Cel. I know you are angry now: pray look upon me: I'll ask no more such questions. Dem. The drums beat, I can no longer stay. Cel. They do but call yet: How fain you would leave my company! Dem. I would not, Unless a greater power than love commanded, Cel. But a little. Dem. Prithee farewell, and be not doubtful of me. ous . But good, sweet Prince, preserve yourself, fight nobly, But do not thrust this body - 't is not yours now, 'T is mine, 't is only mine: do not seek wounds, Sir, For every drop of blood you bleed Dem. I will, Celia, I will be careful. Cel. My heart, that loves ye dearly – Hark, they march now. [Drums, a march. Cel. Pox on these bawling drums: I am sure you'll kiss me. But one kiss? What a parting's this! Dem. Here, take me, And do what thou wilt with me, smother me; But still remember, if your fooling with me Make me forget the trust Cel. I have done: farewell, Sir; Never look back; you shall not stay, not a minute. Cel. No, the drums beat; I dare not slack your honour; not a hand more, All these excellences must be counted up when we estimate the full value of the work which passes under the names of Beaumont and Fletcher and is an epitome of the later (so-called) Elizabethan drama. But if we are to criticise honestly, and are to avoid blurring the fine distinctions in artistic enjoyment, we should not forget to weigh against such riches of entertainment the deeplying fault which prevents this drama from taking a place beside the more fully-satisfying productions of art. And, in a longer view, we should remember that, as the wit of our twin dramatists passed by a slight change into that of the Restoration, so their use of the passions and emotions is one of the important sources of the romantic vein in later English literature. A TEST FOR FLETCHER'S WORK While reading the new edition of Beaumont and Fletcher in the Cambridge English Classics, I was struck by the frequent employment of ye for you in The Loyal Subject, which is one of the plays attributed to Fletcher alone, and it occurred to me that this usage might afford a supplementary aid to distinguish his work from that of his various collaborators. The test, so far as I have carried it out, has justified this expectation. Fletcher uses ye for both numbers and cases, and in both serious and comic scenes, with great frequency, and is distinguished by this mannerism from, at least, Shakespeare, Beaumont, Jonson, Massinger, Middleton, Field, and W. Rowley. A good illustration of the value of the test in confirming the accepted attribution of parts in a collaborated play is offered by The False One. Of this tragedy, Professor G. C. Macaulay (Cambridge English Literature vol. VI, chap. v, appendix) ascribes acts I and v to Massinger, acts II, III, and IV to Fletcher. A count of the you's and ye's results as follows: Act i, 55 you's, o ye's; act v, 30 you's, I ye; act II, 61 you's, 31 ye's; act III, 34 you's, 36 ye's; act IV, 47 you's, 45 ye's. The number of ye's here, in acts II, III, and IV, is characteristic of Fletcher, although the ratio often falls considerably lower. The other plays I have tested are as follows: Wit at Several Weapons. This is ascribed in the "Epilogue at the reviving of this Play" to Fletcher in part, and it was included in the first and second folios of Beaumont and Fletcher. It is ascribed by Macaulay probably to Middleton and Rowley, and this ascription is confirmed by the ye test, in so far, at least, as there are no signs anywhere of Fletcher. The Maid in the Mill. According to Macaulay, acts I; III, ii and iii; v, ii (a), were written by Fletcher, the rest of the play by some one else, probably Rowley. The test distinguishes Fletcher's work clearly. Thus, III, i (to “Enter Lisauro”), has 16 you's, o ye's; the rest of the scene (apparently Macaulay's "scene ii") has 25 you's, 19 ye's; III, ii (apparently Macaulay's "scene iii"; there are only two scenes as printed in the folios), has 55 you's, 59 ye's; v, ii (to "Enter Antonio"), has 38 you's, 34 ye's; the rest of the scene has 73 you's, o ye's. Valentinian is by common ascription and by the ye test all Fletcher's. Bonduca. This is attributed by Macaulay to Fletcher and Field, but by the ye test would belong entirely to Fletcher. The Bloody Brother. According to Macaulay acts I and v, i, belong to Massinger; II, iii, and III, i (part), ii, and v, ii, to Fletcher; II, i, ii, and Iv, i, ii, to Jonson; III, i (part), and Iv, iii, to Field. By the ye test there is no sign anywhere of Fletcher. Possibly the whole text was revised by Massinger or another. The Honest Man's Fortune. Macaulay divides, “apparently," as follows: Tourneur, I; Massinger, III, i; Field, Iv; Fletcher, v; the rest doubtful. According to the ye test, act v is Fletcher's; acts III and IV show no sign of his work; acts I and II have a few ye's, but a lower ratio than is characteristic of Fletcher. The Two Noble Kinsmen. The title-page of the quarto (1634) gives this play to Fletcher and Shakespeare, and it is included in the second folio of Beaumont and Fletcher. Critics are now pretty generally agreed that Fletcher wrote part of the play, but the name of his collaborator is still in dispute. I may say for myself that I cannot conceive the style of the non-Fletcherian scenes to belong to the mature Shakespeare; the pregnant, allusive, crowded language points, in my judgement, more strongly to Chapman than to any other writer of the day. While going through this play I marked the words which seemed to me more or less uncommon. On counting them up I found the number to be thirty-six, and all of them, with the exception of "greise," evidently a misprint, fell in the non-Fletcherian parts. This eccentricity of diction again points to Chapman, although I have not looked for these particular words in his acknowledged plays. But this by the way. Macaulay ascribes to Fletcher acts II, iii, iv, v; III, iii, iv, v, vi; IV, i, ii; v, ii, and parts of other scenes. The ye test, on the whole, confirms this division, but with the following exceptions: II, iv, has neither you nor ye, but it consists of only a single speech; II, v, is non-Fletcherian; III, iii, is non-] n-Fletcherian; IV, ii, has no ye's, but is short; v, i (the first 19 lines), would belong to Fletcher. Henry VIII. According to the ye test, the following parts belong to Fletcher: I, iv; II, iii; III, i, ii (from “Exit King"); IV, i, ii; v, iii, iv, v. Short and indeterminate scenes are I, iii, and v, ii. The test when applied to the mixed work of Beaumont and Fletcher gives curious results. Four Plays which is, as the name indicates, made up of four independent pieces, shows a small percentage of ye's in the first and second Triumphs, and a high percentage in the third and fourth. This falls in with the common opinion which attributes the first two Triumphs to Beaumont and the latter two to Fletcher. But in the plays which are units, such as The Maid's Tragedy, Philaster, A King and No King, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and The Coxcomb, the mark of Fletcher does not occur at all. It should seem that the writing here, at least in its final form, was almost entirely Beaumont's. So far only I have carried the investigation; nor, I confess, have I gone through the literature of the subject to see whether any curious reader has forestalled me in the suggestion. Possibly some one else, who has |