Part 39

_Works Assigned to Fletcher's Sole Authorship.--The Faithful Shepherdess_ (pr. c. 1609) was ill received on its original production, but was revived in 1634. That Fletcher was the sole author is practically unquestioned, though Ben Jonson in Drummond's _Conversations_ is made to assert that "Beaumont and Fletcher ten years since hath written _The Faithful Shepherdess_." It was translated into Latin verse by Sir R. Fanshawe in 1658, and Milton's _Comus_ owes not a little to it. In _Four Plays in One_, the two last, _The Triumph of Death_ and _The Triumph of Time_, are Fletcher's. In the indifferent comedy of _The Captain_ (acted 1612-1613, revived 1626, pr. 1647) there is no definite evidence of any other hand than Fletcher's, though the collaboration of Beaumont, Massinger and Rowley has been advanced. Other Fletcher plays are: _Wit Without Money_ (acted 1614, pr. 1639); the two romantic tragedies of _Bonduca_ (in which Caradach or Caractacus is the chief figure rather than Bonduca or Boadicea) and _Valentinian_, both dating from c. 1616 and printed in the first folio; _The Loyal Subject_ (acted 1618, revived at court 1633, pr. 1647); _The Mad Lover_ (acted before March 1619, pr. 1647), which borrows something from the story of Mundus and Paulina in Josephus (bk. xviii.); _The Humorous Lieutenant_ (1619, pr. 1647); _Woman Pleased_ (c. 1620, pr. 1647); _The Woman's Prize or The Tamer Tam'd_ (produced probably between 1610 and 1613, acted 1633 at Blackfriars and at court, pr. 1647), a kind of sequel to _The Taming of the Shrew_; _The Chances_ (uncertain date, pr. 1647), taken from _La Sennora Cornelia_ of Cervantes, and repeatedly revived after the Restoration and in the 18th century; _Monsieur Thomas_ (acted perhaps as early as 1609, pr. 1639); _The Island Princess_ (c. 1621, pr. 1647); _The Pilgrim_ and _The Wild Goose-Chase_ (pr. 1652), the second of which was adapted in prose by Farquhar, both acted at court in 1621, and possibly then not new pieces; _A Wife for a Month_ (acted 1624, pr. 1647); _Rule a Wife and Have a Wife_ (lic. 1624, pr. 1640). _The Pilgrim_ received additions from Dryden, and was adapted by Vanbrugh.

