6 LIFE OF FRANCIS BEAUMOXT.
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o correct the overflowings of Fletcher's wit. The latter partof this allegation is not admitted by certain writers, particu^larly Sir Egerton Brydges, who suspects that great injustice hasbeen done to Beaumont, by the supposition that his merit wasprincipally confined to lopping the redundancies of Fletcher. Theeditors of the Biographia Dramatica say, '< It is probable that theforming of the plan, and contriving the conduct of the fable,the writing of the more serious and pathetic parts, and loppingthe redundant branches of Fletcher's wit, whose luxuriancesfrequently stood in need of castigation, niight be in generalBeaumont's portion of the work." This is to afford him highpraise, and there are other facts to prove that he was consideredby his contemporaries in a superior light, and that tijis estima*tion of his talents was common in the life»tiine of his colleague,who from candour, or friendship, appears to have acquiesced iuevery respect paid to the memory of Beaumont. How bis life was spent his works will testify. The produc*tion of so maay plays, and the interest which he would naturallytake in their success, were sufficient to occupy his mind duringthe short span of his mortal existence, which cannot be supposedto have been diversified by any other events than those incidentto candidates for theatrical fame and profit. Mr. Beaumont died in March 1615-1 6, and was buried in thecollegiate church of St. Peter, Westminster. The first editionof his poems appeared in 1640. The only poem printed in Beau-mont's life-time was, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, from Ovid,which he published in 1608, when he was only $i^teen yearsof age. His original poems, says his biographer, give him very supe-rior claims as a poet; he is generally iQore free from metaphy-sical conceits than his oontemporarieSf ' His sentiments are ele-gant and refined, and his versification is unusually harmonious.His amatory poems ace ^rightly and original, and some of hislyrics rise to the impassioned spirit of Shakespeare and Milton.
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