John Beaumont

“ Joseph Beaumont was sprung from a collateral branch of the ancient family of the Beaumonts, that family from which sprung Sir John Beaumont, the author of 'Bosworth Field,' and Francis Beaumont, the celebrated dramatist. He was born at Hadleigh, in Suffolk. Of his early life nothing is known. He received his education at Cambridge, where, during the Civil War, he was fellow and tutor of Peterhouse. Ejected by the Republicans from his offices, he retired to Hadleigh, and spent his time in the com- position of his magnum opus, 'Psyche.' This poem appeared in 1648 ”

“ It is with some hesitancy, since the proof to me is not conclusive, that I suggest that the animus in this play against favourites and intelligencers has perhaps more of a personal flavour than has hitherto been suspected. An entry from the Docquet, calendared with the State Papers, Domestic, of November 14, 1607, may indicate that John Beaumont, the brother of Francis, though a Protestant, had in some way manifested sympathy with his Catholic relatives during the persecutions which followed the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot:—"Gift to Sir Jas. ”

“ For still your fancies are so wov'n and knit,
'Twas FRANCIS FLETCHER, or JOHN BEAUMONT writ.
Yet neither borrow'd, nor were so put to't
To call poore Godds and Goddesses to do't;
Nor made Nine Girles your Muses (you suppose
Women ne're write, save Love-Letters in prose)
But are your owne Inspirers, and have made
Such pow'rfull Sceanes, as when they please, invade.
Tour Plot, Sence, Language, All's so pure and fit,
Hee's Bold, not Valiant, dare dispute your Wit.
GEORGE LISLE Knight.
On Mr. JOHN FLETCHER'S Workes. ”

“ Beaumont said that she had taken infinite pains to reconcile Sir John to his fate, and his subsequent behaviour showed that she had succeeded. His attention towards her also plainly proved that he was not dissatisfied by the part she had acted, or rather by the part that he thought she had acted. Thus all things went on smoothly. Mrs. Beaumont, in confidence, told her friend, Miss Hunter, that Sir John had behaved with the greatest propriety and candour (candour! that hackneyed word) ”

“ On these identifications, see Fleay, Chron. Eng. Dr., I, 143-145; Elton, Michael Drayton, pp. 13, 58; Child, Michael Drayton (in Camb. Hist. Lit., IV, 197, et seq.) .
[25] Gardiner, Hist. Engl. 1603-1607, p. 87.
[26] Shaw's Knights of Engl., Vol. II, under dates.
[27] Grosart (D. N. B. art. John Beaumont) says that John had been admitted to the Inner Temple with Henry. John does not appear in Inderwick.
[46]
CHAPTER IV THE VAUX COUSINS AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
Certain political events of the years 1603 to 1606 must have occasioned the young Beaumonts intimate and poignant concern. ”

“ Beaumont, himself, as we shall see, married the heiress of Sundridge Place a mile and a half south of Chevening, and but forty minutes across the fields from Knole. His sister Elizabeth, too, married a gentleman of one of the neighbouring parishes. The acquaintance of both our dramatists with Bakers and Sackvilles was enhanced by sympathies literary and dramatic. A still younger Sir Richard Baker, cousin to John Fletcher's stepsisters, and to the second and third Earls of Dorset, was an historian, a poet, and a student of the stage—on familiar terms with Tarleton, Burbadge, and Alleyn. ”

“ Perhaps some dusky maiden in the west may yet steal the young man's heart away. What of Little Moon, the Ojibway chief's daughter, that he raved about in one of his letters? Pshaw! She would never suit Beaumont! Well! I like Major Morris with his English drawl, his bravery, his knee breeches, and his shade out of sunlight. And I like Dr. Beaumont with his passion, his Mon Dieu's, his life in the glorious west, and his controlled faithfulness. But by my faith, do I love either well enough for marriage? Ah, there's the rub, Maud Maxwell! ”

“ By this hand, wench,
I'll give thee a new hood for this.
Has she met with your Lordship?
John. Touch-wood take her.
Enter A [n] thony.
She's a rare ghostly Mother.
Ant. Below attends ye
The Gentlemans man, Sir, that was with you.
John. Well, Sir;
My time is come then; yet if my project hold,
You shall not stay behind; I'll rather trust
Enter Constantia.
A Cat with sweet milk, Frederick; by her face,
I feel her fears are working.
Const. Is there no way,
I do beseech ye think yet, to divert
This certain danger?
Fred. 'Tis impossible ”

“ If Beaumont's family had deliberately set about preparing him for his career of poet and dramatist, especially of dramatist who, with John Fletcher, should vividly reproduce the life, manners and conversation of young men of fashion about town, they could not have placed him in a community more favourable to [37] these ends than that of the Inns of Court. As the name itself implies the members were gentlemen of the Court of the King. They must be "sons to persons of quality"; they must be trained to the possibility of appearance before the King at any time ”

