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The 1640 and 1653 Poems: By
Francis Beaumont, Gent. and the Canon of
Beaumont's Nondramatic Verse
by
William A. Ringler,
Jr.
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.
The 1640 Volume
The title page of 40 (STC 1665) reads: "POEMS: | BY | FRANCIS BEAUMONT, | Gent. | Viz. | The Hermaphrodite. | The Remedie of Love. | Elegies. | Sonnets, with other Poems. | — | LONDON, | Printed by Richard Hodgkinson for W[illiam]. W[ethered]. | and Laurence Blaikelocke and are | to be sold at the signe of the | Sugar-loafe next Temple | Bar in Fleet-street. | 1640." It contains 40 leaves, A—K4. This volume was produced by a small but established printer and two young men who were just beginning their careers as publishers. Richard Hodgkinson, the printer, usually printed one or two books a year between 1630 and 1663, and never more than seven, except that in 1640 he was unusually active and produced eighteen volumes.
Laurence Blaikelocke, the principal publisher, took up his freedom in 1638 and published at premises near Temple Bar until 1654. He published two books in 1639 and four in 1640. On 2 September 1639 he entered on the Stationers' Register "a Booke called Salmacis and Hermaphroditus or the Hermaphrodite, a Poem, by ffrancis Beomont" (Arber, IV, 474), for which he had obtained a license on 31 August (see imprimatur on E4). William Wethered took up his freedom in 1637 and his name occurs in the Stationers' Register until 1646, but the only extant volume with which he is definitely associated as publisher is the 1640 Beaumont poems (see A Dictionary of Printers by McKerrow, 1910, and Plomer, 1907, and Morrison's Index of Printers, 1961 and 1955). On 7 October 1639 he entered in the Stationers' Register "Poems by ffrancis Beomont. gent. viztt. Remedium Amoris. The Passion of Christ with diuers Elegies. Also a Poem against stargaizers &c by Master John ffletcher," for which he paid sixpence, the entry fee for a single volume (Arber, IV, 482).
In order to forward their newly begun businesses both Blaikelocke and Wethered were evidently on the lookout for old texts by popular authors that they could persuade the wardens of the Stationers' Company were unassigned. Actually Salmacis and Hermaphroditus had previously been published by John Hodgets in 1602, but it had not been entered in the Stationers' Register. The Passion of Christ may have been an otherwise unknown poem,
The volume resulting from the Stationers' Register entries by Blaikelocke and Wethered appears to have been set in type piecemeal and to have undergone three or four changes in content during the course of composition. Blaikelocke evidently had at first intended to publish only Salmacis and Hermaphroditus under Beaumont's name, and his volume of five quarto gatherings was probably already in type and perhaps printed, with the imprimatur on E4 (E4v is blank), when he joined forces with Wethered. The Remedie of Love was then added on F1-H2 and the word "FINIS" placed at the end of the text on H2. At this point the decision was probably made to add another group of poems, so the catchword "AN" was placed at the bottom of H2 and "An Elegie on the Ladie Markham" and ten other poems, the last two being in commendation of Beaumont, were set in type on H2v—K2. As this left two leaves of the final gathering blank, two more poems (Nos. 22-23) were added to fill the blank pages. Later in the course of printing, the word "FINIS" was removed from H2, with the result that some of the surviving copies (Bodleian Ashmole 1663 and Malone 784, Harvard Britwell, Huntington) appear with and some (Harvard, Morgan, Newberry) without it.
Blaikelocke was clearly the leading spirit in the enterprise. He signed the dedication, with the statement that the "Poems" (note the plural) were "the issue of brave Beaumonts braine," his Salmaces [sic] and Hermaphroditus appears first in the volume, and only the address of his place of business is given on the title page. Later he was probably solely responsible for the augmented second edition of 1653. The second major poem in the 1640 volume, The Remedie of Love, had been entered and attributed to Beaumont by Wethered. It is impossible to determine which of the two publishers of 40 was responsible for adding the remaining poems on H2v—K4; the first eleven may have been the "diuers Elegies" that Wethered entered, though it is also possible that they had been collected and attributed to Beaumont by Blaikelocke. Of the 23 poems in the 1640 edition, six (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 20, 21) are Blaikelocke's dedication and commendatory poems attributed in the text to other authors; the remaining 17 items the title page implies and Blaikelocke in his prefatory poem asserts are by Francis Beaumont. In what follows I set forth the evidence for the authorship of each of the poems in 40. All of them, except No. 13, were reprinted in 53, A1-4v, and B1-E3v, with the same attributions.
- [1] WEre these but worthlesse Poems or light Rimes. A2r—v. 24 lines in couplets. Headed "To the worshipfull Robert Ducie . . ." and subscribed "Laurence Blaikelocke." The publisher's dedication, readdressed to "Robert Parkhurst Esq" in 53.
- Nos. 2-7 were printed, with some changes, from the anonymous Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, printed at London [by Simon Stafford] for Iohn Hodgets, 1602 (STC 18972—hereafter O2).
- [2] IT is a statute in deep wisdoms lore. A3. 14-line sonnet. Headed "To the true Patronesse of all Poetrie, Caliope" and subscribed "F.B." Not subscribed in O2.
