The Beaumont and Fletcher folios are two large

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.

The first folio, 1647

The 1647 folio was published by the booksellers

Humphrey Moseley Humphrey Moseley (died 31 January 1661) was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century. Life Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers Co ...

and

Humphrey Robinson Humphrey Robinson (died 13 November 1670) was a prominent London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century. Robinson was the son of a Bernard Robinson, a clerk from Carlisle; other members of his family were important clergymen a ...

. It was modelled on the precedents of the first two folio collections of

Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays—as well as their classifications as tragedy, history, comedy, or otherwise—is a ...

, published in 1623 and 1632, and the first two folios of the works of Ben Jonson of 1616 and 1640–1. The title of the book was given as ''Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Gentlemen,'' though the prefatory matter in the folio recognised that

Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including '' A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', ''The City Madam'', and ''The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their polit ...

, rather than

Francis Beaumont Francis Beaumont ( ; 1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Beaumont's life Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thr ...

, collaborated with Fletcher on some of the plays included in the volume. (In fact, the 1647 volume "contained almost nothing of Beaumont's" work.) Seventeen works in Fletcher's canon that had already been published prior to 1647, and the rights to these plays belonged to the stationers who had issued those volumes; Robinson and Moseley therefore concentrated on the previously unpublished plays in the Fletcher canon. Most of these plays had been acted onstage by the King's Men, the troupe of actors for whom Fletcher had functioned as house dramatist for most of his career. The folio featured a dedication to

Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery, (10 October 158423 January 1650) was an English courtier, nobleman, and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I. Philip and his older brother William we ...

, signed by ten of the King's Men –

John Lowin John Lowin (baptized 9 December 1576 – buried – 24 August 1653) was an English actor. Early life Born in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, Lowin was the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Whil ...

, Joseph Taylor, Richard Robinson,

Robert Benfield Robert Benfield (died July 1649) was a seventeenth-century actor, noted for his longtime membership in the King's Men in the years and decades after William Shakespeare's retirement and death. Nothing is known of Benfield's early life. He was mo ...

Eliard Swanston Eliard Swanston (died 1651), alternatively spelled Heliard, Hilliard, Elyard, Ellyardt, Ellyaerdt, and Eyloerdt, was an English actor in the Caroline era. He became a leading man in the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare and Richard B ...

, Thomas Pollard, Hugh Clark, William Allen,

Stephen Hammerton Stephen Hammerton (fl. 1629–47) was a boy player or child actor in English Renaissance theatre, one of the young performers who specialized in female roles in the period before women appeared on the stage. His case illuminates the condition ...

, and

Theophilus Bird Theophilus Bird, or Bourne, (1608 – 1663) was a seventeenth-century English actor. Bird began his stage career in the Stuart era of English Renaissance theatre, and ended it in the Restoration period; he was one of the relatively few acto ...

– all idled by the closing of the theatres in 1642. It also contained two addresses to the reader, by

James Shirley James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so m ...

and by Moseley, and 37

commendatory poem The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies. Origi ...

s, long and short, by figures famous and obscure, including Shirley,

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

, Richard Lovelace, Robert Herrick,

Richard Brome Richard Brome ; (c. 1590? – 24 September 1652) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era. Life Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's ''Bartholomew Fair'', ind ...

Jasper Mayne Jasper Mayne (1604 – 6 December 1672) was an English clergyman, translator, and a minor poet and dramatist. Mayne was baptized at Hatherleigh, Devon, on 23 November 1604, and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He then e ...

, Thomas Stanley, and Sir

Aston Cockayne Sir Aston Cockayne, 1st Baronet (1608–1684) was, in his day, a well-known Cavalier and a minor literary figure, now best remembered as a friend of Philip Massinger, John Fletcher, Michael Drayton, Richard Brome, Thomas Randolph, and other w ...

. The 1647 folio contains 35 works – 34 plays and 1

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...

. The 1647 folio has attracted significant attention from scholars and bibliographers, and various specialised studies of the folio (books on the book) have been written. As with Shakespeare's

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

, the typesetting of individual compositors and the work of individual printers has been traced and analysed – including that of Susan Islip, one of the rare instances of a female printer in the 17th century.

The second folio, 1679

The second folio, titled ''Fifty Comedies and Tragedies,'' was published by the booksellers

Henry Herringman Henry Herringman (1628–1704) was a prominent London bookseller and publisher in the second half of the 17th century. He is especially noted for his publications in English Renaissance drama and English Restoration drama; he was the first publi ...

