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    The Unnatural Combat: "Patience, the beggar's virtue, shall find no harbor here"
    The Unnatural Combat: "Patience, the beggar's virtue, shall find no harbor here"
    The Unnatural Combat: "Patience, the beggar's virtue, shall find no harbor here"
    Ebook155 pages1 hour

    The Unnatural Combat: "Patience, the beggar's virtue, shall find no harbor here"

    By Philip Massinger

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    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStage Door
    Release dateMay 7, 2018
    ISBN9781787373136
    The Unnatural Combat: "Patience, the beggar's virtue, shall find no harbor here"

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      Book preview

      The Unnatural Combat - Philip Massinger

      The Unnatural Combat 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

      ACT I

      SCENE I. A Hall in the Court of Justice

      ACT II

      SCENE I. An Open Space Without the City

      SCENE II. A Room in Malefort's House

      SCENE III. A Street

      ACT III

      SCENE I. A Banqueting-Room in Beaufort's House

      SCENE II. The Same

      SCENE III. The Same. A Banquet Set Forth

      SCENE IV.  Another Room in Beaufort's House

      ACT IV

      SCENE I. A Room in Malefort's House

      SCENE II. A Street

      ACT V

      SCENE I. A Street Near Malefort's House

      SCENE II. A Space Before the Fort

      PHILIP MASSINGER – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

      PHILIP MASSINGER – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      MEN

      Beaufort Senior, governor of Marseilles

      Beaufort Junior, his son

      Malefort Senior, admiral of Marseilles

      Malefort Junior, his son

      Chamont  }

      Montaigne } assistants to the Governor

      Lanour  }

      Montreville, a pretended friend to Malefort senior

      Belgarde, a poor captain

      Three Sea Captains, of the navy of Malefort Junior

      A Steward

      An Usher

      A Page

      WOMEN

      Theocrine, daughter to Malefort Senior

      Two Waiting-Women

      Two Courtesans

      A Bawd

      Servants and Soldiers

      SCENE: Marseilles

      ACT I

      SCENE I. A Hall in the Court of Justice

      Enter MONTREVILLE, THEOCRINE, USHER, PAGE, and WAITING-WOMEN.

      MONTREVILLE

      Now to be modest, madam, when you are

      A suitor for your father, would appear

      Coarser than boldness; you awhile must part with

      Soft silence, and the blushings of a virgin:

      Though I must grant, did not this cause command it,

      They are rich jewels you have ever worn

      To all men's admiration. In this age,

      If, by our own forced importunity,

      Or others purchased intercession, or

      Corrupting bribes, we can make our approaches

      To justice, guarded from us by stern power,

      We bless the means and industry.

      USHER

      Here's music

      In this bag shall wake her, though she had drunk opium,

      Or eaten mandrakes. Let commanders talk

      Of cannons to make breaches, give but fire

      To this petard, it shall blow open, madam,

      The iron doors of a judge, and make you entrance;

      When they (let them do what they can) with all

      Their mines, their culverins, and basiliscos,

      Shall cool their feet without; this being the picklock

      That never fails.

      MONTREVILLE

      'Tis true, gold can do much,

      But beauty more. Were I the governor,

      Though the admiral, your father, stood convicted

      Of what he's only doubted, half a dozen

      Of sweet close kisses from these cherry lips,

      With some short active conference in private,

      Should sign his general pardon.

      THEOCRINE

      These light words, sir,

      Do ill become the weight of my sad fortune;

      And I much wonder, you, that do profess

      Yourself to be my father's bosom friend,

      Can raise mirth from his misery.

      MONTREVILLE

      You mistake me;

      I share in his calamity, and only

      Deliver my thoughts freely, what I should do

      For such a rare petitioner: and if

      You'll follow the directions I prescribe,

      With my best judgment I'll mark out the way

      For his enlargement.

      THEOCRINE

      With all real joy

      I shall put what you counsel into act,

      Provided it be honest.

      MONTREVILLE

      Honesty

      In a fair she client (trust to my experience)

      Seldom or never prospers; the world's wicked.

      We are men, not saints, sweet lady; you must practise

      The manners of the time, if you intend

      To have favour from it: do not deceive yourself,

      By building too much on the false foundations

      Of chastity and virtue. Bid your waiters

      Stand further off, and I'll come nearer to you.

      1ST WOMAN

      Some wicked counsel, on my life.

      2ND WOMAN

      Ne'er doubt it,

      If it proceed from him.

      PAGE

      I wonder that

      My lord so much affects him.

      USHER

      Thou'rt a child,

      And dost not understand on what strong basis

      This friendship's raised between this Montreville

      And our lord, Monsieur Malefort; but I'll teach thee:

      From thy years they have been joint purchasers

      In fire and waterworks, and truck'd together.

      PAGE

      In fire and water works!

      USHER

      Commodities, boy,

      Which you may know hereafter.

      PAGE

      And deal in them,

      When the trade has given you over, as appears by

      The increase of your high forehead.

      USHER

      Here's a crack!

      I think they suck this knowledge in their milk.

      PAGE

      I had an ignorant nurse else. I have tied, sir,

      My lady's garter, and can guess

      'USHER

      Peace, infant;

      Tales out of school! take heed, you will be breech 'd else.

      1ST WOMAN

      My lady's colour changes.

      2ND WOMAN

      She falls off too.

      THEOCRINE

      You are a naughty man, indeed you are;

      And I will sooner perish with my father,

      Than at this price redeem him.

      MONTREVILLE

      Take your own way,

      Your modest, legal way: 'tis not your veil,

      Nor mourning habit, nor these creatures taught

      To howl, and cry, when you begin to whimper;

      Nor following my lord's coach in the dirt,

      Nor that which you rely upon, a bribe,

      Will do it, when there's something he likes better.

      These courses in an old crone of threescore,

      That had seven years together tired the court

      With tedious petitions, and clamours,

      For the recovery of a straggling husband,

      To pay, forsooth, the duties of one to her;

      But for a lady of your tempting beauties,

      Your youth, and ravishing features, to hope only

      In such a suit as this is, to gain favour,

      Without exchange of courtesy you conceive me

      [Enter BEAUFORT JUNIOR, and BELGARDE.

      Were madness at the height. Here's brave young Beaufort,

      The meteor of Marseilles, one that holds

      The governor his father's will and power

      In more awe than his own! Come, come, advance,

      Present

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