The Roman Actor: "For any man to match above his rank is but to sell his liberty"

By Philip Massinger

Philip Massinger was baptized at St. Thomas's in Salisbury on November 24th, 1583.

Massinger is described in his matriculation entry at St. Alban Hall, Oxford (1602), as the son of a gentleman. His father, who had also been educated there, was a member of parliament, and attached to the household of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The Earl was later seen as a potential patron for Massinger.

He left Oxford in 1606 without a degree. His father had died in 1603, and accounts suggest that Massinger was left with no financial support this, together with rumours that he had converted to Catholicism, meant the next stage of his career needed to provide an income.

Massinger went to London to make his living as a dramatist, but he is only recorded as author some fifteen years later, when The Virgin Martyr (1621) is given as the work of Massinger and Thomas Dekker.

During those early years as a playwright he wrote for the Elizabethan stage entrepreneur, Philip Henslowe. It was a difficult existence. Poverty was always close and there was constant pleading for advance payments on forthcoming works merely to survive.

After Henslowe died in 1616 Massinger and John Fletcher began to write primarily for the King's Men and Massinger would write regularly for them until his death.

The tone of the dedications in later plays suggests evidence of his continued poverty. In the preface of The Maid of Honour (1632) he wrote, addressing Sir Francis Foljambe and Sir Thomas Bland: "I had not to this time subsisted, but that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours."

The prologue to The Guardian (1633) refers to two unsuccessful plays and two years of silence, when the author feared he had lost popular favour although, from the little evidence that survives, it also seems he had involved some of his plays with political characters which would have cast shadows upon England’s alliances.

Philip Massinger died suddenly at his house near the Globe Theatre on March 17th, 1640. He was buried the next day in the churchyard of St. Saviour's, Southwark, on March 18th, 1640. In the entry in the parish register he is described as a "stranger," which, however, implies nothing more than that he belonged to another parish.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stage Door
• Release date: May 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781787373129

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The Roman Actor by Philip Massinger

Philip Massinger was baptized at St. Thomas's in Salisbury on November 24th, 1583.

Massinger is described in his matriculation entry at St. Alban Hall, Oxford (1602), as the son of a gentleman. His father, who had also been educated there, was a member of parliament, and attached to the household of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The Earl was later seen as a potential patron for Massinger.

He left Oxford in 1606 without a degree. His father had died in 1603, and accounts suggest that Massinger was left with no financial support this, together with rumours that he had converted to Catholicism, meant the next stage of his career needed to provide an income.

Massinger went to London to make his living as a dramatist, but he is only recorded as author some fifteen years later, when The Virgin Martyr (1621) is given as the work of Massinger and Thomas Dekker.

During those early years as a playwright he wrote for the Elizabethan stage entrepreneur, Philip Henslowe. It was a difficult existence. Poverty was always close and there was constant pleading for advance payments on forthcoming works merely to survive.

After Henslowe died in 1616 Massinger and John Fletcher began to write primarily for the King's Men and Massinger would write regularly for them until his death.

The tone of the dedications in later plays suggests evidence of his continued poverty. In the preface of The Maid of Honour (1632) he wrote, addressing Sir Francis Foljambe and Sir Thomas Bland: I had not to this time subsisted, but that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours.

The prologue to The Guardian (1633) refers to two unsuccessful plays and two years of silence, when the author feared he had lost popular favour although, from the little evidence that survives, it also seems he had involved some of his plays with political characters which would have cast shadows upon England’s alliances.

Philip Massinger died suddenly at his house near the Globe Theatre on March 17th, 1640.  He was buried the next day in the churchyard of St. Saviour's, Southwark, on March 18th, 1640. In the entry in the parish register he is described as a stranger, which, however, implies nothing more than that he belonged to another parish.

Index of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

SCENE: Rome

ACT I

SCENE I. The Theatre

SCENE II. A Room in Lamia's House

SCENE III. The Curia or Senate-House

SCENE IV. The Approach to the Capitol

ACT II

SCENE I. A State Room in the Palace

ACT III

SCENE I. A Room in the Palace

SCENE II. Another Room in the Palace

ACT IV

SCENE I. A Room in the Palace

SCENE II. A Private Walk in the Gardens of the Palace

ACT V

SCENE I. A Room in the Palace, with an Image of Minerva

SCENE II. Another Room in the Palace

PHILIP MASSINGER – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

PHILIP MASSINGER – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Domitianus Cæsar

Paris, the ROMAN ACTOR 

Æius Lamia, 

Junius Rusticus   }

Palphurius Sura  } Senators

Fulcinius  }

Parthenius, Caesar 's freedman

Aretinus, Caesar's spy 

Stephanos, Domitilla's freedman

Æsopus  } 

Latinus   } Players 

Philargus, a rich miser; father to Parthenius

Ascletario, an astrologer

Sejius  }

Entellus  } Conspirators

Domitia, wife ofÆlius Lamia 

Domitilla, cousin-German to Caesar 

Julia, daughter of Titus

Cænis, Vespasian's concubine

A Lady

Tribunes, Lictors, Centurions, Soldiers, Hangmen, Servants, Captives.

