began to comment on them, they retained a great portion of public favour. In later days, however, they have shared in the oblivion to which all our ancient dramas, unless upheld by the national pride in those productions which bear the magic name of Shakspeare, are at present condemned. Excepting the comedies of Rule a Wife and have a Wife and The Chances, none of our poets' dramas are performed. Mr Colman the elder made a laudable endeavour, soon after the middle of the last century, to draw the attention of the age towards their excellent productions, by altering and reviving Philaster and Bonduca, and, for a short time, the public acknowledged their excellency; but they were soon fated to be forgotten, while the London audiences could not be satiated with the flimsy productions of the modern stage, with tragedies of the French school, regular without force, and declamatory without eloquence, comedies seasoned with common-place sentiment instead of wit and humour, and melo-dramas without consistency or sense.

The works of our poets have been a continual source of plunder for their successors, sometimes without any acknowledgment, and at others, with the modest declaration that the hint

was taken from Beaumont and Fletcher, when, in fact, their plot was borrowed, and their language merely reduced to prose. Sir William Davenant, the Duke of Buckingham, Farquhar, Cibber, and other dramatists down to Tom D'Urfey, Settle, and Motteux, made liberal use of the plentiful stores left by their illustrious predecessors. Others, amongst whom are Dryden, Otway, and Rowe, borrowed incidents, characters, and single scenes, without acknowledging the obligation; and to trace all their lawful property in the more modern plays would be an endless and very thankless task.

It seems to have been the particular study of the actors of the time, who were in possession of the plays of our poets, to retain them in manuscript as long as possible, probably on account of their superior popularity; and hence the number of those which were printed separately in quarto during their lifetime is very inconsiderable. A few others found their way to the press after the demise of Fletcher. The re

? Those which appeared before the death of Beaumont are The Woman-Hater, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Faithful Shepherdess, and The Masque. During the ten years that Fletcher survived him, only four others were given to the press, viz.-The Scornful Lady, King and no King, The Maid's Tragedy, and Philaster.

mainder, to the number of thirty-four, were carefully retained by the comedians till the time arrived when they furnished an obvious means for their subsistence, which they could no longer derive from their professional exertions. In the year 1647, ten of the players united in publishing them in folio,3 with a dedication to the despicable Philip Earl of Pembroke, lord-chamberlain, who had no other title to become godfa.ther to the numerous works which were inscribed to him, than what he derived from the eminent patrons of literature from whom he was descended, or with whom he was allied. Shirley, who ranks high among the second class of the dra matic poets of his age, and who was the last of that illustrious race which was extinguished by the civil wars, furnished a preface of considerable elegance, and bearing testimony of his sincere friendship and ardent admiration for the poets; but he was unfortunately deterred, by his modesty, from writing their lives. "He

3 The following is the title of this valuable edition :-" Comedies and Tragedies. Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Gentlemen. Never printed before, and now published by the Authors' originall Copies. Si quid habent veri Vatum præsagia, vivam. London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the Three Pigeons, and for Humphrey Mosely, at the Prince's Arms, in St Paul's Church-yard. 1647."

must be a bold man," he says,

dertake to write their lives."

"that dares un

What has been

lost by his thus shrinking from a task which he was fully capable of performing, as he had lived in strict friendship with Fletcher, may be easily gathered from the present memoirs, which, from the scantiness, or rather almost total want of materials, cannot deserve the title of lives. Thirtysix recommendatory verses were prefixed by writers of various merit; among whom we find the names of most of the dramatic poets of any consequence who survived Fletcher. That the greater number of the plays were printed from the prompter's copy, is evident from the numerous stage-directions and memorandums in previous scenes, of articles to be got ready for the sequel. The stationer, however, professes, and with apparent truth, that he had restored all those scenes and speeches which were omitted at the representation. In point of accuracy this edition is not superior to the first edition of Shakspeare. The blunders are very numerous, consisting not only in literal and verbal mistakes, but in the omission of entire lines; but, in point of authority, it is, like almost all first editions of the seventeenth century, far preferable to the second edition.

Oldys, in his manuscript notes on Langbaine,

says, that several of our poets' dramatic performances were printed in 1650. This, however, extended only to the re-publication of such quarto plays as had become scarce, and which were in demand, to complete the collection of their works.

In 1679 a second folio edition was printed,* including all those which, having been previously printed in quarto, were not contained in the folio of 1647. In the address of the booksellers, we are informed that they had obtained a copy corrected by a gentleman who had "had an intimacy with both our authors, and had been a spectator of most of them when they were acted in their lifetime." On the same authority, they inserted several prologues, epilogues, and songs, omitted in the former edition. A few of the more obvious mistakes are certainly corrected," and, it is not improbable, on some degree of authority; but in their stead we have innumerable fresh blunders, and too often an awkward and rash correction of the genuine text. In this

Thus entitled:-"Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Gentlemen. All in one Volume. Published by the Authors' originall Copies, the Songs to each Play being added. Si quid habent veri Vatum præsagia, vivam. London: Printed by J. Macock, for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, Richard Morris. 1679.”