The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in Ten Volumes - Volume I

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Title: The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in Ten Volumes
Volume I.
Author: Beaumont and Fletcher
Release Date: January 7, 2004 [EBook #10620]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE WORKS OF FRANCIS BEAUMONT AND JOHN FLETCHER
In ten volumes
Vol. I
FRANCIS BEAUMONT
Born 1584
Died 1616
JOHN FLETCHER
Born 1579
Died 1625
THE MAIDS TRAGEDY
PHILASTER
A KING, AND NO KING
THE SCORNFUL LADY
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY
THE TEXT EDITED BY
ARNOLD GLOVER, M.A.
OF TRINITY COLLEGE AND THE INNER TEMPLE
NOTE.
The first collected edition of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher was published in 1647, in folio (12 1/2 ins. x 8 1/8 ins. is the measurement of the copy used for the purpose of collation). The title-page runs thus:--
Comedies | and | Tragedies |
{ Francis Beaumont }
|written by { And } Gentlemen. |
{ John Fletcher }
Never printed before, | And now published by?the Authours | Originall Copies. | _Si quid habent?veri Vatum pr?sagia, vivam.|London_, | Printed for?_Humphrey Robinson_, at the three _Pidgeons_, and for |?_Humphrey Moseley_ at the _Princes Armes in St Pauls_.
This collection, which is referred to as the First Folio throughout the present edition, contained all the authors' previously unpublished plays (34) except _The Wild-Goose Chase_, which, at the date of the Folio, was supposed to be lost. The dedicatory epistles, commendatory poem, and Catalogue of Plays, prefixed to the First Folio, are reprinted in the preliminary pages at the end of this Note (pp. ix--lvii).
The second collected edition appeared in 1679 in folio (14-3/8 ins. x 8-1/4 ins.); a reprint of the title-page is given on p. lix of the present volume. This collection, referred to henceforth as the Second Folio, contained (i) all the plays included in the First Folio, (ii) _The Wild-Goose Chase_, which had been published in folio in 1652, (iii) all the other then known plays of the authors which had been published previously to 1679.
William Marshall's portrait of John Fletcher faces the title-page of both folios with the following inscription engraved underneath:--
_Felicis ?vi ac_ Pr?sulis _Natus; comes_ Beaumontis; _sic, quippe Parnassus_, biceps; FLETCHERUS _unam in Pyramida furcas agens. Struxit chorum plus simplicem Vates Duplex; Plus duplicem solus: nec ullum transtulit; Nec transferendus: Dramatum ?terni sales,_ Anglo _Theatro, Orbe, Sibi, superstites_.
_FLETCHERE, facies absqz vultu pingitur; Quantus! vel_ umbram _circuit nemo tuam._
J. Berkenhead.
Later collected editions of the works were published in 1711 (7 vols.); 1750, edited by Lewis Theobald, Thomas Seward and J. Sympson (10 vols.); 1778, edited by George Colman (10 vols.); 1812, edited by Henry Weber (14 vols.); 1843, edited by Alexander Dyce (11 vols.). It is unnecessary to refer in detail to these later editions which, very widely as they differ among themselves, agree in presenting an eclectic text, a text formed partly by a collation of the various old editions and partly by the adoption of conjectural emendations. During the progress of work upon the present issue another edition has been announced, under the general editorship of Mr A. H. Bullen, and the first volume was published last year. It follows the lines of its predecessors in presenting a modernised text, giving 'a fuller record than had been given by Dyce of _vari? lectiones_,' and pleading, in its prospectus, that, 'for the use of scholars, there should be editions of all our old authors in old spelling.'
The objects of the present edition, in accordance with the scheme of the series of ENGLISH CLASSICS of which it is a part, are to provide (i) a text in which there shall be no deviation from that adopted as its basis, in the matter of spelling, punctuation, the use of capitals and italics, save as recorded, and to give (ii) an apparatus of variant readings as an Appendix, comprising the texts of all the early issues, that is to say, of all editions prior to and including the Second Folio. Within these limits, and apart