- [3] LIke to the weake estate of a poore friend. A3v. 14-line sonnet. "In laudem Authoris," subscribed W. B. as in O2.
- [4] EIther the goddesse drawes her troopes of loves. A3v. 14-line sonnet. "To the Authour," subscribed J. B. as in O2.
- [5] THe matchlesse lust of a faire poesie. A4. Three sixains. "To the Author," subscribed J. F. (A. F. in O2, which reads "The matchlesse Lustre of faire poesie.")
- [6] I Sing the fortune of a lucklesse paire. A4v. Ten lines ababcdcdee. "The Author to the Reader," unsubscribed as in O2.
- [7] MY wanton lines doe treat of amorous love. B1-E3v. 920 lines in couplets. (922 lines in O2). "Salmaces & Hermaphroditus, or The Hermaphrodite."
Dyce printed Nos. 2-7 from 40 (XI, 443-471) because he did not have access to O2; Beal listed Nos. 2, 6, and 7 (BmF 133-136). J. Payne Collier, The Works of Shakespeare, I (1844), cxvi note 3, was the first to note that Nos. 2-7 were reprinted from O2. He called 40 a "fraudulent reprint" and did not accept the attribution to Beaumont because in 1602 "Beaumont was only sixteen [actually seventeen], and the first edition has no name nor initials to the address 'To Calliope,' to which Blaickelocke in 1640, for his own book-selling purpose, thought fit to add the letters F. B. In the same way, he changed the initials to a commendatory poem from A. F. to I. F., in order to make it appear as if John Fletcher had applauded his friend's early verses." Dyce commented, "Mr. Collier may be right; but my own impression is, that it really was the production of Beaumont's youth," and printed Nos. 2-7 from 40.
The next year an editor signing himself "Dramaticus" reprinted the entire text of the Bodleian copy of O2 (then thought unique) in Shakespeare Society Papers, III (1847), 98-126. He noted the addition of the initials "F. B." to the author's address to Calliope, the change of "A. F." to "I. F." after a commendatory poem, and that "the name of Francis Beaumont no where appears," and so concluded that, "without going to the extent of asserting positively that he had no hand whatever in it, it may be strongly doubted whether Blaiklock did not impute it to him fraudulently, in order to avail himself of the popularity of Beaumont's name" (p. 94).
Since 1847 the O2 text of Salmacis has been three times reprinted: by Gwyn Jones, Golden Cockerel Press, 1951; by Elizabeth Story Donno in Elizabethan Minor Epics, 1963; and by Nigel Alexander in Elizabethan Narrative Verse, 1967. Jones considered the attribution to Beaumont "unproved and unconvincing" (p. 7), Donno merely observed that it was attributed to Beaumont in 40, and Alexander apparently accepted the attribution but without explanation. Hallet Smith, Elizabethan Poetry, 1952, p. 70 note 20, accepted the argument of "Dramaticus" and concluded that the authorship "remains unknown."
O2 was not entered on the Stationers' Register and has no author's name
40, A3-E3v, has the same contents in the same order as O2 and is clearly a direct reprint, though carelessly done. It has at least 40 typographical errors, and more than 60 other deliberate changes from O2 in its text. Some I believe are proper emendations (as the four listed above), but many are arbitrary substitutions that neither change nor improve the meaning (4.8 "faire" for "fine", 7.6 "These" for "The", 53 "and 'twas" for "that was", etc.). Some deliberately change the phrasing where that of O2 appears perfectly satisfactory (5.10 "more rare invention" for "more mouing passion", 7.32 "could not choose but kisse" for "did of purpose kisse", etc.). Others are emendations that betray a lack of understanding of the text. Thus at 7.176 where O2 has "entred" 40 reads "entring", which destroys the grammatical structure of the sentence; and 40 omits lines 373-374 of O2.
But despite these editorial changes, there are numerous direct textual links between O2 and 40 which show that an annotated copy of O2 itself was the printer's copy for 40. Thus though the compositor of 40 imposed his own patterns of accidentals on his copy and gave it a more modern appearance, a few older or unusual spellings reappear in 40, as 3.10 "Epithites", 7.169 "promooters," and 577 "Mayre-maids" (O2 "Mair-maids"). Of more significance are the duplication of typographical peculiarities, such as the failure to italicize the second proper name in 7.110 "Pelion . . . mighty Osse"; or 40 being led astray by the typographical error at 7.647, where O2 reads "let my sport be sto'ne" and 40, failing to see that "sto'ne" was a typographical error for "stol'n", rewrote the passage as "let her name be known."
There are four manuscript copies of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus of the second quarter of the seventeenth century or later, all of which derive directly or indirectly from one or other of the prints. Cambridge University Library Mm. 4. 13 was copied directly from O2, as shown by close agreement in readings, and is anonymous like its original. Brit. Lib. Add. 33988, ff. 16-29v, transcribed after 1647, is headed "Salmacis and Hermaphroditus a Poem written by ffrancis Beaumont"; but it was copied directly from 40, as shown by its omission of lines 373-374 and numerous other agreements in error, so its attribution has no independent value.
