Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont (* 1584, † March 6, 1616 in London ) was an English playwright. His most famous pieces he wrote in collaboration with John Fletcher.

Life

Francis Beaumont was the son of Judge Sir Francis Beaumont. He was on the headquarters of Grace Dieu in Leicestershire family, born and already went at the age of 13 years to Oxford, where he in Broad Gates Hall (now Pembroke College ) studied. After the death of his father in 1598, he left the university without a degree and followed him in 1600 in the profession of judge ( as such belonged to the Inns of Court, in particular the Honorable Society ( Bar Association ) of the Inner Temple ).

In his spare time he studied the works of the poet Ben Jonson, but also with Michael Drayton and others. His first own work, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, appeared in 1602, when he was 18 years old. 1607 Francis Beaumont wrote the foreword for a work Jonson.

His collaboration with John Fletcher probably began in 1605, but their first major joint success was Philaster in 1608. They lived together in a house community until Beaumont's marriage with Ursula, the daughter and heiress of Henry Isley of Sundridge in Kent in 1613. They had two daughters. Beaumont died in 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Works

For the pieces that Beaumont and Fletcher wrote together, you also know today is not exactly what share each of them had it. In part, other writers were involved with on the pieces, even William Shakespeare has partly cooperated.

But this much seems certain, Beaumont was overall the more serious of the two, while Fletcher is responsible rather for the light and humorous proportions.

Around the year 1609, both the principal playwright of the King's Men seem to have been and have thus begun Shakespeare's successor.

The most famous of the joint works is The Knight of the Burning Pestle ( The Knight of the Burning lobe, about 1610)