SCENE: Rome

ACT I

SCENE I. The Theatre

Enter PARIS, LATINUS, and ÆSOPUS.

ÆSOPUS

What do we act to-day?

LATINUS

Agave's frenzy,

With Pentheus' bloody end.

PARIS

It skills not what;

The times are dull, and all that we receive

Will hardly satisfy the day's expense.

The Greeks, to whom we owe the first invention

Both of the buskin'd scene, and humble sock,

That reign in every noble family,

Declaim against us; and our theatre,

Great Pompey's work, that hath given full delight

Both to the eye and ear of fifty thousand

Spectators in one day, as if it were

Some unknown desart, or great Rome unpeopled,

Is quite forsaken.

LATINUS

Pleasures of worse natures

Are gladly entertain'd; and they that shun us,

Practise, in private, sports the stews would blush at.

A litter borne by eight Liburnian slaves.

To buy diseases from a glorious strumpet,

The most censorious of our Roman gentry,

Nay, of the garded robe, the senators,

Esteem an easy purchase.

PARIS

Yet grudge us,

That with delight join profit, and endeavour

To build their minds up fair, and on the stage

Decipher to the life what honours wait

On good and glorious actions, and the shame

That treads upon the heels of vice, the salary

Of six sestertii.

ÆSOPUS

For the profit, Paris,

And mercenary gain, they are things beneath us;

Since, while you hold your grace and power with Caesar,

We, from your bounty, find a large supply,

Nor can one thought of want ever approach us.

PARIS

Our aim is glory, and to leave our names

To aftertime.

LATINUS

And, would they give us leave,

There ends all our ambition.

ÆSOPUS

We have enemies,

And great ones too, I fear. Tis given out lately,

The consul Aretinus, Caesar's spy,

Said at his table, ere a month expired,

For being gall'd in our last comedy,

He'd silence us for ever.

PARIS

I expect

No favour from him; my strong Aventine is,

That great Domitian, whom we oft have cheer'd

In his most sullen moods, will once return,

Who can repair, with ease, the consul's ruins.

LATINUS

'Tis frequent in the city, he hath subdued

The Catti and the Daci, and, ere long,

The second time will enter Rome in triumph.

[Enter TWO LICTORS.

PARIS

Jove hasten it? With us? I now believe

The consul's threats, Æsopus.

1ST LICTOR

You are summon 'd

To appear to-day in senate.

2ND LICTOR

And there to answer

What shall be urged against you.

PARIS

We obey you.

Nay, droop not, fellows; innocence should be bold.

We, that have personated in the scene

The ancient heroes, and the falls of princes,

With loud applause; being to act ourselves,

Must do it with undoubted confidence.

Whate'er our sentence be, think 'tis in sport:

And, though condemn'd, let's hear it without sorrow,

As if we were to live again to-morrow,

1ST LICTOR

'Tis spoken like yourself.

[Enter ÆLIUS LAMIA, JUNIUS RUSTICUS, and PALPHURIUS SURA

ÆLIUS LAMIA

Whither goes Paris?

1ST LICTOR

He's cited to the senate.

LATINUS

I am glad the state is

So free from matters of more weight and trouble,

That it has vacant time to look on us.

PARIS

That reverend place, in which the affairs of kings

And provinces were determined, to descend

To the censure of a bitter word, or jest,

Dropp'd from a poet's pen! Peace to your lordships!

We are glad that you are safe.

[Exeunt LICTORS, PARIS, LATINUS, and ÆSOPUS.

ÆLIUS LAMIA

What times are these!

To what 's Rome fallen! may we, being alone,

Speak our thoughts freely of the prince and state,

And not fear the informer?

JUNIUS RUSTICUS

Noble Lamia,

So dangerous the age is, and such bad acts

Are practised every where, we hardly sleep,

Nay, cannot dream with safety. All our actions

Are call'd in question; to be nobly born

Is now a crime; and to deserve too well,

Held capital treason. Sons accuse their fathers,

Fathers their sons; and, but to win a smile

From one in grace at court, our chastest matrons

Make shipwreck of their honours. To