The two remaining manuscripts, Kent Archives Office U1121 Z14 and Bodl. Rawl. poet. 120, ff. 92-122, share over a hundred peculiar readings, many of them manifest errors (3.5 "muse", 4.7 "watry Nymphs", 5.3 "raisinge maiesty", 7.63 "Vp to", 74 "clearer grace", 78 "Queene of", 99 "sides there", etc.), and omissions (7.285-286, 817, 819-821), which show that they descend from an exclusive common ancestor (X). That X was a direct transcript of O2 is shown by both manuscripts having the five preliminary poems subscribed
Kent Archives Office U1121 Z14, a separate manuscript of 14 leaves, first noticed by Beal (I thank Mr. D. C. Gibson for further information and a xerox), is a moderately accurate text which omits 16 lines, repeats eight (notably 7.665-666 after 854), and has at the end, "finis / FRANCIS BEAMONT." Bodl. Rawl. poet. 120, ff. 91-122, was originally a separate manuscript of 32 leaves, carelessly transcribed with the omission of 64 scattered lines and the repetition of nine others. Prior to its being bound with three other manuscripts, the first and last probably damaged leaves were discarded and a substitute final leaf of different paper stock was added. On the recto of this was written, in different ink by a different but not much later hand, the last eight lines of Salmacis with the subscription, "Finis / Francis Beaumont / 1634." The most reasonable inference would seem to be that the second scribe drew his text and subscription from the damaged last leaf of the original he replaced or from X, and that X and probably the Rawlinson original had been transcribed in 1634.
The attribution to Beaumont in both these manuscripts must come from X, which was a transcript, probably made in 1634, of the anonymous O2. Since the attribution was not in X's original, it must have been added by X's scribe, who wrote after Beaumont's death. Since X's attribution is late and from an unknown source, it provides only doubtful corroboration of the suspect testimony of 40. G. C. Macaulay, Francis Beaumont a Critical Study (1883), 197-200, rejected the attribution of Salmacis to Beaumont because "it is so entirely different in character from his other works." C. M. Gayley, Beaumont the Dramatist (1914), 41, accepted the attribution because, "Both diction and verse display characteristics not foreign to Beaumont's heroic couplets in epistle and elegy, nor to the blank verse of his dramas,—though they do not markedly distinguish them." Philip J. Finkelpearl (N&Q, October 1969, pp. 367-368) pointed out parallels between Salmacis and The Metamorphosis of Tabacco, dubiously attributed to Francis's brother John, as evidence that the two brothers were acquainted with each other's work, parallels which Roger Sell (N&Q, January 1972, p. 11) brands as "all classical allusions of the kind which are the stock-in-trade of the Ovidian poet," and so of no probative value as evidence of acquaintance. Impressions vary, stylistic criteria are uncertain. Cyrus Hoy ("The Shares of Fletcher and his Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon III," SB, 11 [1958], 87) concluded that it is "quite impossible to establish for Beaumont a neat pattern of linguistic preferences that will serve as a guide to identifying his work." So we must depend primarily upon external evidence, which in this case is uncertain.
[8] WHen Cupid read this Title, straight he said. 580 lines in couplets. F1-H2.
"THE REMEDIE OF LOVE." An apparently unique text, entered and attributed to Beaumont by Wethered on 7 October 1639. Printed by Dyce (XI, 446-471); not listed by Beal because no manuscript could be found. This is in part a metaphrase but in the main an original rehandling of the material of Ovid's Remedia Amoris. Ovid's poem was translated or paraphrased several times in the early seventeenth century. One version by F. L. was printed in 1600 (STC 18794), another by Sir Thomas Overbury in 1620 (STC 18975), and a third by J. Carpenter in 1636 (STC 18976). Thomas Heywood said he had translated the entire work, but only the few lines he quoted in Troia Britannica, 1609, survive (STC 13366). All four of these texts differ markedly from the one printed here, and Wethered remains the only known authority for attributing it to Beaumont.
[9] AS unthrifts groan in straw for their pawn'd beds. 68 or 70 lines in couplets.
First printed with the heading "An Elegie on the Lady Markham" in 40, H2v-3v. Reprinted by Dyce (XI, 503-505) and listed by Beal (56-83). This exercise of wit in the form of an elegy on the friend and relative of Lucy Countess of Bedford, the widowed Bridget Markham who died at Twickenham on 4 May 1609 and on whom Donne also wrote an elegy, is attributed by name to Beaumont in Brit. Lib. Add 30982 f. 50, Stowe 962 f. 82v, and Huntington HM 198 Part I p. 11, and by initials in Bodl. Ashmole 38 f. 77 and Brit. Lib. Add. 25707 f. 30v. It is attributed to I. D. in Bodl. Eng. poet f. 9 p. 199 and Harvard Eng. 966.1 f. 48, to A. P. (the scribe) in Brit. Lib. Stowe 962 f. 19, and is anonymous in Brit. Lib. Add. 23229 f. 66v (from 40), Egerton 2230 f. 3v, and Sloane 1446 f. 72v, Bodl. Rawl. poet. 117 f. 193, and Rawl. poet. 160 f. 27v, and the Digby MS printed in N&Q 3 (1851), 367 (lines 49-70 only). Beal does not indicate whether or not his added Nos. 60, 68-70, 70.5, 71, and 73-82 are attributed. This is the only poem in 40 whose attribution to Beaumont is adequately substantiated from other sources.
