Francis beaumont and john fletcher

Leave a Reply Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Send this to a friend. In other projects. Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. Team writers of the early Jacobean era. Works [ edit ]. Further information: Beaumont and Fletcher folios. References [ edit ].

Wikisource has original works by or about: Beaumont and Fletcher. Following the death of his father in , he left university without a degree and followed in his father's footsteps by entering the Inner Temple in London in Accounts suggest that Beaumont did not work long as a lawyer. He became a student of poet and playwright Ben Jonson ; he was also acquainted with Michael Drayton and other poets and dramatists, and decided that was where his passion lay.

His first work, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus , appeared in Beaumont's collaboration with Fletcher may have begun as early as They had both hit an obstacle early in their dramatic careers with notable failures; Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle , first performed by the Children of the Blackfriars in , was rejected by an audience who, the publisher's epistle to the quarto claims, failed to note "the privie mark of irony about it;" that is, they took Beaumont's satire of old-fashioned drama as an old-fashioned drama.

The play received a lukewarm reception. The following year, Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess failed on the same stage. In , however, the two collaborated on Philaster , which was performed by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre and at Blackfriars. The play was a popular success, not only launching the careers of the two playwrights but also sparking a new taste for tragicomedy.

According to a mid-century anecdote related by John Aubrey, they lived in the same house on the Bankside in Southwark , "sharing everything in the closest intimacy. Although today Beaumont is remembered as a dramatist, during his lifetime he was also celebrated as a poet. Evadne and Amintor emerge and continue with the pretense, but Amintor is so distressed he says various strange things and Melantius and Evadne notice.

The King and courtiers enter and he quizzes the couple; Amintor's answers are so smooth that the King grows jealous and he dismisses everyone except Evadne and Amintor. He satisfies himself that the couple have not slept together and he lets Amintor know the rules: he is to allow Evadne to come to him whenever he wants and is to stay away from her himself.

Melantius enters and quarrels with Calianax again; after he leaves, not daring to challenge Melantius, Amintor enters and Melantius gets the secret out of him.

Francis beaumont and john fletcher

He dissuades his friend from revenge and counsels patience, but once Amintor has left he begins to plot to kill the King. In order to do this he has to have control of the citadel which is governed by Calianax. The old man enters again and Melantius proposes common revenge for the injuries that the King has done them both, but after he leaves Calianax resolves to go straight to the King with this information.

Melantius goes to Evadne and forces her to reveal what has happened. He gets her to promise to kill the King. In the ensuing scene with the whole court, Melantius easily outfaces Calianax's accusations and leaves him looking foolish. When everyone except these two leave, Calianax tells Melantius he has no option but to go along with the plot and hand over the citadel.

Melantius expects Evadne to kill the King that night, but at this point Amintor enters talking wildly of revenge and Melantius has to pretend that none is planned. The King has summoned Evadne, but when she arrives at his bed chamber she finds him asleep. She soliloquises and then ties his arms to the bed. She wakes him and tells him she is going to kill him for his rape of her.

The King's body is discovered and his brother Lysippus is proclaimed the new King. Melantius, his brother Diphilus, and the unwilling Calianax are standing on the citadel explaining to the populace why the King was killed. The new King enters, and after some negotiation the three agree to give up the citadel in return for a pardon.