To turn to the politics of the age; the rift between the dynasty and the nation grew wider as the century advanced. Though Massinger died before the days of the Long Parliament, we can imagine that he would have been one of those who eventually fought under protest for the King. We find evidence in his plays for supposing that he belonged to the Conservative Opposition, like his patron Philip, the fourth Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. [pg 015] He was a lover of liberty, and there are one or two indications that his plays offended the strict ideas of Charles I.'s censorship.
Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, refused on January 11th, 1630/31, to license one of his plays[63] because “it did contain dangerous matter, as the deposing of Sebastian King of Portugal by Philip II., and there being a peace sworn 'twixt the Kings of England and Spain.”[64] The same worthy records that King Charles I. himself read another of his plays,[65] while staying at Newmarket, and wrote against one passage, “This is too insolent, and to be changed.” The passage, which is put into the mouth of a King of Spain, runs as follows:
Monies! we'll raise supplies what way we please
And force you to subscribe to blanks, in which
We'll mulct you, as we think fit. The Caesars
In Rome were wise, acknowledging no laws
But what their swords did ratify; the wives
And daughters of the senators bowing to
Their will as deities.[66]
These lines clearly reflect on the autocratic methods which prevailed in England from 1629 to 1640.