Love's Pilgrimage
by Francis Beaumont
On This Page
Description
The English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I of England (James VI of Scotland, 1567-1625; in England he reigned from 1603). Beaumont & Fletcher began to collaborate as writers soon after they met. After notable failures of their solo works their first joint effort, Philaster, was a success and tragicomedy was the genre they explored and built upon. There would be many further successes to follow. There is an account that show more at the time the two men shared everything. They lived together in a house on the Bankside in Southwark, "they also lived together in Bankside, sharing clothes and having one wench in the house between them." Or as another account puts it "sharing everything in the closest intimacy." Whatever the truth of this they were now recognised as perhaps the best writing team of their generation, so much so, that their joint names was applied to all the works in which either, or both, had a pen including those with Philip Massinger, James Shirley and Nathan Field. The first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647 contained 35 plays; 53 plays were included in the second folio in 1679. Other works bring the total plays in the canon to about 55. However there appears here to have been some duplicity on the account of the publishers who seemed to attribute so many to the team. It is now thought that the work between solely by Beaumont and Fletcher amounts to approximately 15 plays, though of course further works by them were re-worked by others and the originals lost. After Beaumont's early death in 1616 Fletcher continued to write and, at his height was, by many standards, the equal of Shakespeare in popularity until his own death in 1625. show lessTags
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Best Early Modern Plays Not By Shakespeare
78 works; 8 members
Author Information
82+ Works 882 Members
Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and his collaborator John Fletcher (1579-1625) wrote some of the most popular dramas of Elizabethan England. Beaumont and Fletcher began to work together in about 1606 and continued their partnership until Beaumont's retirement in 1613. Beaumont apparently was the primary plotter of their plays, while Fletcher had a show more strong flair for language. Their comedies and tragedies include The Woman Hater, The Coxcomb, A Maid's Tragedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Wit Without Money, and Philaster, Or Love Lies A Bleeding. Fletcher authored several other plays alone, such as the comedy The Wild Goose Chase (1621) and the tragedy Bonduca (1614). Cardenio, or the Second Maiden's Tragedy, and Two Noble Kinsmen are attributed to Fletcher, although there has been some speculation that he collaborated with Shakespeare on the plays. Beaumont and Fletcher's work is energetic, rich in stage thrills, declamatory speeches and bizarre plots. Although their work is not as unified as that of some of their contemporaries including Shakespeare and Webster, it influenced the development of Restoration comedy and tragedy, and thus played an important role in the history of drama. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 2
- Popularity
- 6,008,244
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 1