V

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER

THE names of Beaumont and Fletcher are as inseparably linked together as those of Castor and Pollux. They are the double stars of our poetical firmament, and their beams are so indissolubly mingled that it is in vain to attempt any division of them that shall assign to each his rightful share. So long as they worked in partnership, Jasper Mayne says truly that they are

"both so knit

That no man knows where to divide their wit,
Much less their praise."

William Cartwright says of Fletcher :

"That 't was his happy fault to do too much;
Who therefore wisely did submit each birth
To knowing Beaumont, ere it did come forth,
And made him the sobriety of his wit."

And Richard Brome also alludes to the copious ease of Fletcher, whom he had known:

"Of Fletcher and his works I speak.

His works! says Momus, nay, his plays you'd say!
Thou hast said right, for that to him was play
Which was to others' brains a toil."

The general tradition seems to have been that
Beaumont contributed the artistic judgment, and
Fletcher the fine frenzy. There is commonly a
grain of truth in traditions of this kind. In the

Beaumont