BEAUMONT, bo'mbut, formerly birmOnt, FRANCIS (1584-1616). An English poet and dramatist. FLETCHER, JoHN (1579-1625). An English poet and dramatist. These writers were so closely associated in their lives and labors that their names have become indissolubly united. Francis Beaumont was the third son of Francis Beaumont, one of the justices of the common pleas. lie was born at Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, in 1584. When 12 years of age he became a gentleman commoner of Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College), but he left Oxford without taking a degree. In 1600 be was ad mitted a member of the Inner Temple. An ex pansion of one of Ovid's legends (1602) has been attributed to him. When about 19 years of age he became the friend of Ben Jouson, and wrote commendatory verses to some of his dramas. He became acquainted with Fletcher, probably in 1606; and they lived in the same house- till Beaumont's marriage in 1613 to Ursula, daughter and coheiress of Henry Isley, of Sundridge. in Kent. by whom he had two daughters. He died March 6, 1616, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
John Fletcher was born in 1570. His father, Richard Fletcher, a clergyman, was at that time incumbent of Rye, in Sussex; thereafter he was appointed Dean of Peterborough, and at tended Queen Mary on the scaffold, whose last hours he embittered with irrelevant exhortation. (hi his elevation to the See of London. he mar ried a second time, and thereby incurred the disfavor of the Virgin Queen. A John Fletcher, of London, who is assumed to be the dramatist, entered Bene't College, Cambridge. on October 15, 159]. It is uncertain how long this John Fletcher remained at the university, or whether lie took a degree. The Woman-Hater, produced in 1607, is the earliest play of our author. It is not known precisely in what circumstances Fletcher passed his life. He asserts his inde pendence in some verses introductory to The Faithful Shepherdess, published about 1610, yet he wrote more rapidly than most men then writ ing for bread. Waiting in London, it is said,
for a new suit of clothes as he was about to go into the country, he caught the plague, and died (1025), and was buried in the Church of Saint Saviour.
The works of Beaumont and Fletcher comprise in all fifty-four plays (according to Fleay) ; but it is difficult to allocate, in any satisfactory manner, the parts written by each. A good deal, however, has been accomplished by the application of metrical tests. In some of the plays other hands have been traced, especially Massinger's. And certain passages in The Two Noble Kinsmen are by Shakespeare. The best work of this famous collaboration is represent ed by Philaster (mostly Beaumont's), the tre mendous Maid's Tragedy (in which Beaumont's genius is dominant), and The Faithful Shep herdess (mostly Fletcher's), a beautiful pas toral drama, which furnished some hints to Milton for his Comes, and to Keats for his En dymion. Beaumont and Fletcher are the clever est, gayest gentlemen. They rarely sound the deep sea of passion, but rather play over its surface. They have little power of serious characterization, and their numerous creations are seldom consistent; but they say the most clever and pleasant things. Morally, little can be said in their praise. No audience of the present day could sit out the representation of their purest plays. Some of the impurest are almost beyond conception, yet there is always an air of good breeding about them. The songs distributed through their plays almost equal Shakespeare's in sweetness and beauty. Consult: Works, with notes and memoir, ed. A. Dyee, II (London, 1813-46) : Selected Plays, in Mer maid Series (London, 1887) ; Macaulay, Francis Beaumont: A Critical Study (London, 1833). 1-'6r exhaustive discussion of authorship of the various plays, Boyle, in Englische Studien, Vol. LXX1V. (Heilbronn, 1877-1901) ; id. in New Shakspere Society (London, 1880-86) ; also Fleay in the latter publication for 1874.