author
Philip Massinger
1583–1640
Best known for sharp, finely built plays that mix social satire with vivid stage drama, this Jacobean and Caroline playwright helped carry English theater forward after Shakespeare. His most famous works include A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam, and The Roman Actor.
4 Audiobooks
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 01 of 10: the Custom of the Country
by John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, Philip Massinger
The Fatal Dowry
by Philip Massinger, Nathaniel Field
The Elder Brother The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Volume 2 of 10)
by John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, Philip Massinger
The Plays of Philip Massinger, Vol. I
by Philip Massinger
About the author
Philip Massinger was an English dramatist baptized in Salisbury in 1583 and active in the Jacobean and Caroline theater. Reliable reference sources describe him as especially admired for strong plot construction, social realism, and satirical force, with a body of work that includes comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy.
He studied at St. Alban Hall, Oxford, in the early 1600s but did not take a degree, and he later built his career in London as a playwright. His plays often probe money, power, corruption, and public morality, which helps explain why works such as A New Way to Pay Old Debts remained especially well known.
Massinger died in March 1640. Even centuries later, he is still remembered as one of the most important dramatists of the generation after Shakespeare, valued for writing that is both theatrically lively and socially observant.