1610. John Davies of Hereford, in the ‘Scourge of Folly,’ n. d. [1611], has an allusion to Fletcher's pastoral. On the stage it was not successful, but the printed copy was ushered into notice with commendatory verses by Field, Beaumont, Jonson, and Chapman. The ‘Faithful Shepherdess,’ which was under some obligations to Tasso's ‘Aminta’ and Guarini's ‘Pastor Fido,’ is the most famous and the best of English pastoral plays. The lyrical portions supplied Milton with hints for ‘Comus.’ In January 1633–4 it was successfully revived at court. The ‘Scornful Lady,’ published in 1616, has a mention of the Cleve wars, which began in 1609. It was performed, as Mr. Fleay remarks, by the children of Her Majesty's Revels at Blackfriars, which theatre was in possession of the king's company after 1609. The ‘Scornful Lady’ is an excellent comedy of English domestic life, and was very popular both before and after the Restoration. The character of Vellum in Addison's ‘Drummer’ was sketched (as Addison himself informed Theobald) from that of the steward Savil. To Beaumont may be assigned the first two acts; they are chiefly written in prose, which Fletcher very rarely employed. In the later acts Fletcher seems to have had the larger share.
The ‘Maid's Tragedy,’ 1619, 4to, and ‘Philaster,’ 1620, 4to, were produced not later than 1611. Dryden asserts without authority that the ‘first play that brought Fletcher and Beaumont in esteem was their “Philaster.”’ Some modern critics have denied that Fletcher had any hand in ‘Philaster,’ but John Davies of Hereford, in the ‘Scourge of Folly’ [1611], mentions this play, with the ‘Faithful Shepherdess’ and the ‘Maid's Tragedy,’ in his epigram to Fletcher. Detached passages in the fourth act and two scenes in the fifth (scenes three and four), with the rhetorical harangues in act i. scene 1, are in Fletcher's manner. But Beaumont's genius dominates the play; and the poetry at its highest is of a subtler quality than can be found in any play that Fletcher wrote singlehanded. ‘Philaster’ held the stage for many years. Elkanah Settle in 1695 produced a new version without success. Another alteration, the ‘Restauration, or Right will take place,’ was printed in the first volume of the ‘Works,’ 1714, of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, and a third, by the elder Colman, was performed at Drury Lane in 1764. The ‘Maid's Tragedy’ was composed before 31 Oct. 1611, for on that day Sir George Buc licensed a play to which he gave the title of ‘The Second Maiden's Tragedy.’ In the first three acts Fletcher's hand cannot be traced to any noticeable extent; but he was mainly responsible for the fourth and fifth acts. Until the closing of the theatres the ‘Maid's Tragedy’ was frequently performed, and it again became popular at the Restoration. Waller absurdly turned it into a comedy by rewriting (in rhyme) the last act.
‘A King and No King,’ which in some respects is a more solid piece of work than the ‘Maid's Tragedy,’ was licensed for the stage in 1611 and printed in 1619, 4to. Arbaces, in his insolence and magnanimity, is certainly one of the most striking figures in the English drama. Garrick prepared an alteration of ‘A King and No King,’ in which he had intended to personate Arbaces; but at the last moment the play was withdrawn. Beaumont unquestionably had the chief share in the authorship; Fletcher's contributions were confined to the fourth and fifth acts.
‘Four Plays or Moral Representations in One,’ first printed in the 1647 folio, is an early work. Mr. Fleay adduces some arguments (Englische Studien, ix. 14) to show that it was brought out as early as 1608. The Induction and the first two pieces, the ‘Triumph of Honour’ and the ‘Triumph of Love,’ are usually and with probability ascribed to Beaumont, and the last two, the ‘Triumph of Death’ and the ‘Triumph of Time,’ to Fletcher.
The ‘Knight of the Burning Pestle,’ written in ridicule of such extravagant plays as Heywood's ‘Four Prentices of London,’ was published anonymously in 1613, 4to. W. B[urre] the publisher, in a dedicatory epistle to Robert Keysar, states that he ‘had fostered it privately in his bosom these two years,’ and that it was the elder of Don Quixote (i. e. Shelton's translation, which appeared in 1612) ‘above a year.’ Hence the date of composition cannot be later than 1611. From the same epistle we learn that the play was written in eight days and that it was not successful on the stage. It is probable that Beaumont had but slight help from Fletcher in this drollest and most delightful of burlesques, for Fletcher nowhere shows any inclinations towards the mock-heroic. At its revival in 1635 the ‘Knight of the Burning Pestle’ was received with great applause, as Brome testifies in the ‘Sparagus Garden;’ and it was occasionally acted after the Restoration.
‘Cupid's Revenge’ was published in 1615 as the work of Fletcher, but from internal evidence it is clear that Beaumont was concerned in the authorship. The colloquy between Bacha and Leucippus in act iii. scene 2 is in Beaumont's most strenuous manner; and in the second act his hand can be clearly
