The third chief playwright, after Shakespeare and John Fletcher, for the King's Men, Philip Massinger was baptized in the church of St. Thomas, Salisbury on 24 November, 1583. His mother Anne's family, the Cromptons, were provincial gentry with London money and connections through service to one of the most dominating political figures in Elizabethan England, the Earl of Essex. His father Arthur held degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, seems to have accompanied Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh on a failed expedition to the New World in 1578, and served as trusted agent to the powerful Herbert family, staunchly Protestant earls of Pembroke. During the 1590s Anne and Arthur lived in London with Philip and his four sisters. In 1602 Massinger entered St. Alban Hall, Oxford, but left…
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Citation: Clark, Glenn. "Philip Massinger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2979, accessed 19 April 2024.]
