And grew distracted in most violent fits, Of the king's second coming to his court, The books creep from the press to life, not action ; Fletcher, in them, leave on the stage to live. I only, thus, express my truth and love. XXIV.SI RICH. BROME. Upon the Printing of Mr. JouN FLETCHER'S Works. WHAT means this numerous guard? or, do we come, To file our names, or verse, upon the tomb 52 And nothing now is wanting, but the king. JA. SHIRLEY.53 On 51 The Commendatory Poems were printed without judgment or order; several of them, (particularly the first as ranked in the late editions) greatly injure our authors by injudicious encomiums, and have too little merit to be republished. Mr. Theobald left several corrections upon these obscure poems, and many others would have been added, had not una litura appeared the best remedy. All are therefore now discarded but what appeared worthy of the reader's attention, and these are ranged according to the order of time in which they seem to have been wrote. Beaumont himself now leads in defence of his friend Fletcher's charming dramatic pastoral the Faithful Shepherdess, which having been damned at its first appearance on the stage, Beaumont and Jonson, with the spirits of Horace and Juvenal, lash the dull herd for their stupid ingratitude. SEWARD. In addition to the above, which Mr. Seward makes an introductory note, it may not be amiss to remark, that the first folio had thirty six Commendatory Poems; from which the editors of the second folio selected no more than eleven. In the octavo of 1711, all but one were copied from the first folio; and to these were added Beaumont's and Jonson's Verses on the Faithful Shepherdess. Of these thirty-seven Mr. Seward retained twenty-three, and added Poem IV. signed J. F. We think that Seward, so far from rejecting any pieces worth preservation, has kept some which might very well have been spared: we have, however, adopted his selection, which ends with Shirley's poem; and shall now restore the verses written by Gardiner and Hills, (not because they possess any poetic merit, but that the reader may judge what respect is due to the testimony of those verses, which are frequently mentioned as ascribing particular plays to Fletcher), and add a passage, relative to our authors, written by the ingenious Mr. Fenton. 52 As I go swan-like out.] his seems to allude to his verses having been the last in the Collection. SEWARD. 93 Mr. Shirley was publisher of the first folio edition in 1647. By XXV. On the Dramatic Poems of Mr. JOHN FLETCHER WONDER! Who's here? Fletcher, long buried, Reviv'd? 'Tis he! he's risen from the dead; That th' Lovers' Progress' stopt, and they defam'd, XXVI. ROBERT GARDINER. Upon the ever-to-be-admired Mr. JOHN FLETCHER, and his Plays. WHAT's all this preparation for? or why Such sudden triumphs? Fletcher, the people cry! Just so, when kings approach, our conduits run See, every sprightful muse, dress'd trim and Strews herbs and scatters roses in his way. gay, Thus th' outward yard set round with layes we've seen, Which from the garden bath transplanted been; By publisher we suppose Mr. Seward means editor: this Mr. Shirley certainly was not. It is true he wrote the Preface; but it would be exceedingly unjust to that great man, to believe he did more for, or at least could be editor of, so incorrect a book. Thus, Thus, at the prætor's feast, with needless costs, Fletcher, the king of poets! stich was he, To our disciple-wits, his soul might run From th' Queen of Corinth to the Maid o'th' Mill; G. HILLS. Extract Extract from FENTON'S POEMS. -like the radiant twins that gild the sphere, } UPON AN HONEST MAN'S FORTUNES By Mr. JOHN FLETCHER. You that can look through Heav'n, aud tell the stars, How far, and when, and why the wind doth blow; Tell me, by all your art I conjure ye, Yes, and by truth, what shall become of me? Have his peculiar angel, and his way; 53 Observe my fate, next fall into your dreams, Sweep clean your houses, and new line your schemes, And no man knows his treasure, no, not you! He that made Egypt blind, from whence you grew He that made all the stars you daily read, And from thence filch a knowledge how to feed, Are drunken things, not how, but when they fall; Man is his own star, and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Nothing to him falls early, or too late. 52 These verses are in all former editions printed at the end of the comedy of The Honest Man's Fortune: As they have not the least reference to that play, we have chose to place them here. 53 Have his peculiar angel, and his way:] Way, in its common acceptation, is not nonsense; it may signify his path of life marked out to him by the stars. But Mr. Sympson thinks it certainly corrupt, and conjectures first fay, which, he says, signifies spirit, or saie, which he says, though a very uncommon word, signifies fate: As he quotes no authority, L can only say, that I remember fay used by Spenser, as the same with fairy, but none of my glossaries know such a word as sale; and if an obsolete word must be used, we need not depart at all from the trace of the letters; for wey or way (the spelling of former ages, as well as the present, being extremely uncertain) may signify fate; the weys were the fates of the northern nations, from whence the witches in Macbeth are called weyward sisters. Sec Mr. Warbur ton's ingenious and learned note upon them. SEWARD. Our |