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
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAUMONT
AND FLETCHER ***
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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 præsagia,

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present edition, contained all the authors' previously unpublished plays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 ævi ac_ Præsulis _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 æterni 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 _variæ 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,