A Rereading Eliot’s Speculation of Massinger

Abstract

Massinger is a contemporary writer of Shakespeare but he has not received as much attention as Shakespeare has. But Eliot, one of the most prominent modernists in the 20th century, evaluates Massinger in his essay, “Philip Massinger” written in 1921. Above all, he points out that English criticism mainly focused on critic's own thoughts or opinions, and demands that it should have objective eyes or attitudes. About Massinger, Eliot points lack of a suitable image and a concise simile. He suggests that a poet or an artist choose a suitable or an exact image, in other words, harmony between a feeling and an object. Thus he tells that a poet's emotion or feeling shouldn't be revealed in his or her works. Certainly Massinger doesn't reveal his own personality in his works. Eliot praises Massinger's precise and hard syntax. Especially Massinger's works are compared with those of Marvel and Johnson. Based on this, Eliot finally diagnoses that if Massinger had had more intellectual courage, the current of English literature immediately after him might have taken a different courses.