The express novelty in technique of the six arbitrarily selected, so-called 'Beaumont-Fletcher romances' is supposed to lie in the dramatic adaptation of certain sensational properties more suitable to narrative fiction; especially in the attempt to heighten interest by adding to the legitimate portrayal of character under stress and strain (as in tragedy), or of character in amusing maladjustment with social convention (as in comedy), the portrayal of vicissitudes of fortune; and in the attempt to enhance the thrills appropriate to tragic and comic appeal by such an amalgamation of the two as shall cause the spectator to run up and down the whole gamut of emotional sensibility. In the realm of tragedy the accentuation of the possibilities of suspense, whether by Beaumont or any other, would be a novelty merely of degree. _Cupid's Revenge_, and _The Triumph of Death_ (in the _Foure Playes in One_) could hardly have impressed the author of _Romeo and Juliet_ and _Hamlet_ as in this respect astounding innovations; and _The Maides Tragedy_ does not, so far as I can determine, sacrifice the unities of interest and effect for enhancement and variety of emotional thrill. In any case, it would be necessary to date _Timon_, _Antony_, and _Coriolanus_, two or three years later than the fact, if one desired to prove that any Shakespearian tragedy was influenced by a Beaumont-Fletcher exaggeration of suspense. Whatever exaggeration may exist had already been practised by Shakespeare himself. If a Beaumont-Fletcher novelty influenced Shakespeare, that novelty must have lain in the transference of tragic suspense to the realm of romantic comedy with all its minor aesthetic appeals, and it would consequently be limited to their tragicomedies, _Philaster_ and _A King and No King_. The tragicomic masques in the _Foure Playes in One_, that of _Honour_ and that of _Death_, are too insignificant to warrant consideration; and Beaumont had nothing to do with them. In determining the indebtedness, if any, of _Cymbeline_ to _Philaster_ we lack the assistance of authentic dates of composition. The plays were acted about the same time,--_Philaster_ certainly, _Cymbeline_ perhaps, before October 8, 1610. Beaumont and Fletcher's play may have been written as early as 1609; Shakespeare's also as early as 1609 or 1608: in fact, there are critics who assign parts of it to 1606. With regard to the relative priority of _Cymbeline_ and _A King and No King_, we are more fortunate in our knowledge. The former had certainly been acted by May 15, 1611; the latter was not even licensed until that year, and was not performed at Court till December 26. The probabilities are altogether in favour of a date of composition later than that of _Cymbeline_.