Sketch of Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont (1584 – March 6, 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Image File history File links Francis_Beaumont_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13220. ... Image File history File links Francis_Beaumont_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13220. ... 1584 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... is the 65th day of the year (66th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1616 (MDCXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642. ... John Fletcher (1579-1625) was a Jacobean playwright. ...

Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, Leicestershire, a justice of the common pleas. He was born at the family seat and was educated at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) at age thirteen. Following the death of his father in 1598, he left university without a degree and followed in his father's footsteps by entering the Inner Temple in London in 1600. Grace Dieu can refer to: HMS Grace Dieu, and all Royal Navy ships of that name, including: Henri (or Henry) Grace à (or a) Dieu, Henry VIII’s flagship, commonly known as the Great Harry Grace Dieu (ship), flagship of Henry V Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire place name Grace Dieu Priory, Augustinian... Leicestershire ( IPA: (RP), IPA: (locally)), abbreviation Leics. ... Postdlf 06:03, 2 May 2005 (UTC) Categories: Possible copyright violations ... College name Pembroke College Collegium Pembrochianum Named after The Earl of Pembroke Established 1624 Sister College Queens College Master Giles Henderson JCR President Dawn Rennie Undergraduates 408 MCR President Ross Nicolson Graduates 119 College Homepage Boat Club The lodge and the entrance to Pembroke College in Pembroke Square. ... Combined coat of arms of the four Inns of Court. ...

Accounts suggest that Beaumont did not work long as a lawyer. He became a student of poet and playwright Ben Jonson; he was also acquainted with Michael Drayton and other poets and dramatists, and decided that was where his passion lay. His first work, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, appeared in 1602. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica describes the work as "not on the whole discreditable to a lad of eighteen, fresh from the popular love-poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare, which it naturally exceeds in long-winded and fantastic diffusion of episodes and conceits." In 1605, Beaumont wrote commendatory verses to Jonson's Volpone. For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). ... Drayton, 1628 Michael Drayton (1563 – December 23, 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. ... The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ... Christopher Marlowe (baptised February 26, 1564–May 30, 1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... An illustration for an 1898 edition of Volpone by Aubrey Beardsley. ...

Beaumont's collaboration with Fletcher may have began as early as 1605. They had both hit an obstacle early in their dramatic careers with notable failures; Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, first performed by the Children of the Blackfriars in 1607, was rejected by an audience who, the publisher's epistle to the 1613 quarto claims, failed to note "the privie mark of irony about it;" that is, they took Beaumont's satire of old-fashioned drama as an old-fashioned drama. The play received a lukewarm reception. The following year, Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess failed on the same stage. In 1609, however, the two collaborated on Philaster, which was performed by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre and at Blackfriars. The play was a popular success, not only launching the careers of the two playwrights but also sparking a new taste for tragicomedy. According to a mid-century anecdote related by John Aubrey, they lived in the same house on the Bankside in Southwark, "sharing everything in the closest intimacy." After Beaumont's marriage in 1613 to Ursula, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Isley of Sundridge in Kent (by whom he had two daughters) he seems to have retired from playwriting. Beaumont died in 1616 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Although today Beaumont is remembered as a dramatist, during his lifetime he was also celebrated as a poet. The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (likely almost entirely by Beaumont) first published in 1613 which is notable as the first parody play in English. ... The Children of the Chapel (later known as the Children of the Queens Revels) was a troupe of child actors in Elizabethan England. ... (Redirected from 1607 in literature) See also: 16th century in literature, other events of the 17th century, 1700 in literature, list of years in literature. ... (Redirected from 1613 in literature) See also: 16th century in literature, other events of the 17th century, 1700 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Quarto has several meanings: In bookbinding and publishing, quarto indicates the book size which results when four leaves of the book are created from a standard size sheet of paper. ... 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... (Redirected from 1609 in literature) See also: 16th century in literature, other events of the 17th century, 1700 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Different people known as the Kings Men: Kings Men was William Shakespeares playing company, together with Richard Burbage et al. ... This article is about the Globe Theatre of Shakespeare (commonly known as Shakespeares Globe Theatre). ... Blackfriars Theatre was the name of two separate theatres in the City of London, built on grounds previously belonging to a Dominican monastery. ... Tragicomedy refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. ... Bankside is an area in Southwark, London, on the southern bank of the River Thames. ... For other places with the same name, see Southwark (disambiguation). ... The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ...

