FRANCIS BEAUMONT AND JOHN FLETCHER. THE date of Philaster has not been determined exactly, though critics generally assign it to 1609 or 1610. In Davies' Scourge of Folly (1611) is an epigram referring to the play; and Dryden speaks of Philaster as "the first play that brought Fletcher and Beaumont in esteem.", Their joint efforts began probably in 1608. Such is the evidence, highly unsatisfactory, upon which the play is put in the years mentioned above. From the first performances at the Globe and later at the Bankside, Philaster has had a wide popularity. Many editions followed one another in rapid succession. In 1695 Elkanah Settle presented a changed version, the prologue and an epilogue having been added and the last two acts rewritten. Many revisions and editions have been offered, including a German translation by A. Seubert. Genest says the play was acted at Bath in 1817. Francis Beaumont was born at Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, 1585 (?), and died in London, March, 1616. He was of ancient family, long distinguished for legal acumen and poetic power. He was married and left two daughters, of whom Frances, the younger, tradition says, lost some of her father's poems at sea while crossing from Ireland. At the age of ten or eleven the poet entered Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford - the place |