The English playwright Philip Massinger (1583-1640) was a productive dramatist, although much of his energy was devoted to collaboration and revision. His most distinctive work reflects a religious and moral earnestness but somewhat limited powers of characterization.

Philip Massinger was born in Salisbury, southern England. He was the son of Arthur Massinger, a trusted and responsible servant to the prominent Herbert family and at one time a fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Philip attended Oxford for 2 or 3 years but apparently left without a degree. Nothing else is known of his activities before 1613, when he began his association with the London stage.

During the first phase of his career as a dramatic writer, from about 1613 to 1625, Massinger worked for the most part in collaboration with other dramatists, particularly John Fletcher. Fletcher was one of the most popular dramatists of the Jacobean period, and after Shakespeare's death in 1616 he became...