Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/312

 stands alone. Having introduced so much freedom into his blank verse, he was able to dispense almost entirely with the use of prose. Fletcher's verse, however, becomes monotonous, owing to his habit of pausing at the end of the line; and for tragic purposes it is wanting in solidity. His metrical peculiarities are of importance in helping us to distinguish his work from the work of his coadjutors.

The following fifteen plays may be confidently regarded as Fletcher's unaided compositions. ‘Wit without Money,’ 1639, 4to, was produced (as appears from a reference to the ‘dragons in Sussex,’ ii. 4) not earlier than August 1614. Langbaine says that he had often seen this comedy acted ‘at the Old House in little Lincoln's-Inn-Fields with very great applause.’ In the eighteenth century it was frequently performed at Covent Garden. ‘Bonduca,’ 1647, produced some time before Burbage's death (March 1618–19), presents in the person of Caratach a worthy portrait of a magnanimous soldier; and the frank, fearless boy Hengo, nephew of Caratach, is sketched with loving tenderness. An alteration of ‘Bonduca’ was produced and published in 1696; another, by the elder Colman, was acted at the Haymarket and published in 1778; a third, by J. R. Planché (entitled ‘Caractacus’), was performed at Drury Lane in 1837. ‘Valentinian,’ 1647, also produced before March 1618–19, displays to good effect Fletcher's command of dramatic rhetoric. It would be hard to overrate the delightful songs. A wretched alteration by the Earl of Rochester was printed in 1685. The ‘Loyal Subject,’ 1647, was licensed for the stage 16 Nov. 1618. Archas, the ‘loyal subject,’ in his submission (under the most severe provocations) to kingly authority, surpasses even Aecius in ‘Valentinian.’ The play was performed at Whitehall 10 Dec. 1633, and Sir Henry Herbert records that it was ‘very well likt by the king.’ The ‘Mad Lover,’ 1647, produced before March 1618–19, is a strangely grotesque piece of work, but it held the stage both before and after the Restoration. The ‘Humorous Lieutenant,’ 1647, is of uncertain date; but as Burbage's name is not found in the list of ‘principal actors,’ we may infer that the date of production is later than March 1618–19. In the Dyce Library is preserved a manuscript copy, dated 1625, with the title ‘Demetrius and Enanthe, a pleasant comedie, written by John Fletcher, Gent.,’ differing somewhat from the printed comedy; it was edited by Dyce in 1830. ‘Women Pleased,’ 1647, was probably produced about 1620. The most entertaining personage in this well-ordered play is the hungry serving-man, Penurio. Fletcher was indebted for his plot to three stories of Boccaccio's ‘Decameron,’ and to Chaucer's ‘Wif of Bathes Tale.’ From Sir Henry Herbert's ‘Office-Book’ it appears that three of Fletcher's plays were presented at court in 1621—the ‘Island Princess,’ 1647, the ‘Pilgrim,’ 1647, and the ‘Wildgoose-Chase,’ 1652. The first, which is of slender merit, was revived with alterations in 1669; again in 1687, with alterations by Nahum Tate; and in 1699 the play was turned into an opera by Motteux, the music being composed by Daniel Purcell, Clarke, and Leveridge. The ‘Pilgrim’ is of far more interest. Coleridge declared that ‘this play holds the first place in Beaumont and Fletcher's romantic entertainments’ (Remains, ii. 315). An alteration by Sir John Vanbrugh was published in 1700. When Humphrey Moseley brought out the folio of 1647 he was unable to obtain a copy of the ‘Wildgoose-Chase.’ This brilliant comedy was first published in 1652, 4to, ‘Retriv'd for the publick delight of all the Ingenious; and private Benefit of John Lowin and Joseph Taylor, servants to His Late Majestie. By a Person of Honour.’ In a dedicatory epistle Lowin and Taylor observe: ‘The play was of so general a received acceptance that, he himself a spectator, we have known him unconcerned, and to have wished it had been none of his; he, as well as the thronged theatre (in despite of his innate modesty), applauding this rare issue of his brain.’ Commendatory verses by Richard Lovelace and others follow the epistle. The first four acts of Farquhar's ‘Inconstant,’ 1702, are taken from the ‘Wildgoose-Chase.’ ‘Monsieur Thomas,’ probably one of the later works, was first published in 1639, with a dedicatory epistle by Richard Brome to Charles Cotton the elder, and with a copy of verses by Brome in Fletcher's praise. D'Urfey's ‘Trick for Trick,’ 1678, is little more than a revival of ‘Monsieur Thomas.’ The ‘Woman's Prize,’ 1647, was described by Sir Henry Herbert as ‘an ould play’ in 1633. ‘Upon complaints of foule and offensive matters conteyned therein’ he suppressed the performance on 19 Oct. 1633. The players brought the manuscript to him the next day for revision, and he returned it to them, ‘purgd of oathes, prophaness, and ribaldrye,’ on 21 Oct. It was acted before the king and queen 28 Nov., and was ‘very well likt.’ Fletcher wrote the ‘Woman's Prize’ to serve as a sequel to the ‘Taming of the Shrew;’ he lays the scene in England, and represents Petruchio in complete subjection to his second wife, Maria. ‘A Wife for a Month,’ 1647, was licensed by