GENTLEMEN, (FOLIO, 1647.) BEFORE EFORE you engage further, be pleased to take notice of these particulars. You have here a new book; I can speak it clearly; for of all this large volume of comedies and tragedies, not one, till now, was ever printed before. A collection of plays is commonly but a new impression, the scattered pieces which were printed single, being then only republished together: "Tis otherwise here. Next, as it is all new, so here is not any thing spurious or imposed: I had the originals from such as received them from the authors themselves; by those, and none other, I publish this edition. And as here is nothing but what is genuine and theirs, so you will find here are no omissions; you have not only all I could get, but all that you must ever expect. For (besides those which were formerly printed) there is not any piece written by these authors, either jointly or severally, but what are now published to the world in this volume. One only play I must except (for I mean to deal openly); it is a comedy called the WildGoose Chase, which hath been long lost, and I fear irrecoverable; for a person of quality borrowed it from the actors many years since, and (by the negligence of a servant) it was never returned; therefore now I put up this si quis, that whosoever hereafter happily meets with it, shall be thankfully satisfied if he please to send it home. Some plays (you know) written by these authors were heretofore printed: I thought not convenient to mix then with this volume, which of itself is entirely new. And indeed it would have rendered the book so voluminous, that ladies and gentlewomen would have found it scarce manageable, who in works of this nature must first be remembered. Besides, I considered those former pieces had been so long printed and reprinted, that many gentlemen were already furnished; and I would have none say, they pay twice for the same book, One thing I must answer before it be objected; 'tis this: when these comedies and tragedies were presented on the stage, the actors omitted some scenes and passages (with the authors' consent) as occasion led them; and when private friends desired a copy, they then (and justly too) transcribed what they acted: But now you have both all that was acted, and all that was not; even the perfect full originals, without the least mutilation; so that were the authors living, (and sure they can never die) they themselves would challenge neither more nor less than what is here published; this volume being now so complete and finished, that the reader must expect no future alterations. For literal errors committed by the printer, it is the fashion to ask pardon, and as much in fashion to take no notice of him that asks it; but in this also I have done my endeavour. "Twere vain to mention the chargeableness of this work; for those who owned the manuscripts, too well knew their value to make a cheap estimate of any of these pieces; and though another joined with me in the purchase and printing, yet the The Wild-Goose Chase.] This comedy, in the year 1652, was published in folio, by Lowin and Taylor, two of the players, with a Dedication to the Honour'd, Few, Lovers of Dramatick Poesie,' and several cominendatory verses annexed, care care and pains was wholly mine, which I found to be more than you will easily imagine, unless you knew into how many hands the originals were dispersed: They are all now happily met in this book, having escaped these public troubles, free and unmangled. Heretofore, when gentlemen desired but a copy of any of these plays, the meanest piece here (if any may be called mean where every one is best) cost them more than four times the price you pay for the whole volume. I should scarce have adventured in these slippery times on such a work as this, if knowing persons had not generally assured me that these authors were the most unquestionable wits this kingdom hath afforded. Mr. Beaumont was ever acknowledged a man of a most strong and searching brain; and (his years considered) the most judicious wit these later ages have produced; he died young, for (which was an invaluable loss to this nation) he left the world when he was not full thirty years old. Mr. Fletcher survived, and lived till almost fifty; whereof the world now enjoys the benefit. It was once in my thoughts to have printed Mr. Fletcher's works by themselves, because single and alone he would make a just volume; but since never parted while they lived, I conceived it not equitable to separate their ashes. It becomes not me to say (though it be a known truth) that these authors had not only high unexpressible gifts of nature, but also excellent acquired parts, being furnished with arts and sciences by that liberal education they had at the university, which sure is the best place to make a great wit understand itself; this their works will soon make evident. I was very ambitious to have got Mr. Beaumont's picture; but could not possibly, though I spared no enquiry in those noble families whence he was descended, as also among those gentlemen that were his acquaintance. when he was of the Inner-Temple: The best pictures, and those most like him, you will find in this volume. This figure of Mr. Fletcher was cut by several original pieces, which his friends lent me; but