_Fletcher in Collaboration with other Dramatists._--External evidence of Fletcher's connexion with Massinger is given by Sir Aston Cokaine, who in an epitaph on Fletcher and Massinger wrote: "Playes they did write together, were great friends," and elsewhere claimed for Massinger a share in the plays printed in the 1647 folio. James Shirley and William Rowley have their part in the works that used to be included in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon; and to a letter from Field, Daborne and Massinger, asking for L5 for their joint necessities from Henslowe about the end of 1615, there is a postscript suggesting the deduction of the sum from the "mony remaynes for the play of Mr Fletcher and ours." The problem is complicated when the existing versions of the play are posterior to Fletcher's lifetime, that is, revisions by Massinger or another of pieces which were even originally of double authorship. In this way Beaumont's work may be concealed under successive revisions, and it would be rash to assert that none of the late plays contains anything of his. Mr R. Boyle joins the name of Cyril Tourneur to those of Fletcher and Massinger in connexion with _The Honest Man's Fortune_ (acted 1613, pr. 1647), which Fleay identifies with "the play of Mr Fletcher's and ours." _The Knight of Malta_ (acted 1618-1619, pr. 1647) is in its existing form a revision by Fletcher, Massinger, and possibly Field, of an earlier play which Oliphant thinks was probably written by Beaumont about 1608. The same remarks (with the exclusion of Field's name) apply to _Thierry and Theodoret_ (acted c. 1617, pr. 1621), perhaps a satire on contemporary manners at the French court, though Beaumont's share in either must be regarded as problematical. Fletcher and Massinger's great tragedy of _Sir John van Olden Barnaveldt_ (acted 1619) was first printed in Bullen's _Old Plays_ (vol. ii., 1883). They followed it up with _The Custom of the Country_ (acted 1619, pr. 1647), based on an English translation (1619) of _Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda; The Double Marriage_ (c. 1620, pr. 1647); _The Little French Lawyer_ (c. 1620, pr. 1647), the plot of which can be traced indirectly to a _novellino_ by Massuccio Salernitano; _The Laws of Candy_ (c. 1618, pr. 1647), of disputed authorship; _The False One_ (c. 1620, pr. 1647), dealing with the subject of Caesar and Cleopatra; _The Spanish Curate_ (acted 1622, pr. 1647), repeatedly revived after the Restoration, was derived from Leonard Digges's translation (1622) of a Spanish novel, _Gerardo, the Unfortunate Spaniard; The Prophetess_ (1622, pr. 1647), afterwards made into an opera by Betterton to Purcell's music; _The Sea-Voyage_ (1622, pr. 1647); _The Elder Brother_ (perhaps originally written by Fletcher c. 1614; revised and acted 1635, pr. 1647); _Beggar's Bush_ (acted at court 1622, probably then not new, pr. 1647); and _The Noble Gentleman_ (1625-1626, pr. 1647). Fletcher only had a small share in _Wit at Several Weapons_--"if he but writ an act or two," says an epilogue on its revival (1623 or 1626),--and the play is probably a revision by Rowley and Middleton of an early Beaumont and Fletcher play. _A Very Woman_ (1634, pr. 1655) is a revision by Massinger of _The Woman's Plot_ ascribed to Fletcher and acted at court in 1621. Field worked with Fletcher and Massinger on the lost play of the _Jeweller of Amsterdam_ (1619), as on the _Faithful Friends_ (1613-1614) and _The Queen of Corinth_ (c. 1618, pr. 1647). _The Lover's Progress_ (acted 1634, pr. 1647) is probably a revision by Massinger of the Fletcher play licensed in 1623 as _The Wandering Lovers_, and is perhaps identical with _Cleander_, licensed in 1634. _Love's Cure or The Martial Maid_ (1623 or 1625) is thought by Mr Fleay to be a revision by Massinger of a Beaumont and Fletcher play produced as early as 1607-1608. W. Rowley joined Fletcher in _The Maid in the Mill_ (1623, pr. 1647), and had a share with Massinger in the revision of _The Fair Maid of the Inn_ (licensed 1626, pr. 1647), based on _La illustre Fregona_ of Cervantes. _Nice Valour_ (acted 1625-1626, pr. 1647) seems to have been altered by Middleton from an earlier play; _The Widow_, printed in 1652 as by Jonson, Fletcher and Middleton, must be ascribed almost exclusively to Middleton. _The Night Walker_ (1633) is a revision by Shirley of a Fletcher play.

_Fletcher and Jonson in Collaboration._--The history of _The Bloody Brother or Rollo, Duke of Normandy_, printed in 1637 as by "B.J.F.," is matter of varied speculation. Mr Oliphant thinks the basis of the play to be an early work (c. 1604) of Beaumont, on which is superimposed a revision (1616) by Fletcher, Jonson and Middleton, and a subsequent revision (1636-1637) by Massinger. The general view is that the main portion of the play is referable to Jonson and Fletcher. Jonson apparently had a share in Fletcher's _Love's Pilgrimage_ (pr. 1647), which seems to have been revised by Massinger in 1635.

_Fletcher and Shakespeare._--_The Two Noble Kinsmen_ was printed in 1634 as by Mr John Fletcher and Mr William Shakespeare. If its first representation was in 1625 it was in the year of Fletcher's death. It was included in the second folio of Beaumont and Fletcher's comedies and tragedies. If Shakespeare and Fletcher worked in concert it was probably in 1612-1613, and the existing play probably represents a revision by Massinger in 1625. _Henry VIII._ (played at the Globe in 1613) is usually ascribed mainly to Fletcher and Massinger, and the conditions of its production were probably similar. Fletcher and Shakespeare are together credited at Stationers' Hall with the lost play of _Cardenio_, destroyed by Warburton's cook. (M. Br.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Recent research has resulted in some variation of opinion as to the precise authorship of some of the plays commonly attributed to them; but this article, contributed to the ninth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, remains the classical modern criticism of Beaumont and Fletcher, and its value is substantially unaffected. As representing to the end the views of its distinguished author, it is therefore retained as written, the results of later research being epitomized in the Bibliographical Appendix at the end. (_Ed._)

