It will have been observed that I cleave to the old-fashioned nomenclature,
and speak of "Beaumont and Fletcher." Until very recently, when two new
editions have made their appearance, there was for a time a certain
tendency to bring Fletcher into greater prominence than his partner, but at
the same time and on the whole to depreciate both. I am in all things but
ill-disposed to admit innovation without the clearest and most cogent
proofs; and although the comparatively short life of Beaumont makes it
impossible that he should have taken part in some of the fifty-two plays
traditionally assigned to the partnership (we may perhaps add Mr. Bullen's
remarkable discovery of _Sir John Barneveldt_, in which Massinger probably
took Beaumont's place), I see no reason to dispute the well-established
theory that Beaumont contributed at least criticism, and probably original
work, to a large number of these plays; and that his influence probably
survived himself in conditioning his partner's work. And I am also disposed
to think that the plays attributed to the pair have scarcely had fair
measure in comparison with the work of their contemporaries, which was so
long neglected. Beaumont and Fletcher kept the stage--kept it constantly
and triumphantly--till almost, if not quite, within living memory; while
since the seventeenth century, and since its earlier part, I believe that
very few plays of Dekker's or Middleton's, of Webster's or of Ford's, have
been presented to an English audience. This of itself constituted at the
great revival of interest in Elizabethan literature something of a
prejudice in favour of _les oublies et les dedaignes_, and this prejudice
has naturally grown stronger since all alike have been banished from the
stage. The Copper Captain and the Humorous Lieutenant, Bessus and Monsieur
Thomas, are no longer on the boards to plead for their authors. The
comparative depreciation of Lamb and others is still on the shelves to
support their rivals.

Although we still know but little about either Beaumont or Fletcher
personally, they differ from most of their great contemporaries by having
come of "kenned folk," and by having to all appearance, industrious as they
were, had no inducement to write for money. Francis Beaumont was born at
Gracedieu, in Leicestershire in 1584. He was the son of a chief-justice;
his family had for generations been eminent, chiefly in the law; his
brother, Sir John Beaumont, was not only a