Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10

Chapter 2: PREFACE

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About This Book

A curated volume presents a set of early modern dramatic works by two collaborators, offering tragedies, comedies, a masque, and linked moral entertainments. The plays stage conflicts over honor, sexual reputation, jealousy, and political power, often mixing serious moral dilemmas with satirical or farcical elements. Scenes alternate between forceful rhetorical passages and lively repartee, with stage directions and lyrical interludes punctuating the action. An editorial preface and appendix situate the texts and provide scholarly notes and variants. The collection showcases theatrical variety: intimate domestic disputes, courtly spectacle, and allegorical moralizations that probe human vanity, desire, and social reputation.

PREFACE

In 1905, the Syndics of the University Press asked me to complete, upon the lines laid down in the preface to volume I, the editing of the reprint of the Second Folio of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher which had been begun by Arnold Glover. The present volume sees the end of the task. In 1906, it was announced that a volume or, possibly, two volumes of notes would follow the text. These, together with a critical text of the scattered poems, must be left to other hands. I hoped, at one time, to undertake this additional burden myself, but that seems now to have become impossible.

A. R. WALLER

21 May 1912