BEAUMONT, a city and the county-seat of Jefferson county, Texas, U.S.A., situated on the Neches river, in the E. part of the state, about 28 m. from the Gulf of Mexico and 72 m. N.E. of Galveston. Pop. (1890) 3296; (1900) 9427, of whom 2953 were negroes; (1910, census) 20,640. It is served by the Gulf & Interstate, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, the Kansas City Southern, the Texas & New Orleans, the Colorado Southern, New Orleans & Pacific, the Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western (from Beaumont to Sour Lake, Tex.), and the (short) Galveston, Beaumont & North-Eastern railways. The Neches river from Beaumont to its mouth has a depth of not less than 19 ft.; from its mouth extends a canal (9 ft. deep, 100 ft. wide, and 12 m. long) which connects with the Port Arthur Canal (180 ft. wide and 25 ft. deep) extending to the sea. Situated in the midst of a region covered with dense forests of pine and cypress, Beaumont is one of the largest lumber centres of the southern states; it is also the centre of a large rice-growing region. The manufactories include rice mills, saw mills, sash, door and blind factories, shingle mills, iron works, oil refineries, broom factories and a dynamite factory. In 1905 the cleaning and polishing of rice was the most important industry, its output being valued at $1,203,123, being nearly twice the value of the product of the rice mills of the city in 1900, 25.9% of the total value of the state's product of polished and cleaned rice, 46.1% of the value ($2,609,829) of all of Beaumont's factory products, and about 7.4% of the value of the product of polished and cleaned rice for the whole United States in 1905. After the sinking of oil wells in 1901, Beaumont became one of the principal oil-producing places in the United States; its oil refineries are connected by pipe lines with the surrounding oil fields, and two 6-in. pipe lines extend from Beaumont to Oklahoma. Beaumont was first settled in 1828, and was first chartered as a city in 1899.

BEAUNE, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Cote-d'Or, on the Bouzoise, 23 m. S.S.W. of Dijon on the main line of the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 11,668. Beaune lies at the foot of the hills of Cote-d'Or. Portions of its ancient fortifications are still to be seen, but they have been for the most part replaced by a shady promenade which separates the town from its suburbs. The most interesting feature of Beaune is the old hospital of St Esprit, founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy. Though it is built largely of wood, the fabric is in good preservation. The exterior is simple, but the buildings which surround the main courtyard have high-pitched roofs surmounted by numerous dormer windows with decorated gables, recalling the Flemish style of architecture. In the interior there are several interesting apartments; the chief of these is the ample council chamber with its fine tapestries, where an important wine sale is held annually. The hospital possesses many artistic treasures, among them the mural paintings of the 17th century in the Salle St Hugues and an altar-piece, the Last Judgment, attributed to Roger van der Weyden. The principal church of the town, Notre-Dame, dating mainly from the 12th and 13th centuries, has a fine central tower and a triple portal with handsome wooden doors. In the interior there is some valuable tapestry of the 15th century, and other works of art. Two round towers (15th century) are a survival of the castle of Beaune, dismantled by Henry IV. A belfry of 1403 and several houses of the Renaissance period, some of which are built over ancient wine-cellars, are architecturally notable. There is a statue to the mathematician, G. Monge, born in the town (1746), and a monument to Pierre Joigneaux the politician (d. 1892). Beaune has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a school of agriculture and viticulture and colleges for girls and boys. It carries on considerable trade in live-stock and cereals and in the vegetables of its market-gardens, and manufactures of casks, corks, white metal, oil, vinegar and machinery for the wine-trade are included among the industries; it is chiefly important for its vineyards and as the centre of the wine-trade of Burgundy.

