Beside the dramas which there is any meritorious reason for assigning to the joint-authorship of the two friends, some dozen plays were produced by Fletcher alone, or in collaboration with others, before the practical cessation, in 1613, or thereabout, of Beaumont's dramatic activity. After that time Fletcher's name was attached, either as sole author or as the associate of Massinger, Field, William Rowley, and perhaps others, to about thirty more. From 1614 on, he was the successor of Shakespeare as dramatic poet of the King's Players. Jonson's masques delighted the Court, but no writer of tragedy or comedy,--not Jonson, nor Philip Massinger, who was now Fletcher's closest associate, nor Middleton or Rowley, Dekker, Ford, or Webster,--compared with him in popularity at Court and in the City. He is not merely an illustrious personality, the principal author of harrowing tragedies such as _Valentinian_, the sole author of tragicomedies such as _The Loyall Subject_, and long-lived comedies--_The Chances_, _Rule a Wife and Have a Wife_, and several more,--he is a syndicate: he stands sponsor for plays like _The Queene of Corinth_ and _The Knight of Malta_ in which others collaborated largely with him; and his name is occasionally stamped upon plays of associates, in which he had no hand whatever. "Thou grew'st," says his contemporary and admirer, John Harris,-- "Thou grew'st to govern the whole Stage alone: In which orbe thy throng'd light did make the star, Thou wert th' Intelligence did move that Sphear." Dr. Harris, Professor of Greek at Oxford in the heyday of Fletcher's glory, and a most distinguished divine, writes, in 1647, as one who had known Fletcher, personally,--observes his careless ease in composing, his manner of conversation, The Stage grew narrow while thou grew'st to be In thy whole life an Exc'llent Comedie,-- and admires his behaviour: To these a Virgin-modesty which first met Applause with blush and fear, as if he yet Had not deserv'd; till bold with constant praise His browes admitted the unsought-for Bayes. So, addressing the public, concludes this panegyrist,-- Hee came to be sole Monarch, and did raign In Wits great Empire, abs'lute Soveraign. It is of these years of triumph that another of "the large train of Fletcher's friends," Richard Brome, Ben Jonson's faithful servant and loving friend, and his disciple in the drama, tells us: