Loading your reading…

Francis Beaumont: Dramatist: A Portrait, with Some Account of His Circle, Elizabethan and Jacobean,; And of His Association with John Fletcher — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi

Francis Beaumont: Dramatist: A Portrait, with Some Account of His Circle, Elizabethan and Jacobean,; And of His Association with John Fletcher

John Stuart Mill · en

A portrait of either Beaumont or Fletcher demands indeed as its
counterpart, painted by the same brush and with alternating strokes, a
portrait of his literary partner and friend. But in spirit and in favour
the twain are distinct. In this book I have tried to present the poetic
and compelling personality of Francis Beaumont not only as conjoined
with, and distinguished from, the personality of Fletcher, but as seen
against the background of historic antecedents and family connections
and as tinged by the atmosphere of contemporary life, of social,
literary, and theatrical environment. No doubt the picture has its
imperfections, but the criticism of those who know will assist one whose
only desire is to do Beaumont justice.

I take pleasure in expressing my indebtedness to the authorities of the
Bodleian Library and the British Museum, to those of the National
Portrait Gallery (especially Mr. J. D. Milner), to our own Librarian of
the University of California, Mr. J. C. Rowell, for unfailing courtesy
during the years in which this volume has been in preparation; to Mr. J.
C. Schwab, Librarian of Yale University, for the loan of rare and
indispensable sources of information, and to my colleague, Professor
Rudolph Schevill, for reading proof-sheets and giving me many a
scholarly suggestion. I deplore my inability to include among the
illustrations carefully made by Emery Walker, of 16 Clifford's Inn, a
copy of the portrait of Beaumont's friend, Elizabeth, Countess of
Rutland, which hangs at Penshurst. On account of the recent attempt to
destroy by fire that time-honored repository of heirlooms as precious to
the realm as to the family of Sidney, the Lord de L'Isle and Dudley has
found it necessary to close his house to the public.

                                          CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY.

  Berkeley, California,
      December 15, 1913.




CONTENTS


PART ONE

BEAUMONT'S LIFE, HIS ACQUAINTANCES, AND HIS CAREER AS POET AND DRAMATIST

  CHAPTER                                                   PAGE

        I  THE CASTOR AND POLLUX OF ELIZABETHAN DRAMA          3

       II  BEAUMONT'S FAMILY; HIS EARLY YEARS: GRACE-DIEU,
             OXFORD                                           10

      III  AT THE INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY; THE
             POEMS ASSIGNED TO THESE EARLIER YEARS            29

       IV  THE VAUX COUSINS AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT            46

        V  FLETCHER'S FAMILY, AND HIS YOUTH                   62

       VI  SOME EARLY PLAYS OF BEAUMONT AND OF FLETCHER       72

      VII  THE "BANKE-SIDE" AND THE PERIOD OF THE
             PARTNERSHIP                                      95

     VIII  RELATIONS WITH SHAKESPEARE, JONSON, AND
             OTHERS IN THE THEATRICAL WORLD                  114

       IX  THE "MASQUE OF THE INNER TEMPLE": THE
             PASTORALISTS, AND OTHER CONTEMPORARIES
             AT THE INNS OF COURT                            124