[10] CAn my poore lines no better office have. 20 lines in couplets. H4.
"AN ELEGIE." Chalmers (VI, 184) observed that "these lines are part of Sir John Beaumont's Elegy on the lady Marquesse of Winchester [d. Oct. 1614] inserted here probably from an oversight of the editor." Sir John was Francis's elder brother; the verses printed by 40 are lines 1-18 with a new concluding couplet of a 100-line poem "Of the truly Noble and Excellent Lady, the Lady Marquesse of Winchester," in Sir John's posthumously published Bosworth-field, 1629, L8-M1v. Since 40 contains verbal variants in eight of its first 18 lines, its text probably derives from a now untraced manuscript rather than directly from the 1629 print. Rejected by Dyce and not listed by Beal.
[11] SLeepe, old man, let silence charme thee. 24 lines a4b3a4b3 trochaic. H4v.
"A Charme." J. P. Collier, A Catalogue . . . of the Library at Bridge-water House, 1837, pp. 26-27, listed a copy of 40 inscribed, "For the Right Hoble John Earle of Bridgwater my much Honourd Lord from his Lordes most humblest servant Henry Lawes," in which after this poem the same hand has
[12] FOndly, too curious Nature, to adorne. 32 lines in couplets. I1r-v.
"On the Marriage of a Beauteous young Gentlewoman, with an Ancient man." An apparently unique text. Printed as doubtfully Beaumont's by Dyce (XI, 488-489). Not listed by Beal because he found no manuscript.
[13] CAtch me a Starre, that's falling from the Sky. 8 lines in couplets. I1v.
"Womans Mutability." This poem is similar in subject to Donne's "Go and catch a falling star." A variant text, titled "On womans inconstancy" and beginning "Goe catch a star," was printed in Wits Recreations, 1640, E3, and 1641, D7, all of whose items are anonymous. The 40 text with a musical setting by John Playford was printed in his Select Ayres and Dialogues, 1659, D2. There are seven anonymous manuscript texts varying greatly in wording and even in order of lines: Bodl. Ashmole 47 f. 36, Malone 21 f. 45v, Rawl poet f. 8; Brit. Lib. Add. 30982 f. 26, Sloane 1867 f. 24 (from Wits Recreaations), Stowe 962 f. 31v; Corpus Christi College Oxford 328 f. 19. In an eighth manuscript, Brit. Lib. Harley 6057 f. 15, the lines are subscribed "Iohn Dunne," but since the text of this was copied directly from the anonymous 1640 or 1641 Wits Recreations the ascription can have little authority. This is the only poem in 40 that was not reprinted in 53, and its variant was also unaccountably omitted from the 1645 and later editions of Wits Recreations. Omitted by Dyce without comment and not listed by Beal.
[14] COld vertue guard me, or I shall endure. 34 lines in couplets. I2r-v.
"The Glance." A slightly variant text, headed "On A Ladies Tempting Eye" and subscribed "Iohn: Rutter:" is in Brit. Lib. Harley 6917 f. 45, transcribed about the middle of the seventeenth century. The DNB identifies this John with Joseph Rutter, whose only published work is a play, The Shepheards Holy-Day, 1635, which does not contain this poem. Printed as doubtful by
[15] FLattering hope, away, and leave me. 30 lines aabbcC8. I2v-3.
"A Sonnet." An apparently unique text. Dyce (XI, 490-491) prints as doubtful. Not listed by Beal because he found no manuscript.
[16] MAy I finde a woman faire. 20 lines aabb8. I3.
"True Beauty." An identical anonymous text with the same title is in Wits Recreations, 1645, T7v, and later editions. Since the editor of the 1645 Wits Recreations also corrected its text of No. 23 by reference to 40, it is clear that he took his text of No. 16 from the same source. An anonymous text in the late seventeenth-century Brit. Mus. Harley 3991 f. 138 was copied from 53. Printed as doubtful by Dyce (XI, 491), and listed by Beal (BmF 141-143) who adds Folger V. A. 308 f. 138 and New York Public Library, Music Division Drexel 4257 No. 195 but does not indicate whether they are attributed.
[17] NEver more will I protest. 18 lines aabbcc8. I3v.
"The Indifferent." Another probably substantive text, transcribed by William Elyott c. 1655, is anonymous in Bodl. Rawl. poet. 116 f. 53v; an anonymous text in the late seventeenth-century Brit. Mus. Harley 3991 f. 131v was copied from 53. Printed as doubtful by Dyce (XI, 492) and listed by Beal (BmF 97-99) who adds New York Public Library, Music Division, Drexel 4257 No. 36 but does not indicate whether it is attributed.
[18] WHy should man be only ty'd. 30 lines ababcC7 trochaic. I4.
