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The Custom Of The Country: Beaumont And Fletcher's Works
The Custom of the Country is a book that features the works of the English playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. The book is edited by Arnold Glover and includes a collection of plays that were written by the duo during the early 17th century. The plays in the book are known for their witty dialogue, complex characters, and intricate plots that explore themes such as love, honor, and betrayal. The book is a valuable resource for those interested in the history of English literature and theater. Overall, The Custom of the Country is a comprehensive and engaging collection of plays that showcases the talent and skill of two of England's most celebrated playwrights.Part 1 of 10.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
- GenresPlays
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1647
About the author
Francis Beaumont
834 books22 followersborn 1584
English poet Francis Beaumont wrote his major works, plays, including The Maid's Tragedy and The Coxcomb , with John Fletcher in the 1610s.
Francis Beaumont, a dramatist in the Renaissance theater, most famously collaborated.
A justice of the common pleas of Grace Dieu near Thringstone in Leicestershire fathered Beaumont, the son, born born at the family seat. Broadgates hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) educated him at 13 years of age in 1597. Following the death of his father in 1598, he left university without a degree and entered the Inner Temple in London in 1600 to follow in his footsteps.
Beaumont worked not long as a lawyer, accounts suggest. He studied Ben Jonson; Michael Drayton and other dramatists also acquainted him, who decided on this passion. He apparently first composed Salmacis and Hermaphroditus in 1602. The edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica describes as "not on the whole discreditable to a lad of eighteen, fresh from the popular love-poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare, which it naturally exceeds in long-winded and fantastic diffusion of episodes and conceits."
In 1605, Beaumont commendatory verses to Volpone of Jonson. Collaboration of Beaumont perhaps began early as 1605.
They hit an obstacle early in their dramatic careers with notable failures; The children of the Blackfriars in 1607 first performed The Knight of the Burning Pestle of Beaumont; an audience rejected it, and the epistle of the publisher to the quarto of 1613 claims, failed to note "the privie mark of irony about it;" they took satire of Beaumont as old-fashioned drama. It received a lukewarm reception. In the following year of 1608, Faithful Shepherdess failed on the same stage.
In 1609, however, the two collaborated on Philaster , which the men of the king performed at the globe theater and at Blackfriars. The popular success launched two careers and sparked a new taste for comedy. John Aubrey related a mid-century anecdote; , they lived in the same house on the Bankside in Southwark, "sharing everything in the closest intimacy."
About 1613, Beaumont married Ursula Isley, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Isley of Sundridge in Kent; she bore two daughters, one posthumous. After a stroke between February and October 1613, he ably composed no more than an elegy for Lady Penelope Clifton, who died 26 October 1613.
People buried his body in Westminster abbey. People celebrated Beaumont during his lifetime and remember him today as a dramatist.
English poet Francis Beaumont wrote his major works, plays, including The Maid's Tragedy and The Coxcomb , with John Fletcher in the 1610s.
Francis Beaumont, a dramatist in the Renaissance theater, most famously collaborated.
A justice of the common pleas of Grace Dieu near Thringstone in Leicestershire fathered Beaumont, the son, born born at the family seat. Broadgates hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) educated him at 13 years of age in 1597. Following the death of his father in 1598, he left university without a degree and entered the Inner Temple in London in 1600 to follow in his footsteps.
Beaumont worked not long as a lawyer, accounts suggest. He studied Ben Jonson; Michael Drayton and other dramatists also acquainted him, who decided on this passion. He apparently first composed Salmacis and Hermaphroditus in 1602. The edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica describes as "not on the whole discreditable to a lad of eighteen, fresh from the popular love-poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare, which it naturally exceeds in long-winded and fantastic diffusion of episodes and conceits."
In 1605, Beaumont commendatory verses to Volpone of Jonson. Collaboration of Beaumont perhaps began early as 1605.
They hit an obstacle early in their dramatic careers with notable failures; The children of the Blackfriars in 1607 first performed The Knight of the Burning Pestle of Beaumont; an audience rejected it, and the epistle of the publisher to the quarto of 1613 claims, failed to note "the privie mark of irony about it;" they took satire of Beaumont as old-fashioned drama. It received a lukewarm reception. In the following year of 1608, Faithful Shepherdess failed on the same stage.
In 1609, however, the two collaborated on Philaster , which the men of the king performed at the globe theater and at Blackfriars. The popular success launched two careers and sparked a new taste for comedy. John Aubrey related a mid-century anecdote; , they lived in the same house on the Bankside in Southwark, "sharing everything in the closest intimacy."
About 1613, Beaumont married Ursula Isley, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Isley of Sundridge in Kent; she bore two daughters, one posthumous. After a stroke between February and October 1613, he ably composed no more than an elegy for Lady Penelope Clifton, who died 26 October 1613.
People buried his body in Westminster abbey. People celebrated Beaumont during his lifetime and remember him today as a dramatist.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 20, 2015
This play is silly and fun. And there's a male brothel where the dudes just get utterly exhausted by the ladies!
August 23, 2024
The Custom of the Country has a large number of Fletcher tropes: it is a tragicomedy, so you have absolutely no idea where it's going to go next, and it goes to some truly funky places.
Starting with a couple (and his horny brother) doing a runner to avoid Droit de Seigneur from lecherous Clodio, they arrive in Lisbon, get into an accidental murder in the street (like you do), from which one brother is attemptingly seduced by the luscious Hippolita (whom he fancies like the billy-o, but he has sworn to stay chaste to Zenocia) (a great, sexy trope from Fletcher, the master of the early modern impossible sex scene), while the other brother gets employed by a male brothel and forced to sexual service sixteen women a day, until his bones are completely empty.
Meanwhile, the guy he murdered is brought back to life, but decides he's going to change his life, while brothel-brother realises he's in love with the mum of the man he murdered (like you do) and there's some high-pitched drama, and....
I mean, this is a really good Fletcher (and Massinger? according to Wikipedia): we need to get more Fletcher onstage.
Starting with a couple (and his horny brother) doing a runner to avoid Droit de Seigneur from lecherous Clodio, they arrive in Lisbon, get into an accidental murder in the street (like you do), from which one brother is attemptingly seduced by the luscious Hippolita (whom he fancies like the billy-o, but he has sworn to stay chaste to Zenocia) (a great, sexy trope from Fletcher, the master of the early modern impossible sex scene), while the other brother gets employed by a male brothel and forced to sexual service sixteen women a day, until his bones are completely empty.
Meanwhile, the guy he murdered is brought back to life, but decides he's going to change his life, while brothel-brother realises he's in love with the mum of the man he murdered (like you do) and there's some high-pitched drama, and....
I mean, this is a really good Fletcher (and Massinger? according to Wikipedia): we need to get more Fletcher onstage.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews