"Malice scorned, puts out itself; but argued, give a kind of credit to a false accusation"
About this Quote
Massinger is offering courtroom advice disguised as social strategy: don’t dignify nastiness with debate. “Malice scorned, puts out itself” treats slander like a fire that dies when it’s starved of oxygen. The line’s bite is in its confidence that bad-faith attacks aren’t really arguments waiting to be refuted; they’re performances, staged to pull you into their spotlight. Refuse the stage, and the actor looks foolish.
The second clause turns the screw. “Argued” doesn’t mean thoughtfully discussed; it means engaged at all. Once you answer, you tacitly accept the accusation as a plausible premise, something worthy of evidence and counter-evidence. That’s the “credit” Massinger warns about: not belief, exactly, but legitimacy. The accuser gets what they wanted all along - a public contest where the very existence of a dispute implies there’s something to dispute. It’s an early-modern understanding of what we’d now call signal-boosting: rebuttal can be a megaphone.
As a playwright working in a culture of patronage, censorship, and reputation politics, Massinger knew how quickly insinuation could curdle into consequence. His stages were full of plots powered by rumor, jealousy, and honor; the line reads like a survival note from a world where being “in controversy” could be as damaging as being guilty. The subtext is pragmatic, even cynical: truth doesn’t automatically win; attention does. Scorn is a tool for managing the crowd, not cleansing the record.
The second clause turns the screw. “Argued” doesn’t mean thoughtfully discussed; it means engaged at all. Once you answer, you tacitly accept the accusation as a plausible premise, something worthy of evidence and counter-evidence. That’s the “credit” Massinger warns about: not belief, exactly, but legitimacy. The accuser gets what they wanted all along - a public contest where the very existence of a dispute implies there’s something to dispute. It’s an early-modern understanding of what we’d now call signal-boosting: rebuttal can be a megaphone.
As a playwright working in a culture of patronage, censorship, and reputation politics, Massinger knew how quickly insinuation could curdle into consequence. His stages were full of plots powered by rumor, jealousy, and honor; the line reads like a survival note from a world where being “in controversy” could be as damaging as being guilty. The subtext is pragmatic, even cynical: truth doesn’t automatically win; attention does. Scorn is a tool for managing the crowd, not cleansing the record.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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