"Loves freedome." Henry Lawes, in the copy of 40 now in the Huntington Library (see above under No. 11), and reported by Collier in the Bridge-water Catalogue, wrote at the end of this poem, "H. H: this Songe was made by Henry Harrington & set by Henry Lawes 1636." The text and musical setting is in Lawes's manuscript collection of his own compositions, Brit. Lib. Add. 53723 f. 33v No. 67. An anonymous text in the late seventeenth-century Brit. Lib. MS Harley 3991 f. 135v, was copied from 53. Rejected by Dyce (XI, 442) on the basis of Collier's report, and by Beal (pp. 67-68) who adds another presumably anonymous text in Harvard MS Eng. 628, pp. 335-336.
[19] LIke to the falling of a Starre. 12 lines in tetrameter couplets. I4v.
"On the Life of Man." George Ellis, in the third edition of his Specimens of the Early English Poets, III (1803), 69, printed the 40 text as Beaumont's but noted, "This is also contained in Bishop King's Poems, 1657." It is printed on K5 of the anonymously published Poems Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonnets of Henry King with the title "Sic Vita." Dyce (XI, 492-493) was uncertain of the validity of the attribution to King and printed it as doubtfully Beaumont's. Miss Margaret Crum, Poems of Henry King, 1965, p. 255, demonstrates that it is unquestionably King's. It is preserved in seven manuscripts (see Miss Crum's list, p. 148) the evidence of three of which is decisive for the canon of King. Beal (p. 67) attributes it to King. 40 is the earliest print.
[20] HE that had Youth, and Friends, and so much Wlt [sic]. 6 lines in couplets. H4v.
"On Francis Beaumonts death." Alexander Chalmers, The English Poets, VI (1810), 202, included this in his reprint of 53 but noted, "By Bishop Corbet. Altered by the bishop afterwards. See his poems." This is a reference
[21] BEaumont lies here, and where now shall we have. 90 lines in couplets. K1-2.
"An Elegie upon Master Francis Beaumont" subscribed "I. Earle." Also subscribed "Joh. Earle" in BF and "Io: Earles" in Bodl. Eng. poet. e. 97 p. 55; anonymous in Bodl. Ashmole 47 f. 44v and Corpus Christi College Oxford 328 f. 66v. The attribution of this poem to Earle and No. 9 to Beaumont are the only adequately substantiated attributions in the whole of the 1640 volume.
[22] HEre she lies, whose spotlesse fame. 18 lines in tetrameter couplets. K2v.
"An Epitaph". Weber reprinted this as Beaumont's in 1812, but observed in his preface (I, cxxi) that he had afterwards found a manuscript note in a copy of the 1660 reissue of 53 which stated that the lines were written "on Mrs. Ann Littleton, who dy'd 6th February, 1625, and lies buried in the Temple Church." Her monument no longer exists in Temple Church—most of the stones were removed in 1642 and stored in the triforium where they were destroyed by bombing in 1942 (David Lower, The Temple Church, 1967, p. 8); but William Dugdale recorded the date of Anne Littleton's interment in Origines Juridicales, 1666, p. 177. Anthony Munday copied the verses, which were probably painted on a board hung over the grave, and the tombstone inscription, in the additions to his 1633 edition of John Stow's Survey of London, p. 762, and young William Sancroft also copied them into his collection of epitaphs in Bodl. Sancroft 59 p. 291 rev. Beaumont, who died in 1616, could not have written an epitaph for a lady who died in 1623/4. Rejected by Dyce on the basis of Weber's report, and by Beal.
[23] LIke a Ring, without a Finger. 80 lines aabbccD8. K3-4.
"A Sonnet." In an appendix to her Poems of Henry King, pp. 254-255, Miss
Anonymous versions of No. 23 were copied from 40 in Wits Recreations 1641, X4-5v (four stanzas), 1645, V8-X1v (five stanzas), and Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1699, F7v-8v, with a musical setting by Mr. Church; the late Brit. Lib. MS Add. 27407, f. 107v, was copied from the 1645 Wits Recreations. Miss Crum refers to an anonymous eight-stanza parody, beginning "Like to a dove-cote never haunted," in Roxburghe Ballads, I, 208-209, stanzas 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8 of which are variants of the five stanzas of No. 23. An anonymous version of No. 23 in Brit. Lib. MS Egerton 923 f. 1 omits stanza 3 and adds two new stanzas. In addition a version of the first four stanzas in Folger MS V. a. 303 f. 224v-5, is subscribed "W. R." on the basis of which Miss Agnes Latham printed the Brit. Lib. MS Add. 27407 anonymous text in her Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh, 1952, pp. 165-170. Printed as doubtful by Dyce (XI, 493-499), listed under Ralegh by Beal (RaW 428-33), who adds St. John's College, Cambridge, S. 32 and National Library of Wales 12443A. These anonymous lines parodying the verses printed by Quarles in 1629 could not have been composed until several years after the deaths of both Ralegh and Beaumont.
When we turn from the evidence for authorship to the texts themselves, we find that wherever other reliable texts are available for comparison those printed in 40 are usually found to be corrupt. Though No. 19 by Bishop King has only one error in its 12 lines and though No. 7 departs from its copy text O2 in only about one line out of ten, No. 10 by Sir John Beaumont is incomplete and varies from the authoritative text printed in his works in eight of its first 18 lines, Nos. 11 and 18 vary from the more authoritative texts of Henry Lawes in every other line, and No. 22, to be seen in a church only a few steps from Blaikelocke's shop, varies from Munday and Archbishop Sancroft's transcripts in five of its 18 lines. Corrupt texts are evidence of either careless copying or corrupt originals, both of which raise doubts about their attributions of authorship.
Blaikelocke was solely responsible for the attribution of Nos. 2, 5, and 7 to Beaumont (there is no evidence that he knew of the existence of the Kent Archives or Bodleian manuscripts from which his own text differs markedly). He was irresponsible in editing his copy text and introduced many unauthoritative emendations. He added the initials F. B. to No. 2 to suggest Beaumont, and he changed the initials A. F. to J. F. under No. 5 to suggest Beaumont's collaborator John Fletcher, clear evidence of his intent to deceive.
Wethered is solely responsible for the attribution of No. 8 to Beaumont, and we have no other direct evidence to test his reliability. Either Wethered
Both Blaikelocke and Wethered were young men, newly out of their apprenticeships; they published their joint volume over a quarter of a century after Beaumont had stopped writing and could have had no opportunity of being acquainted with him or with any of his close associates, all of whom were dead by 1640. They made no real effort to collect the genuine poems of Beaumont that were available. Except for Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, at the time they issued their volume at least fourteen poems were circulating under Beaumont's name or initials, seven of them in print and the rest in a number of manuscripts. All but one of these they overlooked.
The most charitable assumption that can be made about the conduct of Blaikelocke and Wethered in publishing The Remedie of Love and the following items in 40 is that they came into possession of a manuscript containing Nos. 8-21, one of which (No. 9) was ascribed to Beaumont and two of which (Nos. 20-21) were elegies upon him, and that they assumed the remaining poems were of Beaumont's authorship. This assumption would absolve Wethered at least of intent to deceive, but it would do nothing to increase our confidence in the authority of his attributions. For Nos. 2-6, the case of the changed initials of No. 5 still stands against Blaikelocke, and all confidence in him disappears when we examine the way he compiled his augmented edition of Beaumont's poems thirteen years later.
The 1653 Volume.
Almost at the end of his publishing career, Blaikelocke issued in 1653 an enlarged second edition of his 1640 volume. A variant title page lists William Hope as publisher, suggesting that he had contracted to take some of the sheets for sale at his own shop, so Blaikelocke was probably responsible for the entire contents of the book. 53 reprinted 22 of the 23 poems in 40, and added 109 new items, all but two of which had been printed previously, many under the names of other authors. Four of these new items are commendatory poems; three are specifically ascribed to Thomas Randolph, J. Cleaveland, and Tho. Batt; 72 are attributed jointly to "Beaumont and Fletcher"; but the remaining thirty are presented as the work of Beaumont alone. Blaikelocke's sources for all of these 109 new items can be found, and
For analysis the 53 text may be divided into ten sections. I list the contents in order below, indicating the source for the text of each item or group of items and giving in parentheses the names of earlier scholars who first made identifications of authorship. All the specific textual sources, and the names of many of the authors, are here established for the first time.
(1) A1-4v, the title page and six preliminary poems (Nos. 1-6) reprinted from 40. The wording of Blaikelocke's dedicatory poem remains the same, but the addressee is now Robert Parkhurst instead of Robert Ducie (Blaikelocke had in the intervening years betrayed his first patron to the Committee on Sequestration). No. 2 is subscribed F. B. and No. 5 J. F. as in 40.
(2) A4v-8v, four added poems commending Beaumont and Fletcher, reprinted directly from the 1647 Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, E1-2v and d1r-v (hereafter abbreviated BF).
(3) B1-E8v, a reprint of the remaining contents of 40 in the same order, except that No. 13 is omitted.
(4) F1r-v, two new poems, "Love is" and "A shepherdesse," ostensibly by Francis but actually by his brother John (Weber), the first poem complete but only the first six of the 80 lines of the second, copied verbatim from Sir John's Bosworth-field, 1629, H2-4v.
(5) F2-3v, two previously unprinted poems. (a) "Since thou art dead, Clifton, the world may see." 64 lines in couplets headed "A Funerall Elogie on the Death of the Lady Penelope Clifton" and subscribed "F. B." Lady Penelope, the first child of Lady Penelope Rich by Sir Charles Blount (later earl of Devonshire), became the first wife of Sir Gervase Clifton (1586-1666), and died at the age of 23 on 26 October 1613. Francis's brother Sir John Beaumont and Michael Drayton also wrote elegies upon her, and Sir John named his son Gervase after her husband. Printed by Dyce (XI, 511-513 from 53 with collations from two manuscripts) and listed by Beal (BmF 87-95). Of the six manuscripts I have seen, three attribute the lines to Francis Beaumont (Bodl. Ashmole 781 p. 153, Brit. Lib. Add. 25303 f. 105, and Stowe 962 f. 139) and three are anonymous (Brit. Lib. Add. 21433 f. 175v—because the following leaf containing the end of the poem is lacking, Harley 3910 f. 20, and Huntington HM 198 Part I p. 99). Beal does not indicate whether or not his added Nos. 93-95 are attributed. (b) "Stand still my happiness and swelling heart." 38 lines in couplets, headed "The examination of his Mistris Perfections" and subscribed "Fran. Beaumont." Reprinted as doubtful by Dyce (XI, 495-496) and listed by Beal (BmF 84-86). Untitled and subscribed "F. Bea:" in Bodl. Malone 13 (mid-late 17th) f. 3r-v (omits lines 25-28). Anonymous in Brit. Lib. Add. 25707 f. 157 and Egerton 2725 f. 147. The texts are independent of one another.
(6) F4-6v, two related poems, "Sir or" headed "The Hermaphrodite made after M. Beaumonts Death by Thomas Randolph M. A. Sometime fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge," and "Problems of" headed "Upon the
(7) F6v-G5v, twelve poems, probably all, and certainly all but three, taken from printed editions of Waller, Cleveland, Randolph, Shirley, Donne, and Carew. (a—b) "Here Coelia" headed "To the Mutable Faire" without subscription and "Not caring" headed "Of Loving at first sight" subscribed "Tho. Batt." Both of these are by Edmund Waller (Dyce) and were printed with the same headings in his Poems, 1645, I4-6 and G1r-v; but Blaikelocke's texts vary from the print in five of the 68 lines of the first and two of the 20 lines of the second. (c) "For shame" headed "The Antiplatonick," actually by Cleveland (Weber) and printed with the same heading in his Poems, 1651, D4r-v, from which Blaikelocke's text varies in only one word and three variant forms in its 48 lines. (d) "Say lovely" verbatim from Waller's Poems, 1645, E1v-2. (e) "Behold the" by Waller (Dyce MS), taken with one verbal variant from his Poems, 1645, E2v. (f) "Heaven knows" by Randolph (Nichols); Blaikelocke's text varies in seven words in its 38 lines from the fourth edition of Randolph's Poems, 1652, G4v-5. (g) "While others" by Shirley (Nichols), verbatim except for two elisions from his Poems, 1646, F1. (h) "Now fie" by Shirley (Dyce), verbatim from his Poems, 1646, F6. (i) "Go and" by Donne (Weber), the first two stanzas only, verbatim from his Poems, 1633, Cc2v, or 1635, 1639, 1649, or 1650. (j—l) "Fear not," "How ill," and "Let fools" by Carew (Dyce), taken with only one verbal variant from his Poems, 1651, A6v, B8 r-v , and D1v-2.
(8) G6-L6v, 74 items taken directly from BF (the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher Folio), from which the four commendatory poems on A4v-8v above had also been copied. (a) G6-H1v, "Stay light-foot," headed "A maske of the Gentlemen of Graies Inne, and the Inner Temple, by Mr Francis Beaumont," from *8D2r-v of the Folio (noted by Fredson Bowers, The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon, I (1966), 122). (b) H2-L5, "To please" etc. (72 items), headed "Prologues, Epilogues, and Songs to severall Plaies,
(9) L7-8v, two poems on Beaumont's death reprinted from 40, Nos. 20 and 21.
(10) M1-N8, thirteen elegiac and convivial poems taken from three earlier prints. (a) M1-2v, five epitaphs, on Shakespeare, Jonson (two), Spenser, and Drayton, and a sixth poem "On the Tombes in Westminster," taken directly from the 1650 edition of Wits Recreations, O4v-5 and O8v-P1. All the poems in Wits Recreations are anonymous; but since Shakespeare, Drayton, and Jonson all died after Beaumont he could not have written epitaphs on them. Norman Ault, Elizabethan Lyrics, 1925, pp. ix—x, first pointed out that the sixth poem, 18 lines beginning "Mortality behold and fear," first appeared in Wits Recreations, and that a 48-line version, which he printed, was in John Weever's Ancient Funeral Monuments, 1631, [Tt6v-Vv1] and was not by Beaumont. He also noted anonymous texts in two later manuscripts, Bodl. Ashmole 38 and Brit. Lib. Add. 18044. Later (TLS, 12 January 1933, p. 24) he showed that the 48-line version first appeared in W. B. and E. P.'s A Helpe to Discourse, 1619 (STC 1547), and suggested that its author may have been William Basse. Printed from 53 as doubtful by Dyce (XI, 497), but Beal followed Ault in rejecting it (p. 67) and added manuscript versions in Bodl. Eng. poet. f. 27 pp. 337-339, Folger V. a. 275 p. 85, and Yale Osborn b 226 p. 90. The poem, which is not Beaumont's, is the only one that appears under his name in most recent anthologies. The 53 text was printed as Beaumont's in Palgrave's Golden Treasury, 1861, Ward's English Poets, 1880 (where it was highly praised by A. C. Bradley), and in Quiller-Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse, 1900. Helen Gardner, The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1972, followed Ault in printing the 48-line version, though
(b) M3-8 "Not drunken" headed "The Ex-Ale-tation of Ale," 70 four-line stanzas. This was entered by Richard Badger on 22 Une 1629 (Rollins, Index of Ballad Entries, No. 278), but the earliest extant complete edition is an anonymous one published by T. Badger in 1646 (Wing M 1952) with 71 stanzas but many verbal errors. The 53 text was probably taken from an earlier edition, now lost. Mr. Thomas Davis called to my attention a 34-stanza version published in 1642 (Wing R 239A) as by Thomas Randall (i.e. Randolph). In 1661 the 53 text was reprinted without indication of author as the first item in N. D.'s anthology, An Antidote Against Melancholy, B1-4v. In 1711 Thomas Hearne noted, "'tis said the Author was Dr. Peter Mews, Bp. of Winchester" (Remarks and Collections, ed. C. E. Doble, III [1899], 219).
