- Born:
- c. 1585, Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, England
- Died:
- March 6, 1616, London
- Movement / Style:
- Jacobean age
Francis Beaumont
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Who was Francis Beaumont?
Francis Beaumont (c. 1585â1616) was an English Jacobean poet and playwright. Beaumont entered Broadgates Hall, Oxford, in 1597, and Londonâs Inner Temple in 1600. In 1602, he published the poem Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. By 1607, he was collaborating with John Fletcher on plays for the Children of the Queenâs Revels.
Beaumont and Fletcher collaborated as playwrights for about seven years. In 1613, Beaumont married Ursula Isley and retired from the theatre. He died in London in 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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What is a dramatist?
A dramatist is a writer of plays. Francis Beaumont (c. 1585â1616) was an English Jacobean poet and dramatist who is known for his collaborations with John Fletcher on comedies and tragedies between 1606 and 1613. Beaumont also wrote the play The Knight of the Burning Pestle.
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What types of plays did Francis Beaumont write?
Francis Beaumont, an English Jacobean poet and playwright, is known for his collaborations with John Fletcher on comedies and tragedies between about 1606 and 1613. Beaumont's unaided work includes The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a parody of popular plays that were sprawling and episodic, with sentimental lovers and chivalric adventures.
Attempts to separate Beaumont and Fletcher's contributions are difficult because Beaumont sometimes revised Fletcher's scenes, and Fletcher edited some of Beaumont's work. Scholars believe that only 10 of the plays published as "Beaumont and Fletcher" were written by both of them.
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Who did Francis Beaumont often work with?
Francis Beaumont, an English Jacobean poet and playwright, frequently collaborated with John Fletcher on comedies and tragedies from about 1606 to 1613. They were close friends and shared a household. Together, Beaumont and Fletcher wrote approximately 10 of the plays published under their names in 1647. Beaumont also contributed to three plays substantially written by Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The Knight of the Burning Pestle is Beaumont's independent work, a parody of popular plays that humorously combines contradictory plots.
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What are some famous plays written by Beaumont and his collaborator?
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were English Jacobean dramatists who collaborated on comedies and tragedies from about 1606 to 1613. It is difficult to determine Beaumontâs exact contributions, but scholars believe he had a hand in 13 plays published in the 1647 collection of Beaumont and Fletcher.
Some of their famous collaborations include Philaster, The Maidâs Tragedy, and A King and No King. Beaumont also wrote The Knight of the Burning Pestle independently.
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How did Francis Beaumont influence English theatre during his time?
Francis Beaumont, an English Jacobean poet and playwright, significantly shaped English theatre through his collaborations with John Fletcher, producing comedies and tragedies between 1606 and 1613. Together, they wrote approximately 10 of the plays published in the 1647 collection, "Beaumont and Fletcher".
Beaumont's individual contribution, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, stands out as a parody of popular plays, incorporating satire and humor. His work, along with that of John Fletcher, contributed to the varied comedies of the Jacobean era, a period known for its dark mood and questioning of social order.
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Francis Beaumont (born c. 1585, Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, Englandâdied March 6, 1616, London) was an English Jacobean poet and playwright who collaborated with John Fletcher on comedies and tragedies between about 1606 and 1613.
The son of Francis Beaumont, justice of common pleas of Grace-Dieu priory, Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, Beaumont entered Broadgates Hall (later Pembroke College), Oxford, in 1597. His father dying the following year, he abruptly left the university without a degree and later (November 1600) entered Londonâs Inner Temple, where he evidently became more involved in Londonâs lively literary culture than in legal studies.
In 1602 there appeared the poem Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, generally attributed to Beaumont, a voluptuous and voluminous expansion of the Ovidian legend that added to the story humour and a fantastic array of episodes and conceits. At age 23 he prefixed to Ben Jonsonâs Volpone (1607) some verses in honour of his âdear friendâ the author. John Fletcher contributed verses to the same volume, and, by about this time, the two were collaborating on plays for the Children of the Queenâs Revels. According to John Aubrey, a 17th-century memorialist, in Brief Lives,
They lived together on the Banke side, not far from the Play-house, both batchelors; lay togetherâŠ; had one wench in the house between themâŠ; the same cloathes and cloake, &c., betweene them.
Their collaboration as playwrights was to last for some seven years. In 1613 Beaumont married an heiress, Ursula Isley of Sundridge in Kent, and retired from the theatre. He died in London in 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
It is difficult to disentangle Beaumontâs share in the 35 plays published in 1647 as by "Beaumont and Fletcher" (to which another 18 were added in the 1679 collection). Scholars now believe that only 10 of these were by the two friends, while Beaumontâs hand also appears in 3 plays substantially written by Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The rest are plays written by Fletcher alone or in collaboration with other dramatists, except for The Knight of the Burning Pestle, which is Beaumontâs unaided work. Attempts to separate the shares of Beaumont and Fletcher in any given work are complicated by the fact that Beaumont sometimes revised scenes by Fletcher and Fletcher edited some of Beaumontâs work. The Knight of the Burning Pestle parodies a then popular kind of playâsprawling, episodic, with sentimental lovers and chivalric adventures. It opens with The Citizen and his Wife taking their places on the stage to watch âThe London Merchantââitself a satire on the work of a contemporary playwright, Thomas Dekker. Citizen and Wife interrupt, advise, and insist that the play should be more romantic and their apprentice should take a leading part. Thereafter these two contradictory plots go forward side by side, allowing Beaumont to have fun with bourgeois naĂŻvetĂ© about art.