he had that rare felicity to prepare and perfect all first in his own brain; to shape and attire his notions, to add or lop off, before he committed one word to writing, and never touched pen till all was to stand as firm and immutable as if engraven in brass or marble. But I keep you too long from those friends of his whom 'tis fitter for you to read; only accept of the honest endeavours of One that is a servant to you all, HUMPHREY MOSELEY. At the Prince's Arms, in St Paul's is a very injudicious one. A similar assertion, applied to Shakspeare, has afforded much conversation in the literary world.Ed. 1778. 8 those friends of his whom 'tis fitter for you to read.] Alluding to the commendatory verses which follow next in the first folio. THE BOOKSELLERS TO THE READER. (FOLIO, 1679.) COURTEOUS READER, THE first edition of these plays in this volume having found that acceptance as to give us encouragement to make a second impression, we were very desirous they might come forth as correct as might be and we were very opportunely informed of a copy which an ingenious and worthy gentleman had taken the pains, or rather the plea sure, to read over; wherein he had all along corrected' several faults, some very gross, which had crept in by the frequent imprinting of them. His corrections were the more to be valued, because he had an intimacy with both our authors, and had been a spectator of most of them when they were acted in their lifetime. This, therefore, we resolved to purchase at any rate, and, accordingly, with no small cost, obtained it. From the same hand 9 He had all along corrected, &c.] Notwithstanding this boast, in many plays, the first folio is more correct than the second. Ed. 1778. also we received several prologues and epilogues, with the songs appertaining to each play,' which were not in the former edition, but are now inserted in their proper places. Besides, in this edition you have the addition of no fewer than seventeen plays more than were in the former, which we have taken the pains and care to collect, and print out of quarto, in this volume, which, for distinction sake, are marked with a star in the catalogue of them facing the first page of the book. And whereas in several of the plays there were wanting the names of the persons represented therein, in this edition you have them all prefixed, with their qualities, which will be a great ease to the reader. Thus, every way perfect and complete, have you all, both tragedies and comedies, that were ever writ by our authors, a pair of the greatest wits and most ingenious poets of their age; from whose worth we should but detract by our most studied commendations. If our care and endeavours to do our authors right, in an incorrupt and genuine edition of their works, and thereby to gratify and oblige the reader, be but requited with a suitable entertainment, we should be encouraged to bring Ben Jonson's two volumes into one, and publish them in this form, and also to reprint old Shakspeare: Both which are designed by Yours, Ready to serve you, JOHN MARTYN, HENRY HERRINGMAN, * Several of these had been previously printed in Beaumont's Poems. MR SEWARD'S PREFACE. (OCTAVO, 1750.) THE public at length receives a new edition of the two great poets, who, with a fate in each case alike unjust, were extolled for near a century after their deaths, as equals, rivals, nay, superiors to the immortal Shakspeare; but, in the present age, have been depressed beneath the smooth-polished enervate issue of the modern drama. And as their fame has been so different with respect to other poets, so has it varied also between themselves. Fletcher was a while supposed unable to rise to any height of eminence, had not Beaumont's stronger arm bore him upwards. Yet no sooner had he lost that aid, and demonstrated that it was delight and love, not necessity, which made him soar abreast with his amiable friend, but the stillinjurious world began to strip the plumes from Beaumont, and to dress Fletcher in the whole fame, * Some of Seward's notes, containing proposals for amending passages in Shakspeare and our authors, have been omitted in the present edition. leaving to the former nothing but the mere pruning of Fletcher's luxuriant wit, the lima labor, the plummet, and the rule, but neither the plan, materials, composition, or ornaments. This is directly asserted in Mr Cartwright's Commendatory Poem on Fletcher: "Who therefore wisely did submit each birth Though thus he call'd his judge into his fame, 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 sit But as a joint commissioner in wit; Till as that tree, which scorns to be kept down, I believe this extremely injurious to Beaumont ; but as the opinion, or something 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 possessed when living, and to fix the standard of their respective merits, before we shew 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 none of the numerous contemporary poems, published with theirs before the first folio edition of our authors, degrade Beaumont so very k VOL. I. |