It has been surmised from the vivid colouring of _The Virgin Martyr_(9) and the plot of _The Renegado_,(10) where a Jesuit plays a leading part and is portrayed in a pleasing light, that Massinger turned Roman Catholic. The evidence for this theory is quite inadequate. Indeed, we might as well argue from Gazet’s language that the author followed the Anglican _via media_.(11) Plots derived from French, Spanish, and Italian sources would naturally contain Roman Catholic machinery. We might as well infer that Shakspere was a Roman Catholic because Silvia goes to Friar Patrick’s cell,(12) or because Friar Laurence is prominent in _Romeo and Juliet_.(13) We know that Massinger lived a life of comparative poverty; on one occasion we find him, with two other dramatic authors, asking for a loan of £5.(14) The person who thus obliged the three writers was Philip Henslowe, a dyer, theatrical lessee, and speculator, who acted as a kind of broker between actors and authors, buying from the one and selling to the other; we still possess his diary, containing information as to the prices which he gave for plays.(15) The prologue of _The Guardian_ shows us that for two years before 1633 Massinger had been under a cloud, and had abstained from writing. Two of his plays had failed in 1631—_The Emperor of the East_(16) and _Believe as You List_(17)—so he appears to have put forth his full strength in _The Guardian_. [Henslow document at Dulwich.] The dedications of Massinger’s plays which have been preserved show that he was often dependent for support on the leaders of what he once or twice calls “the nobility.”(18) The connexion of the poet with the family of which his father was the loyal and trusted servant has been exaggerated by some;(19) in the dedication of _The Bondman_, written in 1623, to Philip, Earl of Montgomery,(20) the poet distinctly states that though the Earl had helped the play at its first performance by his “liberal suffrages” yet he was personally unknown to him.(21) Amongst others to whom we find dedications is George Harding, Baron Berkeley, to whom Webster inscribed _The Duchess of Malfi_. It is pleasant to read in the dedication of _The Picture_ “to my honoured and selected friends of the Noble Society of the Inner Temple” that Massinger received “frequent bounties” from them.