FLETCHER, JOHN, wan born in 1576, and was the son of the Rev. Dr. Fletcher, afterwards bishop of Bristol. He was educated at Cambridge with his friend Francis Beaumont, and Is said to have listinguished himself as a good scholar. For an account of his principal works and his literary connection with Beaumont, see BEAUMONT, FRANCIS. Fletcher survived his friend nearly ten years ; lie was carried off by a plague which happened in 1625. Between the death of Beaumont and that of Fletcher, eleven of the plays found in their ' Works' were produced, and met be assigned wholly to Fletcher ; end it appears most probable that the pastoral drama of the Faithful Shepherdess Is also to be attributed to him alone : but there is nothing in the plays which belong wholly to Fletcher, to distinguish them from much as are the joint production of the two friends. All that has been said in the article above referred to of the dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher, applies equally to those written by Fletcher only. In both,
MI ever-present licentiousness of thought as well as expression is the pervading characteristic, but in both there lies beneath this the same rich vein of pure poetry ; and while we repeat what we said tinder Beaumont, as to their works being such as to render them, for all but literary students, less adapted for reading in their entire state than in a selection of passages, where might be found "as refined sentiment, lofty and sweet poetry, excellent sense, humour, and pathos, as any in the language, excepting Shakespere and Chaucer," we take the oppor tunity of supplying an omission In that article, by adding that such a selection has been made, with a very useful introduction and body of notes, by Mr. Leigh Hunt, and that it forma a volume of Bohn's Standard Library.