silence. The writing of explanatory notes is like no other species of
literature. History throws {52} little light upon their origin [the
ballads, I suppose?], or the cause which gave rise to their
composition. He has to grope his way in the dark: like Bunyan's
pilgrim, on crossing the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he hears sounds
and noises, but cannot, to a certainty, tell from whence they come, nor
to what place they proceed. The one time, he has to treat of fabulous
ballads in the most romantic shape; the next, legendary, with all its
exploded, obsolete, and forgotten superstitions; also history, tragedy,
comedy, love, war, and so on; all, perhaps, within the narrow compass
of a few hours,--so varied must his genius and talents be."

After this we ought surely to rejoice, that any one hardy enough to become
an Editor of Old Ballads is left amongst us.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

THE FATHER OF PHILIP MASSINGER.

Gifford was quite right in stating that the name of the father of
Massinger, the dramatist, was Arthur, according to Oldys, and not Philip,
according to Wood and Davies. Arthur Massinger (as he himself spelt the
name, although others have spelt it Messenger, from its supposed etymology)
was in the service of the Earl of Pembroke, who married the sister of Sir
Philip Sidney, in whose family the poet Daniel was at one time tutor. I
have before me several letters from him to persons of note and consequence,
all signed "Arthur Massinger;" and to show his importance in the family to
which he was attached, I need only mention, that in 1597, when a match was