and highly finished works of Fletcher, appears also to have been a posthumous production, as the prologue speaks in the following terms of the poet : "Living, he did gain Your good opinions; but, now dead, commends The romantic tragedy of The Lovers' Progress appears from the prologue to have been left imperfect at the death of Fletcher. The defective parts were supplied by one of his friends, either Shirley, or, as I suspect from internal evidence, Massinger.7 Fletcher died in August 1625, in his fortyninth year, and, on the 19th of that month, he was buried, without any memorial, in St Mary Overy's church, in Southwark. He was return to the country, and waiting for the tailor to bring him home a new suit of clothes, when he was seized by the plague, then prevalent in the metropolis, and suddenly carried off. For this information we are indebted to Aubrey, who > See the introductory remarks on that play, vol. XIII. s Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey, 1719. 8, vol. V. p. 210. heard this anecdote in 1670, from the same tailor, at that time clerk of that parish, and upwards of eighty years of age. Of the domestic circumstances of our poet's life we are utterly ignorant. It is not even known whether he was ever married or not; but, as he was a bachelor about the time when he lived with Beaumont on the Bankside, at which period he was turned of thirty, it is not improbable that he remained in the same condition to the end of his days." During his lifetime he was very generally respected, and his memory seems to have been almost idolized by his friends, among whom, Shakspeare, Jonson, Massinger, and Shirley, deserve peculiar mention. With Massinger he appears to have lived in particular intimacy, as may be gathered from Sir Aston Cockayne's epitaph inserted above. As we are not in possession of any anecdotes of Fletcher's life and manners, we must have recourse to the very scanty notices which are scattered in a few places of his writings, to the occa It has not been ascertained whether our poet was related to R. Fletcher, the translator of Martial, and a poet of some merit, which is most conspicuous in some of the humorous original pieces which he annexed to his translations. sional hints in the prologues and epilogues to his plays, and to the very suspicious testimonies of his eulogists, who generally praised without discrimination, and seldom with any knowledge of his character. Being engaged, probably by the bookseller, to contribute their mite to the “second library of praise," as the collection of the comDendatory verses is facetiously called by Alex. der Brome, in allusion to the poems prefixed an by the wits of the time to Tom Coryate's Cru dits, they did their devoirs by lavishing indis cri out his ledg the inate praises on their favourite poet, withfurnishing much matter for a delineation of haracter. It must, however, be acknowed, that we find amongst these encomiasts names of the most celebrated poets who Surved him. With a few exceptions, they were all nown to the public as authors, and, as fur nishing testimonies of esteem and friendship, verses are certainly deserving of a place in the a Complete edition of the poets. The sprightliness of Fletcher's conversation, the ease and gaiety of his repartee, may be Sly collected from his uncommon facility in portraying gentlemen of high rank and honor, and of easy, genteel deportment. Several an eas of the commendatory poets speak in rapturous terms of his colloquial powers; and the prologue written for a revival of his comedy of The Chances may be quoted, as proving the general reputation which he held for this talent immediately after his demise: "My promise will find credit with the most, And some sit here, I doubt not, dare aver Which he pleased to frequent.”— As Fletcher and Beaumont were superior to almost all the dramatic poets of the time in point of extraction, so they seem to have been exempted from the great degree of indigence under which most of them laboured. Beaumont was of a still more illustrious family than his friend; his elder brother was raised to the dignity of a baronet, and there is every reason to suppose that he enjoyed competence, if not affluence, during the too brief period of his life. Fletcher's family had been raised by their own exertions, but it is more than probable that he was not left destitute by his father. His uncle, Dr Giles Fletcher, by his diplomatic talents, obtained considerable influence; and his two sons, Giles and Phineas, seem to have enjoyed com 9 petent ecclesiastical preferments. That our poet was not reduced to the same painful expedients as some of his fellow-poets, appears from his not joining with Massinger, Field, and Daborne, in the petition to Henslowe, printed on a former page; and in the verses to Sir William Skipwith,' prefixed to The Faithful Shepherdess, he expressly declares that the publication was not In their political principles both poets were evidently royalists; and it must not be laid to their charge, that they frequently asserted and inculcated the divine right and inviolability of kings, as that was the almost universal doctrine of the times, particularly of those persons who were attached to the theatres. This servility is, however, less apparent in those plays which Fletcher composed after the death of Beau An epitaph upon this gentleman occurs in the poems of Sir John Beaumont, in which he is described as possessing the most amiable qualities of person and of mind. A strong proof of this is the fact of all the king's players professing themselves royalists, and those who were not super. annuated actually engaging in the cause, with the single excep tion of Swanston, who became a presbyterian tradesman. |