Beaune was a fortified Roman camp and a stronghold during the middle ages. It was the capital of a separate county which in 1227 was united to the duchy of Burgundy; it then became the first seat of the Burgundian parlement or _jours generaux_ and a ducal residence. On the death of Charles the Bold, it sided with his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, but was besieged and taken by the forces of Louis XI. in 1478. Its rank as commune, conceded to it in 1203, was confirmed by Francis I. in 1521. In the Wars of Religion it at first sided with the League, but afterwards opened its gates to the troops of Henry IV., from whom it received the confirmation of its communal privileges and permission to demolish its fortifications. The revocation of the edict of Nantes struck a severe blow at the cloth and iron industries, which had previously been a source of prosperity to the town. In the 18th century there were no fewer than seven monastic buildings in Beaune, besides a Bernardine abbey, a Carthusian convent and an ecclesiastical college.

BEAUREGARD, MARQUIS DE (c. 1772-?), French adventurer, the son of a poor vinegrower named Leuthraud, was born about 1772. He received the name Beauregard from a nobleman in whose service he was engaged as valet. On the outbreak of the revolution, this nobleman converted all his fortune into gold, and entrusting the bag containing the cash to his valet, fled to the frontier. For security's sake master and man took different roads, but Beauregard turned back with the money to Paris. By speculations in provisions and military equipments under the Directorate he amassed a considerable fortune, and styling himself the marquis de Beauregard, purchased a splendid mansion and began giving magnificent entertainments. Detected at the height of his success, the impostor was arrested and condemned to four years in irons and to be branded. He soon escaped from prison, and had the audacity to reappear in Paris and start his old life afresh. After a short time, however, he disappeared again, and is supposed to have committed suicide. It is probable that most of the information available about him is a blend of fact and fiction.

BEAUREGARD, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT (1818-1893), American soldier, was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 28th of May 1818. At the United States military academy he graduated second in his class in July 1838, and was appointed lieutenant of engineers. In the Mexican War he distinguished himself in siege operations at Vera Cruz, and took part in all the battles around Mexico, being wounded at Chapultepec, and receiving the brevets of captain and major. In 1853 he became captain and was in charge of fortification and other engineer works of various points, on the Gulf coast from 1853 to 1860. He had just been appointed superintendent of West Point when the secession of his state brought about his resignation (20th February 1861). As a brigadier-general of the new Confederate army he directed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, S.C. As the commander of the Southern "Army of the Potomac" he opposed McDowell's advance to Bull Run, and during the battle was second in command under Joseph E. Johnston, who had joined him on the previous evening. He was one of the five full generals appointed in August 1861, and in 1862 was second in command under Sidney Johnston on the Tennessee. After Johnston's death he directed the battle of Shiloh, subsequent to which he retired to Corinth. This place he defended against the united armies under Halleck, until the end of May 1862, when he retreated in good order to the southward. His health now failing, he was employed in less active work. He defended Charleston against the Union forces from September 1862 to April 1864. In May 1864 he fought a severe and eventually successful battle at Drury's Bluff against General Butler and the Army of the James. Later in the year he endeavoured to gather troops wherewith to oppose Sherman's advance from Atlanta, and eventually surrendered with Johnston's forces in April 1865. After the war he engaged in railway management, became adjutant-general of his state and managed the Louisiana lottery. He declined high commands which were offered to him in the Rumanian and later in the Egyptian armies. General Beauregard died in New Orleans on the 20th of February 1893. He was the author of _Principles and Maxims of the Art of War_ (Charleston, 1863); _Report on the Defence of Charleston_ (Richmond, 1864).

See Alfred Roman, _Military Operations of General Beauregard_ (New York, 1883).

BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC DE (1659-1738), French Protestant divine, was born at Niort on the 8th of March 1659. After studying theology at the Protestant academy of Saumur, he was ordained at the age of twenty-two, becoming pastor at Chatillon-sur-Indre. After the revocation of the edict of Nantes he fled to Rotterdam (November 1685), and in 1686 was appointed chaplain to the princess of Dessau, Henrietta Catherine of Orange. In 1693, on the death of the prince of Dessau, he went to Berlin and became chaplain to the court at Oranienbaum, and in 1695 pastor of the French church at Berlin. He became court preacher, counsellor of the Consistory, director of the _Maison francaise_, a hospice for French people, inspector of the French gymnasium and superintendent of all the French churches in Brandenburg. He died on the 5th of June 1738. He had strong sense with profound erudition, was one of the best writers of his time and an excellent preacher.

