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The 1640 Poems: By Francis Beaumont, Gent. (hereafter 40) and the augmented second edition of 1653 (hereafter 53) specifically attribute 47 poems to Beaumont, only eight of which are found attributed to him elsewhere, so these two volumes are the sole authorities for his authorship of 39 nondramatic poems totalling 2,026 lines. Since the first edition of this collection did not appear until 24 years, and the second edition not until 37 years after Beaumont's death, the reliability of the publishers and the authenticity of their attributions of authorship require examination.
The first modern editor of Beaumont's poems, Alexander Chalmers, The Works of the English Poets, VI (1810), 173-221, reprinted the entire contents of 53 except the two poems attributed there to Randolph and Cleveland, contenting himself with the cautious observation that the publisher of that edition had "mixed, with Beaumont's, several pieces that belong to other authors." Henry Weber, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, XIV (1812), 345-447, printed as Beaumont's only 15 of the poems in 40 and only 14 of those added in 53. Alexander Dyce, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, XI (1846), 439-513, printed as Beaumont's only 12 of the poems in 40 (Nos. 2, 6-9, 12, 14-17, 19, and 23), only four of the poems added in 53 ("Stand still," "Mortality behold," "The sun," and "Since thou"), and six from other sources (four commendatory poems to plays of Fletcher and Jonson, and two poems on the Countess of Rutland—"Madam so may" and "I may forget") for a total of 22. Dyce's edition still remains standard for the poems and his canon has been accepted by Peter Beal, Index of English Literary Manuscripts Volume I 1450-1625, Part I (1980), 67-79, except for the rejection of three poems (Nos. 19 and 23 in 40 and "Mortality behold" in 53) and the addition of three new poems ("Good Madam Fowler," "Neither to follow," and "Why should not," his Nos. BmF 117-132, 137-140, and 144-150).
Francis Beaumont was a gentleman, the son of a judge of the court of common pleas and a student at Oxford and the Inner Temple who later married an heiress of a county family. He shared with the other gentlemen of his time their aversion to having their writings printed and probably wrote his plays and poems for the pleasure it afforded him rather than to make money. In 1613 he wrote The Maske of the Inner Temple and Grayes Inn to celebrate the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, which was printed with two copies having "By Francis Beaumont Gent." on the title page, but with the remaining extant copies having a cancel title of the same setting of type from which his name has been removed (Fredson Bowers, The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon, I (1966), 113).
Aside from The Maske, only three of the plays in which he had a hand appeared in print during his lifetime: The Woman Hater, 1607, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1613, and Cupids Revenge, 1615. The first two of these appeared anonymously and the third under the name of John Fletcher alone. He made no effort to establish his reputation as a playwright or poet in print, and indeed took pains to avoid having his works published under his own name. The only writings whose publication he authorized, other than The Maske, were four commendatory poems for plays of personal friends: Jonson's Volpone, 1607, Fletcher's The Faithfull Shepheardesse, 1610?, Jonson's Epicœne (entered 1610 but not printed until 1620), and Catiline, 1611. These commendatory verses were signed with his name; no manuscript copies survive.
Aside from these commendatory verses and the poems in 40 and 53, only three poems circulated with Beaumont's name attached in prints or manuscripts of the seventeenth century, and only three others with his initials. I discuss these below.
[A] I may forget to eat, to drinke, to sleepe. 116 or 118 lines in couplets. First printed as anonymous, "An Elegie on the Death of the Lady Rutland," in the ninth impression of Sir Thomas Ouerbury His Wife, 1616, A5v—6v (STC 18911), reprinted by Dyce (XI, 507-511) from the 1622 edition of Overbury (STC 18913), and listed by Beal (No. 27-55). Elizabeth, the only child of Sir Philip Sidney, married Roger fifth Earl of Rutland and died without issue 1 September 1612. Both Ben Jonson in his Conversations with Drummond (Herford and Simpson Works, I, 158) and John Earle in his lines on the death of Beaumont (40, K1) report that he wrote an elegy on the Countess of Rutland. Among the manuscripts I have seen, the lines are attributed to Beaumont by name in three (Bodl. Rawl poet 160 f. 41v, Brit. Lib. Stowe 962 f. 42v, and Trinity College Dublin 877 f. 257), by initials in four (Bodl. Eng. poet. e. 37 p. 38, Brit. Lib. Add. 23229 f. 63 and Harley 6038 f. 23v, Edinburgh Univ. Lib. La. III. 493, f. 109v), to I. D. in two (Bodl. Eng. poet. f. 9 p. 143 and Harvard fMS Eng 986.1 f. 47v); and are anonymous in four (Bodl. Douce f. 5 f. 35v and Rawl. poet. 117 f. 184 rev, Brit. Lib. Egerton 2230 f. 6v and Harley 1221 f. 27). Beal does not indicate whether or not his additional texts (Nos. 32, 39-40, 42-43, 45-52, and 54-55) are attributed.
