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
I wonder whether it may not be possible for us henceforth to give to
Fletcher, and the whole Fletcherian syndicate,--the Massingers,
Fields, Middletons and Rowleys, Dabornes, and the rest,--the praise
and the blame for what they produced, but eliminate Beaumont from the
award. One grows weary of the attribution to him of moral
irresponsibilities and extravagances in art of which he was, in all
that we have learned of his breeding, life, and mental habit the
implicit opponent--very much like his brother Sir John,--and of the
opposite of which he was in his poetic and dramatic output, as I have
minutely demonstrated, the professed exponent. In the broad daylight
of philological science and modern historical criticism we should no
longer regard Beaumont-and-Fletcher as an indivisible pair of Siamese
twins, constructing with all four hands at once the fabric of
fifty-three plays, or even of ten, and tongue-and-grooving the boards
with such diabolic deftness that each artisan shall for ever be
credited with the merits and defects of both. It is, at any rate, time
that the world of scholars,--and then the world of readers may
follow,--render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
As for Caesar, we concede to him, John Fletcher, once for all, as he may
be read in his independent work, by one even running, artistic virtues
numerous and brilliant:[260] gaiety, wit, sprightly dialogue; mastery of
stage-craft,--of all the devices of captivating plot and rattling
'business,' and all the conventions and theatrically legitimate
clap-trap of dramatic types and humours, hallowed by success, adored by
the actor, and darling to the public. We concede skill in the weaving of
romantic complications, captivatingly cunning, and in the construction
of situations irresistibly ludicrous; remarkable inventiveness of
sensational adventure and spectacular scene and attractive setting;
realism at every turn, and an ability to portray manners, varied and
minute. Above all, we admire, and thankfully rejoice in, his smoothness
of mechanism, his lightness of touch, his contrivance and manipulation
of pure comedy--whether of manners or intrigue,--and in his world of
characters, not only laughter-compelling, but endowed with humour
themselves and sworn to the enthronement of the Spirit of Mirth.