Beaumont's plays

It was once written of Beaumont and Fletcher that "in their joint plays their talents are so...completely merged into one, that the hand of Beaumont cannot clearly be distinguished from that of Fletcher." Yet this romantic notion did not stand up to critical examination. In the seventeenth century, Sir Aston Cockayne, a friend of Fletcher's, specified that there were many plays in the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher folio that contained nothing of Beaumont's work, but rather featured the writing of Philip Massinger. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century critics like E. H. C. Oliphant subjected the plays to a self-consciously literary, and often subjective and impressionistic, reading — but nonetheless began to differentiate the hands of the collaborators. This study was carried much farther, and onto a more objective footing, by twentieth-century scholars, especially Cyrus Hoy. Short of absolute certainty, a critical consensus has evolved on many plays in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators; in regard to Beaumont, the schema below is among the least controversial that has been drawn. Sir Aston Cockayne (1608 – 1684) was in his day a well-known Cavalier and a minor literary figure, now best remembered as a friend of Philip Massinger, John Fletcher, Michael Drayton, Richard Brome, Thomas Randolph, and other writers of his generation. ... Philip Massinger (1583 - 1640) was an English dramatist. ... Cyrus Hoy is a contemporary literary scholar who has taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and is currently the John B. Trevor Professor of English at the University of Rochester. ...

By Beaumont alone:

• The Knight of the Burning Pestle, comedy (performed 1607; printed 1613)
• The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, masque (performed Feb. 20, 1613; printed 1613?)

With Fletcher: The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (likely almost entirely by Beaumont) first published in 1613 which is notable as the first parody play in English. ... The Masque of the Inner Temple and Grays Inn was a Jacobean era masque, written by Francis Beaumont. ... Costume for a Knight, by Inigo Jones: the plumed helmet, the heroic torso in armour and other conventions were still employed for opera seria in the 18th century. ...

• The Woman Hater, comedy (1606; 1607)
• Cupid's Revenge, tragedy (c. 1607–12; 1615)
• Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding, tragicomedy (c. 1609; 1620)
• The Maid's Tragedy, tragedy (c. 1609; 1619)
• A King and No King, tragicomedy (1611; 1619)
• The Captain, comedy (c. 1609–12; 1647)
• The Scornful Lady, comedy (ca. 1613; 1616)
• Love's Pilgrimage, tragicomedy (c. 1615–16; 1647)
• The Noble Gentleman, comedy (licensed Feb. 3, 1626; 1647)

Beaumont/Fletcher plays, later revised by Massinger: The Woman Hater is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. ... Cupids Revenge is a Jacobean tragedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. ... Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding is an early Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. ... Tragicomedy refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. ... The Maids Tragedy is a play by Beaumont and Fletcher. ... A King and No King is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. ... The Captain is the title of a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. ... The Scornful Lady is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and first published in 1616, the year of Beaumonts death. ... Loves Pilgrimage is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. ... The Noble Gentleman is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that was first published in the Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. ...

• Thierry and Theodoret, tragedy (c. 1607?; 1621)
• The Coxcomb, comedy (c. 1608–10; 1647)
• Beggars' Bush, comedy (c. 1612–13?; revised 1622?; 1647)
• Love's Cure, comedy (c. 1612–13?; revised 1625?; 1647)

Because of Fletcher's highly distinctive and personal pattern of linguistic preferences and contractional forms (ye for you, 'em for them, etc.), his hand can be distinguished fairly easily from Beaumont's in their collaborations. In A King and No King, for example, Beaumont wrote all of Acts I, II, and III, plus scenes IV.iv and V.ii and iv; Fletcher wrote only the first three scenes in Act IV (IV,i-iii) and the first and third scenes in Act V (V,i and iii) — so that the play is more Beaumont's than Fletcher's. The same is true of The Woman Hater, The Maid's Tragedy, The Noble Gentleman, and Philaster. On the other hand, Cupid's Revenge, The Coxcomb, The Scornful Lady, Beggar's Bush, and The Captain are more Fletcher's than Beaumont's. In Love's Cure and Thierry and Theodoret, the influence of Massinger's revision complicates matters; but in those plays too, Fletcher appears to be the majority contributor, Beaumont the minority. Thierry and Theodoret is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that was first published in 1621. ... The Coxcomb is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. ... For the old military barracks in Dublin, Ireland, see Beggars Bush Beggars Bush[1][2] is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that is a focus of dispute among scholars and critics. ... Loves Cure, or The Martial Maid is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. ...

References

• This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Fletcher, Ian. Beaumont and Fletcher. London, Longmans, Green, 1967.
• Hoy, Cyrus. "The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon." Studies in Bibliography, 1956-62.
• Oliphant, Ernest Henry Clark. The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher: An Attempt to Determine Their Respective Shares and the Shares of Others. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1927.
• Smith, Denzell S. "Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher." In: Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama, Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.

The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature is a collection of biographies of writers by John W. Cousin, published around 1910. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Cyrus Hoy is a contemporary literary scholar who has taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and is currently the John B. Trevor Professor of English at the University of Rochester. ...

External links

• Works by Francis Beaumont at Project Gutenberg