Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother.
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learn’d and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.”
It would be pleasant to think that Massinger’s boyhood had been spent in the pure atmosphere that would have surrounded such a woman, but it should seem that he could not have been brought up in her household. Otherwise it is hard to understand why, in dedicating his “Bondman” to Philip, Earl of Montgomery, one of her sons, he should say, “However, I could never arrive at the happiness to be made known to your lordship, yet a desire, born with me, to make a tender of all duties and service to the noble family of the Herberts descended to me as an inheritance from my dead father, Arthur Massinger.” All that we know of his early life is that he entered a commoner at St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford, in 1602. At the University he remained four years, but left it without taking a degree.
From the year 1606, until his name appears in an undated document which the late Mr. John Payne Collier decides to be not later than 1614, we know nothing of him. This document is so illustrative of the haphazard lives of most of the dramatists and actors of the time as to be worth reading. It was written by Nathaniel Field, the actor who played the part of Bussy d’Ambois in Chapman’s play of that name, and who afterwards became prosperous and one of the shareholders in the Globe Theatre. Here it is:—
“To our most loving friend, Mr. Philip Hinchlow, Esq., These:
“Mr. Hinchlow,—You understand our unfortunate extremity, and I do not think you so void of Christianity, but you would throw so much money into the Thames as we request now of you rather than endanger so many innocent lives. You know there is Xl. more at least to be received of you for the play. We desire you to lend us Vl. of that, which shall be allowed to you, without which we cannot be bailed, nor I play any more till this be despatched. It will lose you XXl. ere the end of the next week, besides the hindrance of the next new play. Pray, sir, consider our cases with humanity, and now give us cause to acknowledge you our true friend in time of need. We have entreated Mr. Davison to deliver this note, as well to witness your love as our promises and always acknowledgment to be your most thankful and loving friend,
Nat Field.”
Under this is written:—