BEAUVAIS, a town of northern France, capital of the department of Oise, 49 m. N. by W. of Paris, on the Northern railway. Pop. (1906) 17,045. Beauvais lies at the foot of wooded hills on the left bank of the Therain at its confluence with the Avelon. Its ancient ramparts have been destroyed, and it is now surrounded by boulevards, outside which run branches of the Therain. In addition, there are spacious promenades in the north-east of the town. Its cathedral of St Pierre, in some respects the most daring achievement of Gothic architecture, consists only of a transept and choir with apse and seven apse-chapels. The vaulting in the interior exceeds 150 ft. in height. The small Romanesque church of the 10th century known as the Basse-Oeuvre occupies the site destined for the nave. Begun in 1247, the work was interrupted in 1284 by the collapse of the vaulting of the choir, in 1573 by the fall of a too ambitious central tower, after which little addition was made. The transept was built from 1500 to 1548. Its facades, especially that on the south, exhibit all the richness of the late Gothic style. The carved wooden doors of both the north and the south portals are masterpieces respectively of Gothic and Renaissance workmanship. The church possesses an elaborate astronomical clock (1866) and tapestries of the 15th and 17th centuries; but its chief artistic treasures are stained glass windows of the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries, the most beautiful of them from the hand of the Renaissance artist, Engrand Le Prince, a native of Beauvais. To him also is due some of the stained glass in St. Etienne, the second church of the town, and an interesting example of the transition stage between the Romanesque and Gothic styles.

In the Place de l'Hotel de Ville and in the old streets near the cathedral there are several houses dating from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The hotel de ville, close to which stands the statue of Jeanne Hachette (see below), was built in 1752. The episcopal palace, now used as a court-house, was built in the 16th century, partly upon the Gallo-Roman fortifications. The industry of Beauvais comprises, besides the state manufacture of tapestry, which dates from 1664, the manufacture of various kinds of cotton and woollen goods, brushes, toys, boots and shoes, and bricks and tiles. Market-gardening flourishes in the vicinity and an extensive trade is carried on in grain and wine.

The town is the seat of a bishop, a prefect and a court of assizes; it has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, together with a chamber of commerce, a branch of the Bank of France, a higher ecclesiastical seminary, a lycee and training colleges.

Beauvais was known to the Romans as _Caesaromagus_, and took its present name from the Gallic tribe of the Bellovaci, whose capital it was. In the 9th century it became a countship, which about 1013 passed to the bishops of Beauvais, who ultimately became peers of France. In 1346 the town had to defend itself against the English, who again besieged it in 1433. The siege which it suffered in 1472 at the hands of the duke of Burgundy was rendered famous by the heroism of the women, under the leadership of Jeanne Hachette, whose memory is still celebrated by a procession on the 14th of October (the feast of Ste Angadreme), in which the women take precedence of the men.

See V. Lhuillier, _Choses du vieux Beauvais et au Beauvaisis_ (1896).

BEAUVILLIER, the name of a very ancient French family belonging to the country around Chartres, members of which are found filling court offices from the 15th century onward. For Charles de Beauvillier, gentleman of the chamber to the king, governor and _bailli_ of Blois, the estate of Saint Aignan was created a countship in 1537. Francois de Beauvillier, comte de Saint Aignan, after having been through the campaigns in Germany (1634-1635), Franche-Comte (1636), and Flanders (1637), was sent to the Bastille in consequence of his having lost the battle of Thionville in 1640. In reward for his devotion to the court party during the Fronde he obtained many signal favours, and Saint Aignan was raised to a duchy in the peerage of France (duche-pairie) in 1663. His son Paul, called the duc de Beauvillier, was several times ambassador to England; he became chief of the council of finance in 1685, governor of the dukes of Burgundy, Anjou and Berri from 1689 to 1693, minister of state in 1691, and grandee of Spain in 1701. He married a daughter of Colbert. Paul Hippolyte de Beauvillier, comte de Montresor, afterwards duc de Saint Aignan, was ambassador at Madrid from 1715 to 1718 and at Rome in 1731, and a member of the council of regency in 1719. (M. P.*)