Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-08-14
No. 3l8.
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
FROM A LATE PERIODICAL

Drought his aborous and responsible task completion and
the public possessing edition Of these famous Dramas
deliberately correct amply illustrated and udiciousy annotat-
ed These twin Of poetry the Dioscur of old STAGE
as they have been called have Jared i'll the hands of
Seward Simpson, and Weber, their former editors, that in
reference to the abors of Mr. Dyce, may be permitted
excam, with one Of their early admirers
I" Beaumont and Fletcher here at last, we see,
) Above the reach of duh mortality,
i Or power of fate"
We have longer any to re- that Mr. Clifford did
not live to carry his intention of editing these old dramas
INTO effect for Mr. Dyce has brought the service of their
memory equal information, with finer taste, truer feeling and
understanding cultivated by the study Of classical models
He has bided the rage Of annoauon, 1eraned nom
bitter personal attacks against rival critics in which Mr. Gift
ford INDUCED such extent and compressed his editorial
observations into the limits with clear
and precision This, in estimation, is the highest
praise that could be awarded to him how great the merit it
implies be known only to those who on forming their
first acquaintance with Shakespeare, found him devoured by
his commenators and oppressed beneath twenty tones
of The garbage of Stevens and Malone. Former editors mis-
the sense muaed the text and bunded grossly upon
points of old English lore diction. Mr.. Dyce has
fixed the text, and for little nothing remains
fol succeeding editor do and here and there passage
which little doubt yet hangs the obscuriy
inherent in the expression, and is raceabe any
plts printers, and therefore offered of correction
Beaumont and Fletcher poets of the second order only
bat they stand the top of their class many and
their excelencies that could better spare many less
writer. Who that has read their plays for
get their podgou variety OF character the fierce passion
and tender sentiment of their tragic scenes set of by the
nmble play of their ny-coored fancy, the rich Iuxu
rance of their wit the oous fun and oy of their broad
comedy Nothing in any poet is charming than the
mpasoned tenderness of the lovescenes in such plays
the Maids Tragedy, Pdihstcr orthe Faithful Shepherdes
whose lyrical beauties "renew the golden verdi
"Where flowers and founts and ny nphs and semgods,
And all the Graces find their old abodes."
Again, there the grandeur and splendid imagery
Of such plays the 1co Noble Knsmen and Bonduca In
tragedies like the Bloody Brother Ihiey and Theodore
the personages made of stcne stuff and the grows
black with horrors while in the Spanish Curate, the HUI
Leutena and the Little French Lapyer comic in
venon wild every sort of merry extravaganza Thus
disciple of Fletcher tells that in the dramatic poet is
quired " soul macuousy knowing and conversng with all
mankind enabling him express only the phegm and
folly of thcksknned men, but the strength and maturity Of
Vie wise the air and nsnuaons Of the court the discipline
and resolution of the soldier the virtues and passions of every
noble condon-naY, the counsel and characters of the
greatest princess Irregularities all ss IN the plot and
exavagances in the conduct of the characters, abound
many of these plays but their faults the side Of
duness and forgotten amidst the prouson of good
things and the constant amusement they themselves afford
the reader When the poet has perpeated wlful
against when he has thrown of his personages into
glarngly improbable absurd position, which would
be instantly fatal in modern play you allowed
spite pause the enormy but whired along stream
of lively beautiful exciting dialogue till you forget every
thing but the destinations of style. Fletcher delights in all
of audacous WITNESSES and punges into questionable
situations that be may show with what ingenuity he
cate himself He shines so brightly when he has
made rather caused Of his characters make, ar
pas His dances away with such ight-heared airy
gayety that you hardly believe him serious when he
| wishes to be most
Mr.. Dyccs biographical memoir presents with the best
Of the poets and their works that be hoped
for from antiquarian zeal and industry In he has collected
all the passages Of old writer's, dramatic miscellaneous
which make any mention of Beaumont and Fletcher; thus
giving the whole Of the existing and accessible knowledge
regarding them He has also adduccd number Of extracts
from the wills Of their relatives theatrical ACCOMMODATES and
other documentary sources, which throw light directly in
directly, various particulars Of their Besides
other minor he for the first time has succeeded in
certanug the place and date of Fletches birth That poet
is generally stated to have been born at London in 1870
Mr. Dyce shows that he born Rye in Sussex (whist
his father afterwards Bishop OF London oicaed there
minister in December, 1879. He therefore 46 years
old instead Of 40, at his death, 1928.
1t is topic of amenation with enthusiastic
students of old dramatic Literature that little known
Of the lives Of dramatic poets Of Shakespeare until the
researches Of Mr. Collier had determined some facts we
knew hardly any thing Ben Jonson is more frequently
mentioned by contemporaries than any other Of his fellow
poets his works also contain many personal aluson, him
self that the whole very satisfactory biography Of
this writer be made OF others know only few
scattered particulars. thousand coneciures have been
started TO account for this paucy of biographical norma
ton thousand reproches have been launched at the heads
of the unucky wghs, antiquarian and typographical Of the
seventeenth century, who might have satisfied curiosity
the lives and of the lumnares of early
sage, hut who neglected to do 50.
No doubt have missed through their laches many inter-
esng particulars regarding the literary works Of these great
men, the circumstances under which they composed and
the success they obtained the time, and this poba
bly, the and substance OF loss Otherwise the lives
Of Of letters rarely offer any striking salient feature
How barren Of incident for instance Johnson Lives oil
the Poets After all Shakespeare not without pa
ralcl among other nations What for instance do The Spa
nars know OF Lope de Vega and Cevnne his contempt
raries, Of Caeon who half century afterwards
beyond few general statements and anecdotes These old
wits lived in the hearts well the lips OF their contem
poacs who seem unconsciouy 70 have conspired in the