of which he has left us a distinguished proof in his poem on Bosworthfield, remarkable for the spirit of the poetry and the easy flow of the versification. The dramatic poet, Francis Beaumont, was the youngest son, and was born at Grace-dieu, in the year 1586." In the beginning of Lent-term, 1596, he was admitted, at the same time with his two elder brothers, gentleman commoner of Broadgate-hall, now Pembroke college, at that period much resorted to for the study of the civil and common law. After lea

6 Great confusion has been occasioned among the biographers of our poet, by the circumstance, that there were at least three Francis Beaumonts alive in 1615. Both Wood and Oldys confound the dramatic writer with his namesake, the master of the Charter house, of the family of the Beaumonts of Cole-Orton, who was educated at Cambridge, was also a poet, and died in 1624. He prefixed an epistle to Speight's edition of Chaucer, printed in 1598, containing an apology for the licentious passages which occur in that poet's writings. Oldys, supposing this epistle to have been the production of the dramatic writer, concludes, that the age at which the latter is said to have died must be founded on erroneous information, as it was not likely that a judgment from a boy of thirteen should be preferred by the judicious editor of ChauWood is led by a similar mistake to ascribe the education of our poet to Cambridge. Another Francis Beaumont was the son of Sir John Beaumont, and nephew to the dramatic writer. He afterwards became a jesuit, and prefixed a copy of verses to the poems of his father, printed in 1629. Mr Nichols informs us, that there was a Francis Beaumont of Peter-house, Cambridge, and another of St John's, but professes himself ignorant of their dates.

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ving the university, he studied for some years in the Inner-Temple; but the vivacity of his imagination, and the bent of his genius toward dramatic poetry, seems to have alienated his mind from any intense application to the law. His acquirements in classical learning, and the other sciences fashionable at the time, are, however, acknowledged to have been very considerable.

In the year 1602, when he was only sixteen years of age, he published the fable of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, in the paraphrastic style of the Italian poets of the seventeenth century. If he had exhibited no further specimens of his genius after this juvenile attempt, he would never have been ranked among the illustrious poets of his country. Fortunately, he attached himself to the stage, and became the intimate of Ben Jonson and Fletcher. At the age of nineteen, he addressed a copy of verses to the former, on his comedy of The Fox, first produced in the year 1605, replete with the soundest criticism, and evidencing a familiar acquaintance with the models of the ancient drama; thus justifying the high opinion which was entertained by his contemporaries of his superior judgment, particularly by Jonson, who is

said to have submitted the plots of his dramatic performances to his young friend. His intimacy with Fletcher led to a still closer connection, which continued without interruption till the early death of Beaumont. It is not improbable that Fletcher, at first, like Ben Jonson, took advantage of the judgment of Beaumont, to submit his performances to his correction, and that they were gradually led, by a congeniality of mind, to compose dramas in conjunction.

As the greater proportion of the dramatic poets of the reigns of Elizabeth and James were in needy circumstances, and, in a great measure, depended on the exertion of their minds for their daily bread, they were naturally led to form copartnerships of talent for the sake of expedition, and to supply the eager demand of the London audiences, who had, but a short time before, become partial to the rational entertainment afforded by the stage, and who were proportionably attached to it, and eager for a continual supply of theatrical novelties. The papers of Henslowe, the proprietor of the Rose theatre, prove, that a great number of dramas was produced at one only of the numerous playhouses then existing, between the years 1597

and 1603; and the greater proportion of these were written by two, three, or four poets, in combination. At a later period these copartnerships became less frequent, but they still continued common, till the destruction of the stage, during the civil wars, by the ruling fanatics. 7

The dramatic alliance between Beaumont and Fletcher was, perhaps, originally induced by this universal practice of the age; but the immediate causes which led to it were different and more honourable; not the urgency of providing for their subsistence, but their strict intimacy in private life, the similarity of their disposition and habits, and the wonderful congeniality of their genius. From an expression in Sir William Davenant's prologue, written for a revival of the WomanHater, it may be inferred, with a considerable degree of probability, that Fletcher began to be actively employed in writing for the stage about the year 1605. If he actually wrote as early as 1596, his endeavours were probably insignificant, and confined to a share in some of the

? The prevalency of similar alliances among the Spanish dramatists of the seventeenth century has been noticed by the editor on another occasion.-See the Dramatic Works of John Ford, Edinburgh, 1810, 8. vol. I. p. xiv.

dramas of the time, in conjunction with other poets.

The period of the continued partnership be tween Beaumont and Fletcher does not seem to have commenced till about the year 1608. In 1606, or 1607, Fletcher produced the comedy of the Woman-Hater, without the assistance of his friend. In this play, which was acted by the children of St Paul's, Fletcher followed the footsteps of Ben Jonson, then at the height of his fame, with very considerable success; but, if we may believe the tradition mentioned by Dryden, that our poets produced two or three unsuccessful plays before the appearance of Philaster, the Woman-Hater must have met with a reception similar to that which The Knight of the Burning Pestle and The Faithful Shepherdess subsequently experienced.

Another early composition, which Fletcher wrote before he entered into a regular and continued coalition with Beaumont, is the tragedy of Thierry and Theodoret, which, from the epilogue, seems to have been the first which he furnished for the king's servants, who acted at Blackfriars, and whom, in the sequel, he regularly supplied with dramatic novelties, both in