Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher & Philip Massinger - Thierry & Theodoret: "Dare we inflict upon the weak offenders, When we are thieves our selves?"

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 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.

Philip Massinger worked several times with Beaumont & Fletcher and many times with Fletcher after Beaumont’s death. Whilst he too collaborated with various other playwrights he also has approximately 16 plays to his solo credit though most of these were lost when used by a kitchen cook to start a fire.

Index of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

SCENE

THIERRY & THEODORET

ACTUS PRIMUS

SCÆNA PRIMA

SCÆNA SECUNDA

ACTUS SECUNDUS

SCÆNA PRIMA

ACTUS TERTIUS

SCÆNA PRIMA

ACTUS QUARTUS

SCÆNA PRIMA

ACTUS QUINTUS

SCÆNA PRIMA

FRANCIS BEAUMONT – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

JOHN FLETCHER – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

PHILIP MASSINGER – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

FRANCIS BEAUMONT & JOHN FLETCHER – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

PHILIP MASSINGER – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY