Lives of British Dramatists (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846 edition. Excerpt: ...brought such noble Beaumonts forth, Whose brave heroic Muses might aspire To match the anthems of the heavenly quire: minds, was that each could boast even his very blood poetic. I have enumerated three cognate Fletcher poets, besides the dramatist; our British Parnassus numbers no less than five relatives of Beaumont, along with himself. These are, his elder brother, Sir John Beaumont, who wrote Bosworth Field, and much improved our rhyme couplet; John, a son of this Sir John, who lives upon his old reputation rather than his present; Francis Beaumont, master of the Charter-House, a cousin of the far-greater Francis; Dr. Joseph Beaumont, from whom Pope thought an author might steal wisely --an offset of this stock; and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose race and maiden name, Pierrepont, were those of Anne, our author s mother, and who attested her relationship by some fugitive pieces creditable enough at a time of mere wit, when England s Hippocrene was a dry well. We know there are castes of priests, husbandmen, soldiers, traders, and mechanics of all kinds in the East; but castes of poets are, I believe, rare even in that wonder-breeding land: no such castes occur to me as having existed in Great Britain at least since the days of the Druids, save those two just mentioned, the Fletcher and the Beaumont. Let me add another coincidence, though trivial, to complete a parallel which runs so far of itself; both our author s names are French, (Beau-Mont and Flechier, ) indicating a foreign extraction, --an extraction too that accords very well with the general gayety and levity of their genius. These verses are taken from Two Bookes of Epigrammes and Epitaphs, ...