(c) M8v-N6v, five convivial poems taken directly from the 1650 edition of Wits Recreations, Z8v-Aa7v. The first of these, "When shall," may be by Thomas Randolph (see Herford and Simpson, Ben Jonson, VIII, 449); the second, "Fetch me," was printed from a different source in An Antidote Against Melancholy, 1661, I1-2, where it is attributed to Dr. Hen. Edwards (a reference to King Charles in line 80 shows that it was composed after Beaumont's death).
(d) N7-8, "Happy is" headed "The praises of a Country Life," by Ben Jonson (Dyce MS); taken with only two verbal variants in its 70 lines from "Under-woods" (No. 85) in the second volume of The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, 1640, Nn1-2.
Only two of the 109 new items in 53 ("Since thou" and "Stand still" F2-3v) were previously unprinted, and of the previously printed items only A maske of the Gentlemen of Graies Inne, and the Inner Temple, G6-H1v, and Mr Francis Beaumont's Letter to Ben Iohnson, "The sun" L5v-6v, were attributed to Beaumont in the earlier editions. Five of Blaikelocke's other texts ("Problems of" by Cleveland, "Here Coelia" and "Not caring" by Waller, "Heaven knows" by Randolph, and "Not drunken" by Randolph or Mews) contain a small number of variants from the extant prints, which might indicate derivation from otherwise unknown manuscript or printed intermediaries. All the rest of Blaikelocke's texts were taken almost verbatim from specifically identifiable printed editions of poems by Sir John Beaumont, Thomas Carew, John Cleveland, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Thomas Randolph, James Shirley, Edmund Waller, the Beaumont and Fletcher 1647 Folio, and the 1650 edition of Wits Recreations.
It may have been possible to maintain some doubt about Blaikelocke's culpability in attributing the items in 40 to Beaumont, but there can be no doubt of his deliberate dishonesty in attributing to him the new items in 53. In the latter volume Blaikelocke not only attributed to Beaumont poems that he knew were by known popular poets of the second quarter of the seventeenth century, but he also reprinted without authorization texts that were the property of other publishers. The conclusion is inescapable that no
Doubts concerning the authenticity of the attributions in the 40 and 53 volumes were expressed early. Probably soon after its publication, the musician Henry Lawes presented a copy of 40 (now in the Huntington Library) to his patron the Earl of Bridhewater, in which under Nos. 11 and 18 he wrote, "made by Henry Harrington and set by Henry Lawes, 1636." Another seventeenth-century owner of a copy of 40 (Bodleian Ashmole 1663), John Aubrey, wrote on A2v under Blaikelocke's name:
It is a serious matter to deprive an author of credit for works that may be rightfully his, but it is just as damaging to attribute to him works for which he had no responsibility. After a poem that he had had nothing to do with had been published under his name, Abraham Cowley commented;
The evidence here presented makes it clear that we should not accept any of Blaikelocke or Wethered's attributions unless they are substantiated from other sources. On this basis, we must reject from the Beaumont canon all poems in 40 except 2, 6, 7, and 9, and all items added in 53 except The Maske of the Inner Temple and Grayes Inne (G6-H1v, reprinted from the 1547 Beaumont and Fletcher Folio). "Since thou," "Stand still," and "The
So this leaves us, aside from The Maske, with only one poem probably Beaumont's in 40 (No. 9, "As unthrifts," Dyce XI, 503-505), and with only two in 53: the elegy on Lady Clifton ("Since thou," F2-3, Dyce, XI, 511-513), and the letter to Ben Jonson ("The sun," L5v-6v, Dyce XI, 500-503). To these three we may add the four commendatory poems to Fletcher and Jonson (Dyce II, 8-10 and XI, 497-499), the two poems on Lady Rutland (Dyce XI, 505-511), and one of the three poems added by Beal, "Good Madam Fowler" (BmF 117-132, printed by Grosart in Englische Studien, 1899), a total of only ten in the probable canon.
What is certain is that 40 and 53 are anthologies containing poems by a number of seventeenth-century authors. They therefore deserve a place in a future second edition of Arthur E. Case's Bibliography of English Poetical Miscellanies, but they do not deserve a place in bibliographies of collected poems by Francis Beaumont.
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