[B] Madam so may my verses pleasing be. 70 lines in couplets. First printed as "An Elegie [sic] by F. B." beginning "So Madam . . ." and subscribed "Fr. Beau:" in [Henry Fitzgeffray's] Certain Elegies. Done by Sundrie Excellent Wits, 1618, A2-3 (STC 10945.3). A different text was printed as anonymous, "Ad Comitissam Rutlandiae," in the eleventh impression of Sir Thomas Ouerbury His Wife, 1622, C4-5 (STC 18913), followed by [A] above. Printed by Dyce (XI, 505-507) from Overbury's 1622 Wife, and listed by Beal (Nos. 1-26). In the manuscripts I have seen, it is subscribed "Fra. Be." in Brit. Lib. Add. 25303 f. 103v, "Fr. B." in Harley 3910 f. 16v, "F. B." in Brit. Lib. Add. 25707 f. 9v, Harley 6038 f. 25, and Stowe 962 f. 89 (from 1622 Overbury); it is headed "fletcher: to ye Countess of Rutland" in Huntington HM 198 Part I f. 205; and is anonymous in Bodl. Don. b. 9 f. 7v, Eng. poet. c. 53 f. 13v, and Rawl poet. 31 f. 39; Brit. Lib. Egerton 2230 f. 9v, Harley 1221 f. 80, and Sloane 1446 f. 74; and Huntington HM 198 Part II f. 114v. Beal does not indicate whether or not his additional texts (Nos. 11, 14-17, 20-25) are attributed.
[C] Good Madam Fowler, do not trouble me. 18 lines in couplets. First printed by A. B. Grosart, Englische Studien, 36 (1899), 8 from Trinity College Dublin 877 (G. 2. 21) pp. 442-443, headed "On Madam Fowler desiring a sonnet to be writ on her" and subscribed "Francis Beaumont." Not mentioned by Dyce; listed by Beal (Nos. 117-132) who reports that it is ascribed to Francis Beaumont in six MSS (Brit. Lib. Add. 33998 f. 71, Egerton 2026 f. 67 ("F. Beo."), and Harley 6993 f. 70; Rosenbach Foundation 243/4 p. 13; Trinity College Dublin 877 f. 234v; and Yale Osborn Collection b 200 p. 218); to F. B. in three (Bodl. Eng. poet. e. 37 p. 29; Huntington HM 198 Part II f. 11; and Yale Osborn Collection b 148 p. 133); and is anonymous in seven (Bodl. Eng. poet. f. 9 p. 137 and Rawl. poet. 31 f. 48v; Brit. Lib. Add. 22603 f. 8, Harley
Three other poems have been attributed to Beaumont on the basis of initials only, an uncertain identification because more than two dozen STC authors have the initials F. B.
[D] My new-borne Muse assaies her tender wing. Six lines in couplets. A commendatory poem before the anonymous The Metamorphosis of Tabacco, 1602, A4v (STC 1695), headed "In laudem Authoris" and subscribed "F. B." Dyce noted that "the late G. Chalmers had a copy . . . on the title-page of which was written in a contemporary hand 'by John Beaumont'" (I, xiii note p). On the basis of Dyce's note, A. B. Grosart accepted the authorship of Sir John and asserted that the initials F. B. "unquestionably belong to his brother the Dramatist" (The Poems of Sir John Beaumont. Bart., 1869, p. xxvi). The hand-written note "by John Beaumont" does not occur in any of the seven extant copies of the Metamorphoses, and Roger Sell points out that it is not at all the kind of poem that the seriously moral Sir John is otherwise known to have written (N&Q, 117 [Jan. 1972], 10-13), and neither is it included in the collected edition of his verse, Bosworth-field, edited by his son in 1629. Not listed by Beal. If the Metamorphosis was not written by the nineteen-year old John Beaumont, no reason remains to equate the initials "F.B." with his seventeen-year old brother Francis.
[E] Neither to follow fashion nor to showe. 44 lines in couplets. Headed "To Mr B: J:" and subscribed "FB" in Pierpont Morgan Library MA 1057, p. 110, printed by E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, II (1930), 222-225. Headed "To Ben Ionson. T. B." in Brit. Lib. Add. 30982 f. 75v, anonymous in Folger V. a. 96 f. 71v and Huntington HM 198 Part II f. 116. Not mentioned by Dyce; listed by Beal (BmF 137-140). Chambers said: "In view of the variant initials, one cannot be quite sure of the author. But I see no reason why it should not be Francis Beaumont, who wrote another well-known verse epistle to Jonson, and to whom the theatrical allusions in ll. 28, 30 would be natural." He dates the composition 1615. The attribution must remain doubtful.
[F] Why should not Pilgrims to thy body come. 26 lines in couplets. First printed from Bodl. Eng. poet. e. 37 p. 30 by John Wardroper, Love and Drollery, 1969, No. 213. Not mentioned by Dyce; Beal lists seven MSS (BmF 144-150). Four are subscribed "F. B." (Bodl. Eng. poet. e. 37 p. 30 and Eng. poet. f. 9 p. 207, Harvard Eng. 966.7 f. 16, and Yale Osborn Collection b 148 p. 150); one is subscribed "I. D." (Brit. Lib. Add. 25707 f. 60v); one is doubtful, because the following leaf containing the last 13 lines is lacking (Trinity College Dublin 877 p. 443); and one is anonymous (Morgan MA 1057 p. 64). Attribution by initials only is hazardous.
It is clear from the above that, aside from The Maske of the Inner Temple and Grayes Inn and the poems in 40 and 53, seventeenth-century readers could have known only five poems attributed to Beaumont in print between
Only four of the 17 poems attributed to Beaumont in 40 are attributed to him elsewhere (Nos. 2, 6, 7, and 9), and only four of the 109 items added in 53 (The Maske G6—M1v and the letter to Jonson "The sun" L5v—6v in earlier prints, and "Since thou" and "Stand still" F2-3v in manuscript). This leaves 40 and 53 as the sole authorities for attributing 31 poems to Beaumont. In what follows I examine seriatim the contents of each volume and assess the authenticity of their attributions.
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