C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

John Fletcher (1579–1625)

Fletcher, John. An English dramatist; born in Rye, Sussex, Dec. 20, 1579; died in London during the plague, in Aug. 1625. His partnership with Beaumont is called by Swinburne “the most perfect union in genius and friendship.” Their joint works are enumerated in the LIBRARY article on Beaumont. Fletcher survived his friend nine years, during which he produced many plays with and without collaborators; the latter include Massinger, Middleton, Rowley, Shirley, and others. It is certain that he wrote alone ‘The Faithful Shepherdess,’ ‘Bonduca,’ ‘Valentinian,’ ‘The Wild Goose Chase,’ and ‘Monsieur Thomas,’ his greatest works; ‘The Loyal Subject’; ‘Wit Without Money’; ‘A Wife for a Month’; ‘The Chances’; ‘The Mad Lover’; and ‘The Humorous Lieutenant.’ Bullen says he had Massinger’s aid in ‘The Knight of Malta,’ ‘Thierry and Theodoret,’ ‘The Little French Lawyer,’ ‘The Beggar’s Bush,’ ‘The Spanish Curate,’ ‘The False One,’ and ‘A Very Woman.’ The same authority gives ‘The Queen of Corinth’ with Massinger, Rowley, and Middleton; ‘The Jeweller of Amsterdam’ with Massinger and Field; ‘The Bloody Brother’ with Ben Jonson, revised by Middleton; ‘Two Noble Kinsmen’ with Massinger, after Shakespeare’s death; and considers ‘Henry VIII.’ the work of Fletcher and Massinger with Shakespearean passages. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).

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