“ Beaumont was buried at Stone-Easton on 23 March 1730-1. He had married Dorothy, daughter of John Speccott, of Penheale, Egloskerry, Cornwall; and his wife's claim to the family estate involved Beaumont in a long and disastrous lawsuit. His other publications were: 1. 'Considerations on a Book entituled the Theory of the Earth, publisht by Dr. Burnet,' 4to, London, 1693. 2. Postscript to above, 4to, London, 1694. 3. 'The Present State of the Universe,' 4to, London, 1694. 4. 'Gleanings of Antiquities,' 8vo, London, 1724 (the third part of which contains additions to the 'Treatise of Spirits') . ”

“ Typographical corrections:
p. 17, "Holme-Pierpoint" to "Holme-Pierrepoint" (5) Holme-Pierrepoint is seventeen) p. 23, "Huntington" to "Huntingdon" (20) (Francis of Huntingdon) p. 62, "clerygyman" to "clergyman" (had been a clergyman) p. 68, "worldy" to "worldly" (Bishop's worldly estate) p. 118, "Aven" to "Avon" (2) (Stratford upon Avon) p. 164, "Beaument" to "Beaumont" (674) (John Beaumont never recalls) p. 345, "Gentleman" to "Gentlemen" (The Two Gentlemen of Verona) p. 445, "320" to "302" ("Woman is a Weather-Cocke," 87, 302-305) p. 444, "Kinsman" to "Kinsmen" (Two Noble Kinsmen, The) p. ”

“ When she has no priest in the [48] house she feels afraid; but the simple presence of a priest so animates her that then she makes sure that no devil has any power over her house." In the years that follow to 1605, the Vauxes are identified as recusants and as sympathizers with the untoward fortunes of Fathers Southwell, Walpole, Garnet, and others. In 1601, their kinsman and Frank Beaumont's, Henry Hastings, nephew to George, fourth Earl of Huntingdon, has joined the ranks and in 1602, we find him in a list of Jesuits "to be sought after" by the Earl of Salisbury,—"John Gerard with Mrs. ”

“ They stuffe their page with Godds, write worse then Men.
Thou was't thine owne Muse, and hadst such vast odds
Thou out-writ'st him whose verse made all those Godds:
Surpassing those our Dwarfish Age up reares,
As much as Greeks or Latines thee in yeares:
Thy Ocean Fancy knew nor Bankes nor Damms,
We ebbe downe dry to pebble-Anagrams;
Dead and insipid, all despairing sit
Lost to behold this great Relapse of Wit:
What strength remaines, is like that (wilde and fierce)
Till Johnson made good Poets and right Verse. ”

“ These licenses, in addition to the reckless inclusion in the 1640 volume of several poems by authors other than Beaumont, vitiate Blaiklock's evidence. On the other hand, the original publisher, Hodgets, was the publisher also, in 1607, of The Woman-Hater, a play now reasonably accepted as by Beaumont, originally alone; and, in Hodgets's edition of the Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, one of the introductory sonnets is signed J. B., and another W. B. The 'J. B.' sonnet is not unworthy of Beaumont's brother John. ”

“ One of the Fellows, John, afterwards Sir John, Fenner provides a messenger "to fetch Mr Beaumont," and advances 10li. "toward the mask business." Another, Lewis Hele is twice paid 70li. toward the same business. From Chamberlain's letter, we learn that the passage by water to Whitehall "cost them better than three hundred pound,"—from two thousand to twenty-four hundred pounds, in the money of to-day. From the records of the Societies for "the 10th of King James," we find that "the charge in apparell of the Actors in that great Mask at White-hall was supported" by each Society ”

“ Saviour's, and the records of "John Fletcher" marriages may, therefore, not involve the dramatist. But two items communicated to [220] Dyce [140] by Collier, "more in jest than in earnest," from the Parish-registers, are suggestive, if we reflect that, about 1612 or 1613, the ménage à trois, provided it continued so long, would have lapsed at the time of Beaumont's marriage; and if we can swallow the stage-fiction of Fletcher's "maid Joan" in Bury-Fair (see page 96 above) , whole and as something digestible.
These are Collier's cullings from the Registers ”

“ Two, full, Congeniall Soules; still Both prevail'd;
His Muse and Thine were Quarter'd not Impal'd:
_Both brought Your Ingots, Both toil'd at the Mint,
Beat, melted, sifted, till no drosse stuck in't,
Then in each Others scales weighed every graine,
Then smooth'd and burnish'd, then weigh'd all againe,
Stampt Both your Names upon't by one bold Hit,
Then, then'twas Coyne, as well as Bullion-Wit.
Thus Twinns: But as when Fate one Eye deprives,
That other strives to double which survives:
So_ BEAUMONT dy'd: yet left in Legacy
His Rules and Standard-wit (FLETCHER) to Thee. ”

“ RICH. CORBET. D.D. To Mr FRANCIS BEAUMONT (then living.)
How I doe love thee BEAUMONT, and thy Muse,
That unto me do'st such religion use!
How I doe feare my selfe, that am not worth
The least indulgent thought thy pen drops forth!
At once thou mak'st me happie, and unmak'st;
And giving largely to me, more thou tak'st.
What fate is mine, that so it selfe bereaves?
What art is thine, that so thy friend deceives?
When even there where most than praisest me,
For writing better, I must envy thee.
BEN: JOHNSON. Upon Master FLETCHERS Incomparable Playes. ”

“ Beaumont was ever acknowledged a man of a most strong and searching braine; and (his yeares considered) the most Judicious Wit these later Ages have produced; he dyed young, for (which was an invaluable losse to this Nation) he left the world when hee was not full thirty yeares old. Mr. Fletcher survived, and lived till almost fifty; whereof the World now enjoyes the benefit. ”

“ Nor is this violent, he steals upon The yeilding Soule untill the Phrensie's gone; His very Launcings do the Patient please, As when good Musicke cures a Mad Disease. Small Poets rifle Him, yet thinke it faire, Because they rob a man that well can spare; They feed upon him, owe him every bit, Th'are all but Sub-excisemen of his Wit.
J. M. On the Workes of Beaumont and Fletcher, now at length printed. ”

“ Ravish our spirits, that entranc't we see
None writes lov's passion in the world, like Thee.
ROB. HERRICK. On the happy Collection of Master FLETCHER'S Works, never before
PRINTED.
FLETCHER arise, Usurpers share thy Bayes,
They Canton thy vast Wit to build small Playes:
He comes! his Volume breaks through clowds and dust,
Downe, little Witts, Ye must refund, Ye must.
Nor comes he private, here's great BEAUMONT too,
How could one single World encompasse Two?
For these Co-heirs had equall power to teach
All that all Witts both can and cannot reach. ”

“ Gent. | The second Impression, corrected, and | amended. | London, | Printed for Thomas Walkley, and are to | be solde at his shoppe, at the signe of the | Eagle and Childe, in Brittaines Bursse. | 1622.
(C) Philaster, | or | Love lies a Bleeding. | Acted at the Globe, and Blackfriers. By his Majesties Servants. | The Authors being Francis Beaumont, and John Fletcher. | Gentlemen. | The third Impression. | London, | Printed by A.M. for Richard Hawkins, and are to | be sold at his Shop in Chancery-lane, adjoyning | to Sarjeants Inne gate. 1628.
(D) Philaster, | or | Love lies a Bleeding. ”

“ Two Noble Kinsmen, The, 5, 119, 237 Underwood, John, 342, 343 Upham, A. H., 90 Upon an Honest Man's Fortune, see Honest Man's Fortune Upon the Lines and Life of Shakespeare, Hugh Holland, 148 (Tragedy of) Valentinian, The, 6, 8, 211, 236, 287, 400, 410 Vanbrugh, Sir John, 188 Variorum Edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, 190, 217, 234, 271, 346, 367, 413, et passim Vaux, Anne, alias Mrs. Perkins, 46-59, passim, 164 Vaux, Eleanor, alias Mrs. Jennings, 46, 47, 57 Vaux, Mrs., Elizabeth Roper, 46-56, 138, 164 Vauxes, the, cousins of the dramatist, and the Gunpowder Plot, 46-61, 164f. ”

“ No, no, Monsieur, let us be right Frenchmen, violent to charge; but when our follies are repell'd by reason, 'tis fit that we retreat, and ne'er come on more: Observe my learned Charles, he'll get thee a Nephew on Angellina shall dispute in her belly, and suck the Nurse by Logick: and here's Eustace, he was an Ass, but now is grown an Amadis; nor shall he want a Wife, if all my Land, for a Joynture, can effect: Y'are a good Lord, and of a gentle nature, in your looks I see a kind consent, and it shews lovely: and do you hear, old Fool? ”

“ I come in time to take possession of th'Office you assign me; hold the door! alas, 'tis nothing for a simple man to stay without, when a deep understanding holds conference within, say with his Wife: a trifle, Sir. I know I hold my Farm by Cuckolds Tenure; you are Lord o'th' Soil, Sir. Lilly is a Weft, a stray, she's yours to use, Sir, I claim no interest in her.
Bri. Art thou serious? speak, honest Andrew, since thou hast o'erheard us, and wink at small faults, man; I'm but a pidlar, a little will serve my turn; thou'lt find enough when I've my belly full: Wilt thou be private and silent? ”