withal they tell me, that his unimitable soul did shine through his countenance in such air and spirit, that the painters confessed it was not easy to express him: As much as could be, you have here, and the graver hath done his part. Whatever I have seen of Mr. Fletcher's own hand, is free from interlining; and his friends affirm he never writ any one thing twice: It seems he had that rare felicity to prepare and perfect all first in his own brain; to shape and attire his notions, to add or lop off, before he committed one word to writing, and never touched pen till all was to stand as firm and immutable as if engraven in brass or marble. But I keep you too long from those friends of his whom 'tis better for you to read; only accept of the honest endeavours of One that is a Servant to you all, At the Prince's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, Feb. the 14th, 1646. HUMPHREY MOSELEY. 2 Fletcher's works by themselves.] If Mr. Moseley could have made this separation, it is greatly to be regretted that he left us no intimation which plays were written by Fletcher alone. He never writ any one thing twice.] May we not suppose this to have been a sort of common-place compliment? but surely it is a very injudicious one. A similar assertion, applied to Shakespeare, has afforded much conversation in the literary world. BOOKSELLERS' BOOKSELLERS' ADDRESS. (FOLIO 1679.) COURTEOUS READER, THE first edition of these plays in this volume having found that acceptance as to give us encouragement to make a second impression, we were very desirous they might come forth as correct as might be: And we were very opportunely informed of a copy which an ingenious and worthy gentleman had taken the pains (or rather the pleasure) to read over; wherein he had all along corrected several faults (some very gross) which had crept in by the frequent imprinting of them. His corrections were the more to be valued, because he had an intimacy with both our authors, and had been a spectator of most of them when they were acted in their life-time. This therefore we resolved to purchase at any rate; and accordingly with no small cost obtained it. From the same hand also we received several prologues and epilogues, with the songs appertaining to each play, which were not in the former edition, but are now inserted in their proper places. Besides, in this edition you have the addition of no fewer than seventeen plays more than were in the former, which we have taken the pains and care to collect, and print out of quarto in this volume, which for distinction sake are marked with a star in the catalogue of them facing the first page of the book. And whereas in several of the plays there were wanting the names of the persons represented therein, in this edition you have them all prefixed, with their qualities; which will be a great ease to the reader. Thus every way perfect and complete have you, all both tragedies and comedies that were ever writ by our authors, a pair of the greatest wits and most ingenious poets of their age; from whose worth we should but detract by our most studied commendations. If our care and endeavours to do our authors right (in an incorrupt and genuine edition of their works) and thereby to gratify and oblige the reader, be but requited with a suitable entertainment, we shall be encouraged to bring Ben Jonson's two volumes into one, and publish them in this form; and also. to reprint Old Shakespeare; Both which are des signed by He had all along corrected, &c.] Notwithstanding this boast, in many plays, the first folio is more correct than the second. PREFACE PREFACE'. GIVING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHORS AND THEIR WRITINGS. (OCTAVO, 1711.) FRANCIS BEAUMONT, Esquire, was descended from the ancient family of that name, at Gracedieu in Leicestershire, and brother to Sir Henry Beaumont, Knight, of the same place; his grandfather was John Beau mont, Preface.] To this Preface, Mr. Sympson, in the Edition of 1750, prefixes the following Introduction. Tis really surprising that all we know of two such illustrious authors as Mr. Beaumont and Mr. Fletcher were is, That we know nothing. The composer of the following Preface, and editor of their works in 1711, calls it "An Account of the Lives, &c. of his Authors." But he greatly misculls it, for that they were born in such a year, and died in such a one, is all he has given us of their history and actions; and by what I can find, had they never wrote a comedy, we should not have known, but upon Mr. Shirley's word, that in conversation they ever had talked one. Our authors, 'tis true, take up articles in two dictionaries, but these contain little more than remarks on their dramatic performances. Believing therefore that the no account, of the following Preface, contains as good an account of our authors as any can be given, 1 submit it to the reader pure and unmix'd, as it came out of the editor's hands, without any alteration or interpolation at all, only striking out a long quotation from a very imperfect answer of Mr. Dryden's to the objections made against Shakespeare and our authors by Mr. Rhymer. But their dramatic is no better known than their civil history; I mean what part each sustained in their poetical capacities. Did Beaumont plan, and Fletcher raise the superstructure? Then 'tis no wonder the work should be all of a piece. But if each sustained both characters (as I think is so plain as not to be doubted) 'tis strange there should appear no greater diversity in their writings, when the separate parts came to be put together. For, unless I be greatly mistaken, we cannot say that here one laid down the pencil, and there the other took it up, no more than we can say of any two contiguous colours in the rainbow, here this ends and there that begins, so fine is the transition, that Spectantia lumina fallit, Usque adeo quod tangit idem est. Mr. Seward will lay before the reader what internal evidence he thinks he has discovered of a distinction of their hands; but in general Beaumont's accuracy, and Fletcher's wit, are so undistinguishable, that were we not sure, to a demonstration, that the Masque was the former's, and the Shepherdess the latter's sole production, they might each have passed for the concurrent labour of both, or have changed hands, and the last been taken for Beaumont's and the former for Fletcher's. And where is the wonder, that Fletcher's Works, which he wrote singly after Beaumont's death, should carry the same strength, wit, manner, and spirit in them, so as not to be discerned from what both wrote in conjunction, when as Sir J. Berkenhead tells us, "Beaumont died; yet left in legacy His rules and standard wit (Fletcher) to thee; And mont, Master of the Rolls; and his father Francis Beaumont, Judge of the Common-Pleas, who married Anne daughter of George Pierrepont of Home-Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire. He was educated at Cambridge, and after at the Inner-Temple. He died before he was thirty years of age, and was buried the 9th of March, 1615, at the entrance into St. Benedict's Chapel in Westminster-Abbey. He left one daughter behind him, Mrs. Frances Beaumont, who died in Leicestershire since the year 1700: she had been possessed of several poems of her father's writing, but they were lost at sea coming from Ireland, where she had some time lived in the Duke of Ormond's family. There was published, after our author's death, a small book containing several poems under his name, and among them the story of Salmacis, from the Metamorphoses of Ovid; and a translation of the Remedy of Love, from the same author. The Poem of Bosworth-Field, which has been universally esteemed, was written by his brother John Beaumont. JOHN FLETCHER, Esquire, (son of Dr. Richard Fletcher, who was created by Queen Elizabeth Bishop of Bristol, and after removed to Worcester, and from thence, in the year 1593, to London), was educated at Cambridge, and probably at Bennet-College, to which his father was by his will a benefactor. He died of the plague in the first year of the reign And since I have quoted one poetical authority, let me give another (with a little varia tion) from the immortal Spenser, which may farther illustrate, if not confirm our opinion. The poet speaking of Priamond, after he had died by Cambell's hand in single combat, says, "His weary ghost assoyl'd from fleshly band Did not, as others wont, directly fly Ne into air did vanish presently, Ne chaunged was into a star in sky, But by traduction was eftsoon deriv'd Into his other brother that surviv'd, In whom he liv'd anew, of former life depriv'd." The application of these lines to our authors, is so easy that no reader can miss it, and the reason given for the sameness of manner, spirit, &c. in their joint and single performances, so clear for a poetical one, that no one can dispute it. And as to external evidence, though we have enough of it, 'tis so little to be depended on, that it has no weight with me, whatever it may have with the intelligent reader. The testimony of the versifiers, before our authors works, is so extravagant on the one side or on the other, that if we trust this panegyrist, Fletcher was the sole author, if that, Beaumont wrote alone, and if a third, the whole was the united work and labour of both. The printers of the quarto editions are no more concordant; for in different years and editions, you have sometimes Beaumont's and Fletcher's name, and sometimes the latter's. singly before the same play. The prologue and epilogue writers may perhaps be more depended upon, but they do not go quite through with their work; for neither the quarto copies, nor the thirty-four plays in the 1647 edition, have all their full quotas of head and tail-pieces; and of these we have, there are few that speak out, and tell us from whose labours their audiences were to expect either pleasure or instruction. However this evidence, such as it is, I shall lay before the reader, by way of notes to the alphabetical account of our authors pieces (as drawn up by Dr. Langbaine) towards the conclusion of the following Preface; and leave it to his judgment to determine, how far upon such testimony, the authors were singly or jointly concerned; only I must give this caution, that where the prologue mentions poet, or auther in the singular, there I suppose Fletcher is only designed, where in the plural, Beaumont is included. [The evidence Mr. Sympson here speaks of, the reader will find, with much additional information, in the title of each play of the present edition.] of |