B E A 



110 



B E A 



mul from Mont to Chimay, is built on the summit of | 

 pretty high hill, t the foot of which masses of rock are ' 

 heaped together. This town is remarkable for the Ix-anty 

 of iU site, which command* extensive views over a di\cr>i- 

 fled country. A rattle market is held here on the 1 7th of 

 every month, and four fain during the year, at Easter, 

 June. September, and November ; there are, beside*, two 

 market* weekly. 



Beaumont, formerly called Mlimnntium, was, in the 

 1 1th rcntury. the capital of a considerable lordship. The 

 town was strongly fortified in the middle of ihe 1 Cth century. 

 It suffered mueti in the wan witli France, and its castle 

 was burnt by the French general. Count de Grand Pit-, in 

 1660. The Spaniard^ ceded the place to the French in 

 1684; but by the treaty of Utrecht, il rame into possession 

 of the House of Austria. The English having taken the 

 town in 1691, blew up the fortifications, of which nothing 

 now remains but some towers and subterraneous passages, 

 which show the former strength of the place. 



To the north, west, and south of the town, is a group of 

 steep hills, the sides of which would be inaccessible but by 

 means of zigzag roads. Nearly the whole surface of the 

 commune is broken by limestone and schistose rocks. The 

 land fit for cultivation is of various qualities ; tho most pro- 

 ductive consists of a mellow clay on a substratum of calc.i- 

 reous rock ; in other places the soil is composed of d 

 posed schistus on a substratum of the same in an und 

 posed state. The product ions are wheat, rye, incslin. barley, 

 oats, vetches, beans, potatoes, and various garden vegetables. 

 Soils of the best quality nre cropped without inter;. 

 during three, four, or five years, but other lands lie fallow 

 every third \ear. 



A limestone quarry, in which building stone is worked, 

 yives employment to many of the inhabitants : others are 

 employed in sawing blocks of marble brought from Bar- 

 bancon and Cerfontaine, in Namur. N -. and other 

 woollens of coarse texture, are woven; and blond lace also 

 is manufactured in Beaumont. The population in 1S31 was 

 1869. (Meisser's Dictionnaire Gtographique de la Pro- 

 rincfilff [fiiinuult, 1833.) 



BEAUMONT, FRANCIS, the dramatist, third son of 

 Francis, one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, 

 and of Anne, daughter of George Pierrepoint, of Holme- 

 Pierrepoint, in tho county of Nottingham, was born at the 

 family scat at Grace Dion, in Leicestershire, 1586. The 

 Beaumonts were not only an antient stock, probably of 

 Norman origin, to judge from their name, but claimed to be 

 descended of tho kings of France, a claim which antiquaries 

 have disputed. By an easy process, a like claim was made 

 to connexion with the blood royal of England. Neither of 

 the pretences, perhaps, had better foundation than in the 

 lilies and lion rampart which they bore in their coat of arms : 

 but whether just or not, the glory of the family consist- in 

 its literature ; and the point, except as a matter of antique 

 colouring, would not be worth mention, but that even thing 

 becomes interesting in connexion with a great name. \\V 

 should look with curiosity upon the family seal of Beaumont, 

 if we had it in our hands, just as we do upon the A/JW/V in 

 the arms of Skaktpeaie. Our author's shit id is the same 

 as that which is borne by tbo family at present, and may be 

 seen in any flaronetagg. 



At ten years of ase (for people went earlier 10 the univer- 

 sity in those days) Beuumont was admitted a gentleman- 

 commoner at Broad gate's Hall, now Pembroke College, Ox- 

 ford. He afterwords became a student in the Temple : mar- 

 ried Ursula, daughter and co-heir ot Henry 1-1. \, of Sun- 

 dridL'o, in Kent, by whom he had two daughters; died 

 before he was thirty, in the spring of the year 1615; and 

 was buried at the entrance of Sj. Benedict's ('hap.d, in 

 Westminster Abbey, without any m&cripti in. One of the 

 daughter* of Beaumont, Frances, was living at a great age 

 in the jear 1700, at which time she enjoyed an annuity 

 of J0100 from the Duke of Onnond, in whose family she 

 had resided (say the biographers) as a " domestic ;'" by 

 which is meant, perhaps a companion : though, from tho 

 greater dispersion ..f the younger branches of families in 

 those day*, and their inability to pin themselves on public 

 offices and pensions, we hear of them oftcner in trade-, and 

 other humble situation*, than we do now. This laih 

 to have had in her possession several poems of her")..- 

 writing, which were lost during a voyage she made from 

 Ireland. 