John Martyn Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), known professionally as John Martyn, was a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums, and received frequent critical acclaim. ...

, and Richard Marriot; the printing was done by J. Macock. The three stationers had obtained the rights to previously-published works, and added 18 dramas to the 35 of the first folio, for a total of 53. The second folio added features that the first lacked. Many songs in the plays were given in full. Cast lists were prefixed to 25 of the dramas, lists that provide the names of the leading actors in the original productions of the plays. These lists can be informative on the companies involved and the dates of first productions; the cast list prefixed to ''

The Honest Man's Fortune ''The Honest Man's Fortune'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Nathan Field, John Fletcher, and Philip Massinger. It was apparently the earliest of the works produced by this trio of writers, the others being '' The Queen o ...

,'' for example, reveals that the play was originally staged by the

Lady Elizabeth's Men The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, afte ...

in the 1612–13 period. On the negative side, the texts in the second folio were set into type from the previously-printed quarto texts, and never from manuscript; the texts of the plays in the first collection were printed from manuscript sources.

Content, authorship, and canon

The implicit canon, nearly realized by the contents of the second folio, comprises dramatic works written by Beaumont or Fletcher; either alone, together, or in collaboration with other playwrights. By this rule, likely, four plays should be excluded (''The Laws of Candy'' by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

, ''Wit at Several Weapons'' by Middleton and Rowley, ''The Nice Valour'' by Middleton, and ''The Coronation'' by

), and three more extant plays should be included (''John van Olden Barnavelt'', ''A Very Woman'', and ''Henry VIII''). ''

A Very Woman ''A Very Woman, or The Prince of Tarent'' is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1655, fifteen and thirty years after the deaths of its authors. Date ...

'' was printed in a volume of Massinger's plays in 1655, while ''

John van Olden Barnavelt ''The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt'' is a Jacobean play written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger in 1619, and produced in the same year by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. Based on controversial contemporaneous political ev ...

'' remained in manuscript until the 19th century. ''Henry VIII'' was first published in the Shakespeare

of 1623. At least five plays, no longer extant, may also belong in the canon. Four of these were entered to Moseley in the

Stationers' Register The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including prin ...

between 1653 and 1660, possibly with the intent of printing them in the second folio: ''

Cardenio ''The History of Cardenio'', often referred to as simply ''Cardenio'', is a lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. The play is attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stati ...

'' (Shakespeare and Fletcher?), ''A Right Woman'' (Beaumont and Fletcher?), ''The Wandering Lovers'' (Fletcher?), and ''The Jeweler of Amsterdam'' (Fletcher, Field, and Massinger?). A fifth non-extant play, ''The Queen'' was questionably attributed to Fletcher by a contemporary. The folios contain two works that are generally thought to be the work of Beaumont alone – ''The Knight of the Burning Pestle'' and ''The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn'' – and fifteen that are solo efforts by Fletcher, and perhaps a dozen that are actual Beaumont/Fletcher collaborations. The rest are Fletcher's collaborations with Massinger and other writers. ;Notes * 1st Act — Year the play was first acted. Dates are approximate and, unless otherwise noted, follow Gurr. * 1st Pub — Year of first publication as given by Glover & Waller, unless otherwise noted. * Authorial attributions — Though there is general consensus, scholars still debate the exact contributions of authors. Unless otherwise noted, attributions are those of

Cyrus Hoy Cyrus Henry Hoy (February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2010) was an American literary scholar of the English Renaissance stage who taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and was the John B. Trevor Professor of English (emerit ...

Later editions

The folios limited but did not extinguish the market for individual editions of the plays; such editions were printed when the chances for profit seemed favourable. Humphrey Robinson and Alice Moseley (Humphrey Moseley's widow) issued a quarto of ''Beggar's Bush'' in 1661, for example. During the Restoration era and into the 18th century, the plays in the Beaumont/Fletcher canon were very popular – though they were often performed in adapted versions rather than in the originals; and the adaptations then appeared in print. An adaptation of ''The Island Princess'' was published in 1669; and adapted version of ''Monsieur Thomas'' was printed in 1678. ''Beggar's Bush'' became ''The Royal Merchant,'' published in 1706 – and later, ''The Merchant of Bruges.''Potter, p. 5. This trend in favour of new adaptations over original versions made it easier for Herringman, Martyn, and Mariot to obtain permissions to reprint those originals in their 1679 collection.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

''First Folio of 1647''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaumont And Fletcher Folios 1647 books 1679 books English Renaissance plays English dramatists and playwrights Bibliography Publishing