PHILIP, an English dramatic poet, was born at Salisbury about the year 1581, and was educated at Oxford. He left the university without taking any degree; and went to London to improve his poetical genius by polite conversation. There he wrote many tragedies and comedies, which were received with vast applause, and were greatly admired for the economy of the plots and the purity of the style. Massinger was at the same time a person of the most consummate modesty; which rendered him extremely beloved by the poets of his time, particularly by Fletcher, Middleton, Rowley, Field, and Decker, who thought it an honour to write in conjunction with him. He was as remarkable for his abilities as his modesty. He died suddenly at his house on the Bank-side in Southwark, near the playhouse; and was interred in St Saviour's churchyard, in the same grave with Mr Fletcher the poet.