They are lyrical and descriptive poets of the first order, with a wonderful ease and grace of expression.  The songs scattered throughout their plays are second only to Shakespeare’s.  The volume and variety of their work is astonishing.  They left more than fifty-two printed plays, and all of these show an extraordinary power of invention; the most diverse passions, characters, and situations enter into the work, their stories stimulate our curiosity, and their characters appeal to our sympathies.  Especially in half-farcical, half-pathetic comedy they have no superior; their wit and spirit here find freest play.  Despite much coarseness, their work is full of delicate sensibility, and suffused with a romantic grace of form and a tenderness of expression that endears them to our hearts, and makes them more lovable than any of their brother dramatists, with the possible exception of genial Dekker.  The spirit of chivalry breathes through their work, and the gentleman and scholar is always present.  For in contradiction to most of their fellow-workers, they were not on the stage; they never took part in its more practical affairs either as actors or managers; they derived the technical knowledge necessary to a successful playwright from their intimacy with stage folk.

As poets, aside from their dramatic work, they occupy a secondary place.  Beaumont especially has left, beyond one or two exquisite lyrics, little that is noteworthy, except some commendatory verses addressed to Jonson.  On the other hand, Fletcher’s ‘Faithful Shepherdess,’ with Jonson’s ’Sad Shepherd’ and Milton’s ‘Comus,’ form that delightful trilogy of the first pastoral poems in the English language.

The popularity of Beaumont and Fletcher in the seventeenth century, as compared to that of Shakespeare, has been over-emphasized; for between 1623 and 1685 they have only two folio editions, those of 1647 and 1679, as against four of Shakespeare.  Their position among the Elizabethans is unique.  They did not found a school either in comedy or tragedy.  Massinger, who had more in common with them than any other of the leading dramatists, cannot be called their disciple; for though he worked in the same field, he is more sober and severe, more careful in the construction of his plots, more of a satirist and stern judge of society.  With the succeeding playwrights the decadence of the Elizabethan drama began.

THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS

BY FLETCHER

[Clorin, a shepherdess, watching by the grave of her lover, is found by a Satyr.]

CLORIN—­Hail, holy earth, whose cold arms do embrace
The truest man that ever fed his flocks
By the fat plains of fruitful Thessaly. 
Thus I salute thy grave, thus do I pay
My early vows, and tribute of mine eyes,
To thy still loved ashes:  thus I free
Myself from all ensuing heats and fires
Of love:  all sports, delights, and