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THE WORKS OF FRANCIS BEAUMONT AND JOHN FLETCHER
The first collected edition of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher was published in 1647, in folio (12 1/2 ins. x 8 1/8 ins. is the measurement of the copy used for the purpose of collation). The title-page runs thus:--
{ Francis Beaumont } |written by { And } Gentlemen. | { John Fletcher }
Never printed before, | And now published by the Authours | Originall Copies. | _Si quid habent veri Vatum præsagia, vivam.|London_, | Printed for _Humphrey Robinson_, at the three _Pidgeons_, and for | _Humphrey Moseley_ at the _Princes Armes in St Pauls_.
This collection, which is referred to as the First Folio throughout the present edition, contained all the authors' previously unpublished plays (34) except _The Wild-Goose Chase_, which, at the date of the Folio, was supposed to be lost. The dedicatory epistles, commendatory poem, and Catalogue of Plays, prefixed to the First Folio, are reprinted in the preliminary pages at the end of this Note (pp. ix--lvii).
The second collected edition appeared in 1679 in folio (14-3/8 ins. x 8-1/4 ins.); a reprint of the title-page is given on p. lix of the present volume. This collection, referred to henceforth as the Second Folio, contained (i) all the plays included in the First Folio, (ii) _The Wild-Goose Chase_, which had been published in folio in 1652, (iii) all the other then known plays of the authors which had been published previously to 1679.
William Marshall's portrait of John Fletcher faces the title-page of both folios with the following inscription engraved underneath:--
_Felicis ævi ac_ Præsulis _Natus; comes_ Beaumontis; _sic, quippe Parnassus_, biceps; FLETCHERUS _unam in Pyramida furcas agens. Struxit chorum plus simplicem Vates Duplex; Plus duplicem solus: nec ullum transtulit; Nec transferendus: Dramatum æterni sales,_ Anglo _Theatro, Orbe, Sibi, superstites_.
_FLETCHERE, facies absqz vultu pingitur; Quantus! vel_ umbram _circuit nemo tuam._
Later collected editions of the works were published in 1711 (7 vols.); 1750, edited by Lewis Theobald, Thomas Seward and J. Sympson (10 vols.); 1778, edited by George Colman (10 vols.); 1812, edited by Henry Weber (14 vols.); 1843, edited by Alexander Dyce (11 vols.). It is unnecessary to refer in detail to these later editions which, very widely as they differ among themselves, agree in presenting an eclectic text, a text formed partly by a collation of the various old editions and partly by the adoption of conjectural emendations. During the progress of work upon the present issue another edition has been announced, under the general editorship of Mr A. H. Bullen, and the first volume was published last year. It follows the lines of its predecessors in presenting a modernised text, giving 'a fuller record than had been given by Dyce of _variæ lectiones_,' and pleading, in its prospectus, that, 'for the use of scholars, there should be editions of all our old authors in old spelling.'