by the two sons of his father's patron, who were
successively Earls of Pembroke during the reigns of the first James and
Charles. On two occasions he got into trouble with the licenser for
attacks, real or supposed, upon the policy of the Government. More than
one of his plays contain, according to Professor Gardiner, references to
the politics of the day as distinct as those conveyed by a cartoon in
'Punch.' The general result of his argument is to show that Massinger
sympathised with the views of an aristocratic party who looked with
suspicion upon the despotic tendencies of Charles's Government, and
thought that they could manage refractory parliaments by adopting a more
spirited foreign policy. Though in reality weak and selfish enough, they
affected to protest against the materialising and oppressive policy of
the extreme Royalists. How far these views represented any genuine
convictions, and how far Massinger's adhesion implied a complete
sympathy with them, or might indicate that kind of delusion which often
leads a mere literary observer to see a lofty intention in the schemes
of a selfish politician, are questions which I am incompetent to
discuss, and which obviously do not admit of a decided answer. They
confirm, as far as they go, the general impression as to Massinger's
point of view which we should derive from his writings without special
interpretation. 'Shakespeare,' says Coleridge, 'gives the permanent
politics of human nature' (whatever they may be!), 'and the only
predilection which appears shows itself in his contempt of mobs and the
populace. Massinger is a decided Whig; Beaumont and Fletcher
high-flying, passive-obedience Tories.' The author of 'Coriolanus,' one
would be disposed to say, showed himself a thoroughgoing aristocrat,
though in an age when the popular voice had not yet given utterance to
systematic political discontent. He was still a stranger to the
sentiments symptomatic of an approaching revolution, and has not
explicitly pronounced upon issues hardly revealed even to

The prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming of things to come.

The sense of national unity evolved in the great struggle with Spain had
not yet been lost in the discord of the rising generation. The other
classifications may be accepted with less reserve. The dramatists
represented the views of their patrons. The drama reflected in the main
the sentiments of an aristocratic class al