The M AID’s TK AGRP Y.
PHILASTER; or, Love lies aBLEEDING.

A KING and no KIN G.

AND

The SCORN FUL L A D Y.

Printed under the Inspection of Mr. THEOBALD.

LONDON:
Printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. DR A PER

in the Strand.

M DCCL,

P R E F A C CE,

By T. SEWA R D.

HE Public at length receives a new Edition of the two great Poets, who, with a Fate in each case alike unjust, were extoll’d for nçar a Century after their Deaths, as Equc!:, Rivals, nay,

Superiors to the iiņıncrcal Shakespear; but in the present Age have beeri deprệss'd beneath the smooth-polished eneryate faç of the Modern Drama. And as their Fame has been so different with respect to other Poets, so has it varied also between Themselves. Fletcher was a while supposed unable to rise to any Height of Eminence, had not Beaumont's stronger Arm bore him upwards. Yet no sooner had he lost that Aid; and demonstrated that it was Delight and Love, not Necessity, which made him foar abreast with his amiable Friend ; but the still injurious World began to strip the Plumes from Beaumont, and to dress Fletcher in the whole Fame, leaving to the former nothing but the mere Pruning of Fletcher's luxuriant Wit, the Limæ Labor, VOL. I. a 3

the

the Plummet and the Rule, but neither the Plan,

Materials, Composition, or Ofnaments. This is di-

rečily asserted in Mr. Cartwright's Commendatory

Poem on Fletcher.

Who therefore wisely did submit each Birth

To knowing Beaumont e'er it did come forth,

Working again until he said, 'twas fit,

And made him the Sobriety of bis Wit.

Tho' thus he call’d his Judge into his Fame,
And for that did allow'd him half the Name, &c.

See Cartwright's Poem below.

Mr. Harris, in his Commendatory Poem, makes

Beau mont a mere dead Weight hanging on the Boughs

of Fletcher's Palm.

When thou didst fit

But ai ajant Lomationen in Wit ;

When it bad. Plupimets: bing on to suppress

Its too luxuöžaik. gröring Mightiness.

Till as that

. Tredisplich:fcorns to be kept down,

Thou grew'll to govern the whole Stage alone.

I believe this extremely injurious to Beaumont; but

as the Opinion, or something like it, has lived for

Ages, and is frequent at this Day, it is time at

length to restore Beaumont to the full Rank of Fel-

lowship which he possess’d when living, and to fix

the Standard of their respective Merits, before we

shew the Degree in which their united Fame ought

to be placed on the British Theatre.

Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Harris wrote thirty Years

after Beaumont's Death, and twenty after Fletcher's ;

and