ers stroak,
Will make the proudest mountains smoak.

To him my ditties, whilst I live,
Or being have, shall praises give:
My meditations will be sweet,
When fixt on him my comforts meet.

Upon the earth let sinners rot,
In place, and memory forgot.
But thou, my soul, thy maker bless:
Let all the world his praise express;

Footnotes:
1. Athen. Oxon, vol. ii. p. 431. 1721 Ed.
2. Wood Athen. Oxon, p. 431, vol. 2.

* * * * *

PHILIP MASSINGER,

A poet of no small eminence, was son of Mr. Philip Massinger, a
gentleman belonging to the earl of Montgomery, in whose service he
lived[1].

He was born at Salisbury, about the year 1585, and was entered a
commoner in St. Alban's Hall in Oxford, 1601, where, though he was
encouraged in his studies (says Mr. Wood) by the earl of Pembroke, yet
he applied his mind more to poetry and romances, than to logic and
philosophy. He afterwards quitted the university without a degree, and
being impatient to move in a public sphere, he came to London, in
order to improve his poetic fancy, and polite studies by conversation,
and reading the world. He soon applied himself to the stage, and wrote
several tragedies and comedies with applause, which were admired for
the purity of their stile, and the oeconomy of their plots: he was
held in the highest esteem by the poets of that age, and there were
few who did not reckon it an honour to write in conjunction with him,
as Fletcher, Middleton, Rowley, Field and Decker did[2]. He is said to
have been a man of great modesty. He died suddenly at his house on the
bank side in Southwark, near to the then playhouse, for he went to bed
well, and was dead before morning. His body was interred in St.
Saviour's church-yard, and was attended to the grave by all the
comedians then in town, on the 18th of March, 1669. Sir Aston
Cokain[e] has an epitaph on Mr. John Fletcher, and Mr. Philip
Massinger, who, as he says, both lie buried in one grave. He prepared
several works for the public, and wrote a little book against
Scaliger, which many have ascribed to Scioppius, the supposed author
of which Scaliger, uses with great contempt. Our author has published
14 plays of his own writing, besides those in which he joined with
other poets, of which the following is the list,

1. The Bashful Lover, a Tragi-Comedy, often acted at a private house
in Black F