The race of the Beaumonts, like that of the Fletchers, 



which is an interesting coincidence, appears to have abound- 

 ed in the love ot i^x'try. The biographer* have no' 

 that there were lour Francis BcuuinutiU all living in 1615, 

 and that at least three of them were poets Francis the 

 dramatist ; Francis, his cousin, master of the Charter 

 House; and Francis a 'Jesuit;' the same, we presume-, 

 as Francis, one of tho sons of his elder brother Sir John, 

 probably too young to be a Jesuit at that time, but who 

 became one after his father's death. This Sir John Beau- 

 mont, author of Bottcort/i Ha/rf, was a poet of real merit, 

 as the reader may see by the collection of his verses in 

 Chalmers's English Poett. His son and successor, another 

 John, inherited his |ieti< -al tendency. L)r. Joseph Beau- 

 mont, master ol Peter House, Cambridge, who lived in the 

 time of the Charleses, and was Of a branch of the laiiiih, 

 though son of a woolstapler in Suffolk, is also knov 

 poetical antiquaries as one of the writers from whom Pope 

 thought a man might ' steal wisely.' He is furthei 

 commended for his Ijain style, ami for his taste in paint- 

 ing. Some pictures cf his, we believe, are still extant in 

 1'eterhouse Chapel. The grandmother of the witty Villiers, 

 Duke of Buckingham, was a Beaumont, of the same antient 

 stock; the late Sir John Beaumont, the represents! i . 

 the race, and the friend of poets and artists, was himself an 

 artist : and as if all the blood connected with our drai- 

 was destined to bo sprightly, the famous Lady AVorth-y 

 Montague was a Pn-m-point, of the same race as Anne 

 Picrrepoint, Beaumont's mother. 



As Beaumont's life was so short, and his writing* appa- 

 rently so numerous, it is naturally supposed that he paid 

 little attention to the law : n conclusion which might be 

 diawn from his poetical genius. He probably gave h 

 up to tlie literature and amusements of the town. 11 



n -ds, in a celebrated epistle, his intimacy with lien 



.Ions in, and the other men of genius who assembled at the 

 Mermaid Tavern ; where, he says, they used to leave an air 

 behind them, sufficient to make the two next companies witty. 



:l.inV tliflilllcwit I hart U : 

 Since 1 saw you: fur wit U tike a tvt 

 1!. lil up .11 it-unift, wltirli men do the best 

 With Hi.' I. i-M c im.'l.'ni. What things have we seen 

 Done at the Mrrmaid ! heard words that hare been 

 So nimble, uid 10 full at subtil* <lam, 

 Aiifiliat.- -they came 



I!. id miMiii lo put hi* whole wit in a jest, 

 And hail resolved to live a Toot the mt 

 Of ln dull lite ; then where there had been thrown 

 \\ii ul.le . no'.iirh to juslify th<- tmtii 

 For thr.-e days i> ;il, wit thai might warrant be 

 For the whole city to talk foolishly. 

 Till thai were canrcU'd ; and when that was gone, 

 W,- IrU an air behind its v 

 Wai al-li' 10 link.- the two next companies 

 Right \> illy ; though but downright fools, mere wise.' 



At this greatest of all literary clubs, he would meet with 

 Shakspeare ; and perhaps it was here he becani' 

 quainted with the illustrious friend with whom he 

 destined to become all but identified. The date of their 

 I'M , I play is lfiU7, when our author was oneand-t, 1 

 Fletcher was ten years older. According to Aubrey, the 

 Boswell of those d ays, theirconnexion was, ine\er\ respect, 

 singularly close, lie sa\ s they not only lived in the same 

 house, which was near the theatre, on tho Surrey side 01 

 the river, but had their clothes, cloak, &c., between them, 

 with other things in common, for which the curious reader 

 must consult the original, which gave rise to a ludicrous in- 

 stance of pious fraud on the part of Mr. Chalmers, when, 

 with the alteration of a single, but important letter, he trans- 

 ferred the account to his General }>trlt<t<iry, ami his edition 

 of the tin ali. \h Putts. Aubrey was credulous, and perhaps 

 only repeated scandal which others laughed at ; and as to 

 the clothes anil cloak, the two friends might have 

 seen to use them accidentally, upon somo one or two occa- 

 sions, which would have been cii :t for rumour to 

 convert into a practice. Ni>t but that a community of pn,- 

 |H;rty in such a respect, between tsvo such men. would bo 

 \er\ possible, and an evidence of a (lection. Tho friendships 

 of that age were ot a more romantic cast than at pr. 



11 with more vigour into the prose of common 

 life, and tinctured the whole stream. 



A natural curio-ity has existed, to know what were the dis- 

 tinguishing chat; I the portions furnished to their 

 common writing* by these illustrious friends. It has gene- 

 rally 1 .'d that Fletcher contributed the vivacity, 

 and Beaumont tlie judgment. We can discover no founda- 

 tion tor this opinion, except the report ; and suspect that 

 there never was any. ' I have heard,' says Aubrey, ' Dr. 



