire, the Phoenix). He died in 1640 and was buried in Fletcher's grave in Southwark Cathedral. Massinger's works include the romances "The Duke of Milan" (1620), "The Great Duke of Florence "(1627), and "The Roman Actor" (1626), the comedies "The City Madam "(1632) and "The Guardian" (1633), and the tragicomedies "The Bondman" (1623) and "The Renegado" (1624). He also collaborated on 11 plays with John Fletcher, and may possibly have had a hand in Shakespeare and Fletcher's "Henry VIII" and" The Two Noble Kinsmen".