Since Jonson was not given to indiscriminate laudation of his contemporaries in dramatic production, we may surmise that this tribute to the art of Beaumont follows rather than precedes the appearance of _Philaster_, and of perhaps both _The Maides Tragedy_ and _A King and No King_. And whether there is any basis or not for the tradition handed down by Dryden[80] that Beaumont was "so accurate a judge of plays that Ben Jonson, while he lived, submitted all his writings to his censure, and, 'tis thought, used his judgment in correcting, if not contriving, all his plots,"--there is here evidence, sufficiently convincing, of the high esteem in which "the least indulgent thought" and the large "giving" of the brilliant and independent gentleman-dramatist were held by the acknowledged classicist and dictator of the stage. From the various sources already indicated and from contemporary testimony, later to be cited, it is easy to derive a definite conception of the world of dramatists and actors in which Beaumont and Fletcher moved. They knew, and were properly appraised by, Drayton, Jonson, Chapman, Shakespeare, Webster, Dekker, Heywood, Massinger, Field, Daborne, Marston, Day, and Middleton,--with all of whom they were associated either in combats of poetry and wit or in the presentation of plays at Blackfriars, Whitefriars, or the Globe. Among actors their acquaintance included Field, Taylor, Carey, and others of the Queen's Revels' Children, and Richard Burbadge, Heming, Condell, Ostler, Cook, and Lowin of the King's Company. In what esteem they were held during these years we have evidence in the verses already quoted from Drayton, Jonson, Chapman, and Field. In the generous dedication of _The White Devil_ by John Webster, in 1612, we find them ranked with the best: "Detraction," says he, "is the sworne friend to ignorance. For mine owne part I have ever truly cherisht my good opinion of other mens worthy Labours, especially of that full and haightened stile of Maister _Chapman_: The labour'd and understanding workes of maister _Jonson_: The no lesse worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Maister _Beamont_ and Maister _Fletcher_: And lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of M. _Shake-speare_, M. _Decker_, and M. _Heywood_, wishing what I write may be read by their light: Protesting that, in the strength of mine owne judgement, I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my owne worke, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of _Martiall--non norunt, Haec monumenta mori_." FOOTNOTES: [76] Wallace, _New Shakespeare Discoveries, Harper's Maga._, March, 1910. [77] For these and other reminiscences of Shakespeare, see Alden's edition of Beaumont (_Belles Lettres Series_), XVI; Macaulay's _Beaumont_; Leonhardt in _Anglia_, VIII, 424; Oliphant in _Engl. Studien_, XIV, 53-94, Koeppel's _Quellen-studien_ in _Muenchener Beitraege_, XI.