John Fletcher

After William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, John Fletcher was the most gifted and influential of the Elizabethan and Stuart dramatists. In succession to Shakespeare, he became the chief dramatist for the leading company of London, the King's Men. Fletcher was not, as was Shakespeare, a shareholder in the company.

He became one of the eight people regularly under contract as writers for the various London theater companies from 1590 to 1642, along with Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, Philip Massinger, Shakespeare, James Shirley, William Rowley, and Richard Brome.

His mastery is most notable in two dramatic types, tragicomedy and comedy of manners, both of which exerted a pervasive influence on dramatists in the reign of Charles I and during the Restoration.

His father, Richard, was an ambitious and successful cleric who was in turn dean of Peterborough, bishop of Bristol, bishop of Worcester, and bishop of London as well as chaplain to the queen. As dean of Peterborough it was Richard Fletcher who at the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay "knelt down on the scaffold steps and started to pray out loud and at length, in a prolonged and rhetorical style as though determined to force his way into the pages of history" and who cried out at her death, "So perish all the Queen's enemies!" John Fletcher was eight at the time.

Beyond the record of his plays the details of his life are scanty. Between 1609 and 1625, it is estimated that Fletcher was involved in the writing of forty-two plays. At least 21 of them have been shown to be collaborations including work of Francis Beaumont, Nathan Field, Shakespeare, Rowley, and Massinger. Only nine of Fletcher's plays were published in his lifetime.

Plays

(An exact chronology or even attribution of the plays is almost impossible. So popular were the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher that joint authorship was claimed for plays written singly or in collaboration with others.)

• The Faithful Shepherdess (printed 1610)
• Wit Without Money (printed 1639)
• Valentinian (performed 1610-1614)
• The Loyal Subject (acted 1618)
• The Mad Lover (acted 1616)
• The Humorous Lieutenant (acted 1619)
• Women Pleased (performed 1620)
• The Wild Goose Chase (performed 1621)
• The Pilgrim (performed 1621)
• The Island Princess (performed 1621)
• Monsieur Thomas (performed 1619, printed 1639)
• The Woman's Prize (written 1604-17)
• A Wife for a Month (performed 1624)
• Rule a Wife and Have a Wife (performed 1624)
• The Chances (written 1617).

With others:

• Love's Pilgrimage (printed 1647)
• The Double Marriage (with Massinger) (printed 1647)
• Sir John van Olden Barnavelt (with Massinger) (performed 1619)
• The False One (with Massinger) (performed 1620)
• The Little French Lawyer (with Massinger) (printed 1647)
• The Custom of the Country (with Massinger) (printed 1647)
• The Laws of Candy (printed 1647)
• The Spanish Curate (with Massinger) (performed 1622)
• The Beggar's Bush (with Massinger) (performed 1622)
• The Lover's Progress (with Massinger) (performed 1623)
• The Maid in the Mill (with Rowley) (licensed 1623)
• The Night-Walker (with James Shirley) (1633)
• The Elder Brother (with Massinger) (printed 1637)
• The Fair Maid of the Inn (with John Ford, Massinger, and John Webster)
• The Nice Valour (with Thomas Middleton) (printed 1647)
• The Bloody Brother, or Rollo, Duke of Normandy (with Massinger, Jonson, and George Chapman) (performed 1616)
• The Noble Gentleman (acted 1626)
• The Knight of Malta (with Massinger and Field) (printed 1647)
• The Prophetess (possibly with Massinger) (published 1647)
• Henry VIII (with Shakespeare) (1613)
• Cardenio (with Shakespeare)
• The Two Noble Kinsmen (with Shakespeare) (1613)

Written with Francis Beaumont:

• The Woman Hater (performed 1605)
• Cupid's Revenge (performed 1612 )
• Philaster (written 1608-09)
• The Maid's Tragedy (written 1610-11)
• Four Plays in One (acted 1608)
• Love's Cure (and with Massinger)
• The Scornful Lady (performed 1610)
• The Coxcomb (performed 1612)
• A King and No King (performed 1611)
• The Honest Man's Fortune (printed 1647)
• Thierry and Theodoret (and with Massinger)
• The Captain (performed 1612-13)
• Bonduca (performed 1613-14)

Referenced By