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TIBA VBA

NOV

12127

WORK S

O F

Mr. Francis Beaumont,

AND

Mr. John Fletcher.

VOLUME THE FIR S T.

CQNTALNING

The MAID'S TRAGEDY.

PHILASTER; or, Love lies a BLEEDING.

AKING and no K IN G.

AND

The SCORNFUL LADY.

Printed under the Inspection of Mr. THEOBALD.

LONDON:

Printed for J. and R. TONSON and S. DRAPER
in the Strand.

M DCC L.

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PREFA CE,

By T. SEWARD.

HE Public at length receives a new Edition of the two great Poets, who, with a Fate in each cafe alike unjust, were extoll'd for near a Century after their Deaths, Equal, Rivals, nay,

Superiors to the inmortal Shakespear; but in the prefent Age have been deprefs'd beneath the smooth-polished enervate Tae of the Modern Drama. And as their Fame has been fo different with respect to other Poets, fo has it varied alfo between Themselves. Fletcher was a while fuppofed unable to rise to any Height of Eminence, had not Beaumont's ftronger Arm bore him upwards. Yet no fooner had he loft that Aid, and demonstrated that it was Delight and Love, not Neceffity, which made him foar abreast with his amiable Friend; but the still injurious World began to ftrip the Plumes from Beaumont, and to drefs Fletcher in the whole Fame, leaving to the former nothing but the mere Pruning of Fletcher's luxuriant Wit, the Lima Labor, VOL. I. a 3

the

the Plummet and the Rule, but neither the Plan, Materials, Compofition, or Ornaments. This is directly afferted in Mr. Cartwright's Commendatory Poem on Fletcher.

Who therefore wifely did fubmit each Birth
To knowing Beaumont e'er it did come forth,
Working again until he faid, 'twas fit,
And made him the Sobriety of his Wit.
Tho' thus he call'd his Judge into his Fame,
And for that Aid allow'd him half the Name, &c.
See Cartwright's Poem below.

Mr. Harris, in his Commendatory Poem, makes Beaumont a mere dead Weight hanging on the Boughs of Fletcher's Palm.

When thou didst fit

....

But as a joint Commiftones in Wit;
When it had Plunimets hung on to fuppress
Its too luxuriant growing Mightiness.
Till as that. Tree salich:fcorns to be kept down,
Thou grew to govern the whole Stage alone.

I believe this extremely injurious to Beaumont; but as the Opinion, or fomething like it, has lived for Ages, and is frequent at this Day, it is time at length to restore Beaumont to the full Rank of Fellowship which he poffefs'd when living, and to fix the Standard of their refpective Merits, before we fhew the Degree in which their united Fame ought to be placed on the British Theatre.

Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Harris wrote thirty Years after Beaumont's Death, and twenty after Fletcher's;

and

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