72 PART II. SOME IMPORTANT METHODOLOGICAL TERMS. 



And hear the encomiums passed on Beaumont and Fletcher, 

 more particularly on the latter: 



"When Jonson, Shakespeare, and thyself did sit, 



And swayed in the triumvirate of Wit. 



Yet what from Jonson's oil and sweat did flow, 



Or what more easy nature did bestow 



On Shakespeare's gentle muse, in thee full grown 



Their graces both appear." 



''Fletcher (whose fame no age can ever waste; 

 Envy of ours, and glory of the last)." 



"Shakespeare to fhee was dull . . ." 



"None writes love's passions in the world like thee." 



''Brave Shakespeare flow'd, yet had his ebbings too, 

 Often above himself, sometimes below; 

 Thou always best." 



"Fletcher, the king of poets.". . . 



''Thou grew'st to govern the whole stage alone." 



Such was the verdict on Shakespeare, we may say, up to 

 the year 1642, when the stage suffered a complete eclipse which 

 lasted some eighteen years. A new world had been born when 

 the theatres were reopened after this prolonged and gloomy 

 pause. A whole generation had grown up without seeing any 

 plays performed, and the memory of the playgoers must have 

 been greatly dimmed, especially as the interval was crowded 

 with exciting political events. But this was only a minor matter. 

 The Court had returned from France, where Corneille deserv- 

 edly ruled the stage, imbued with classic notions regarding the 

 structure and contents of plays, notions which were in rather 

 violent contradiction with the "lawlesness" which characterised 

 the Elizabethan dramatists who knew nothing of the unities of 

 time, space, and plot, and the rigid separation of tragedy from 

 comedy. To the anti-puritans, too, the theatrical fare proffered 

 by the Elizabethan playwrights far too strong for us was 

 looked upon as decidedly puritanical. Accordingly, a radical 

 re-valuation of values took place, and the Elizabethan stage 

 seemed as if it belonged to antiquity, and this was emphasised 

 by the development of higher and more fastidious literary stand- 

 ards. Lastly, interest in music generally, and the opera in 

 particular, helped to divert the attention from the Elizabethan 

 dramatists. 



In these circumstances only what was quite exceptional would 

 tend to escape the clutches of oblivion: broadly speaking, 

 Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher. From 

 that age we have Dryden's Essay on Dramatick Poesy. In this 

 work Jonson largely monopolises the space, Beaumont and 

 Fletcher are fairly frequently referred to, and Shakespeare 



