Sea Voyage was first acted at the Globe theatre. It is evidently an imitation and counterpart to Shakspeare's Tempest, and the parallel which the reader is unavoidably led to draw between these two plays, is very disadvantageous to that of Fletcher, notwithstanding the sprightly dialogue which it contains, and the very considerable interest of the plot. On the 24th of October, Fletcher furnished The Spanish Curate for the private theatre at the Blackfriars. There are few comedies extant in the language which possess such sterling merit, and such a fund of gay and lively humour. During the seventeenth century it was frequently acted, but the present almost total neglect of all our ancient dramatists but Shakspeare has driven this play off the stage for above sixty years. About the middle of the eighteenth century, it was revived for a London audience, and damned: but the memory of Fletcher is not tarnished by this condemnation of a modern pit; for, about the same time, The Little French Lawyer and The Scornful Lady of our poets, together with The Silent Woman, perhaps the most perfect of Ben Jonson's comedies, suffered the same sentence from the same tribunal. 4

• Colman's preface to Philaster.

During Christmas, the same year, Fletcher's comedy, entitled The Beggars' Bush, was performed at court, from which circumstance we may conclude that it was originally produced during the course of that year.

Another play, which Fletcher seems to have brought forward in this, or the ensuing year, is the comedy of Love's Cure, or the Martial Maid. In the second act, there is an allusion to the Muscovite ambassadors at the court of King James, who were in London in 1617, and again in 1622. From the expression, "that lay here lieger in the last great frost," we may conclude,. that the poet refers to the winter of 1622, which was so severe, that the Russian ambassadors did not stir from their house till June, as we are informed by Sir John Finett in his Philoxenis.

Fletcher's muse was equally prolific in 1623 as in the preceding year. On the 29th of August, The Maid of the Mill was produced at the Globe. Our poet was assisted in the composition of this comedy by Rowley, an actor and an inferior playwright of that time, who, besides eight or nine plays of his own writing, was associated in the composition of about ten others, with Massinger, Middleton, Ford, Webster, Heywood, &c. and seems to have enjoyed the com

pany and friendship of most of the contemporary dramatists. He performed one of the characters in The Maid in the Mill, which appears to have met with a most favourable reception, having been acted no less than three times at court, which was not a usual circumstance at that time.

On the 17th of October, 1623, Sir Henry Herbert made the following entry in his manuscript:"For the king's company, an old play, called More Dissemblers besides Women [by Middleton]: allowed by Sir George Bucke, and being free from alterations, was allowed by me, for a new play, called The Devil of Dowgate, or Usury put to Use. Written by Fletcher." This entry is rather confused; but it should seem that Sir Henry refused to grant his license for the performance of Fletcher's play, and that he licensed an old comedy of Middleton's to be acted in its stead. This circumstance may, perhaps, have occasioned the loss of this performance. It is possible, however, that The Night-Walker, or the Little Thief, which was brought on the stage in 1638, "corrected by Shirley," may have been an alteration of this comedy. The circumstance of the latter containing the cha

5 Chalmers's Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare Papers, 1799. 8. p. 215.

racter of an old city usurer, who is frightened by some tricks of pretended diablerie, renders such a supposition not altogether improbable.

On the 16th of December, in the same year, the master of the revels licensed the Wandering Lovers, by Fletcher, for the theatre in the Blackfriars, which appears to be irretrievably lost. A comedy, entitled The Wandering Lovers, or the Painter, was entered on the Stationers' Books, September 9, 1653, as the composition of Massinger, and was extant among those which were so unfortunately destroyed by Mr Warburton's servant. As it does not seem likely that Fletcher and Massinger, who were on the most intimate terms, and occasionally wrote in concert, should give the same title to two dif ferent plays, we may suppose that the entries in Sir Henry Herbert's manuscript, and in the Stationers' Registers, refer to one and the same performance, most likely written by these poets in conjunction.

On the 27th of May, 1624, Fletcher's tragicomedy, entitled A Wife for a Month, was brought out by the king's servants; a drama replete with the most poetical passages, and some of the characters of which are drawn with consummate art; but, unfortunately, the subject of

the plot is too extravagant to render the success of any revival dubious. On the 19th of October, the same year, the comedy of Rule a Wife and have a Wife was brought on the stage. The excellencies of this admirable play are such, that even the vitiated taste of the audiences of our own days finds the entertainment palatable.

No other dramatic performances of Fletcher were brought on the stage during his lifetime, but he left several which were represented after his death. On the 22d of January, 1625-6, The Fair Maid of the Inn was acted at Blackfriars, and, on the third of February, The Noble Gentleman was produced at the same theatre. The first of these plays bears every mark of having received the finishing hand of the poet, and is, in many respects, a very valuable performance; but the latter has all the appearance of an unfinished work, and it is not improbable that it was fitted for the stage by one of Fletcher's friends, perhaps Shirley.

The Elder Brother," one of the most regular

• It is singular that one of Calderon's comedies, entitled De una causa dos efectos, bears a most striking resemblance to The Elder Brother. Fletcher and Calderon were contemporaries; but it is not to be supposed that either of them could have read the production of the other, and borrowed the hint.