John Fletcher (playwright)

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John Fletcher

John Fletcher (December 1579 in Rye , Sussex , England , † August 1625 ) was an English playwright who wrote many of his plays in collaboration with Francis Beaumont . Following Shakespeare's , he was one of the most productive and influential playwrights of his time. Above all, his dramaturgically exciting tragedies and tragicomedies with clearly designed characters, conceived for a variety of effects, met the taste of the contemporary audience and proved to be extremely successful. Although his notoriety has diminished considerably since then, Fletcher remains an important figure in the transition between popular theater of the Elizabethan tradition and the popular restoration comedy .

Live and act

Fletcher was born in Rye, Sussex, England in December 1579 to clergyman Richard Fletcher. Much like his friend Francis Beaumont, with whom he would eventually work closely as a playwright, Fletcher came from an elegant family. His father later became Bishop of Bristol, Worcester and London, President of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University, and Court Chaplain to Elizabeth I until he ultimately fell from grace and died impoverished in 1596. The exact date of Fletcher's birth is unknown, but his baptism took place on December 20th. At the age of 11 he attended Corpus Christi College in Cambridge . It can no longer be determined whether he also received a degree there. No further details are known about the period in Fletcher's life between the death of his father in 1596 and his appearance as the author of authoritative epidictic commentaries on Ben Jonson 's comedy Volpone 1607.

Possibly out of financial difficulties, Fletcher, whose two older cousins Phineas and Giles Fletcher were also active as poets and writers, turned to Elizabethan theater and became one of the more productive playwrights of his time. Next to William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson , John Fletcher was certainly the best known and most versatile playwright of his time. Under the influence of Jonson he wrote various dramas and plays for the children's play troupes of that time and became the main playwright for the theater troupe of the King's Men , the most famous drama troupe of the time, but not their business partner like William Shakespeare. After Beaumont's withdrawal from the theater, Fletcher probably wrote all other plays for the King's Men as a resident author from 1613, succeeding Shakespeare .

His talent was mainly in the field of tragicomedy and the social comedy ( comedy of manners ), which during the reign of Charles I were very popular in England.

Little is known about his entire life. Between 1609 and 1625 he probably wrote 42 pieces, 21 of them in collaboration with Francis Beaumont , Nathan Field , William Shakespeare and others. Only nine of his dramas were printed during his lifetime, since at the time the playwrights paid by the drama troops were not allowed to distribute their works in writing without their consent.

The shepherd's play The Faithful Shepherdess , composed between 1608 and 1610 under the influence of Battista Guarini's tragicomedy Il pastor fido , was initially rejected by contemporary audiences, but was enthusiastically received by other playwrights such as Jonson, George Chapman and Beaumont. A first four-high print appeared in the winter of 1609/1610. In addition to epidictic praise poems by Jonson, Chapman, Beaumont and Nathan Field in Fletcher's introductory address To the Reader, this print also contained his variously cited definition of tragicomedy .

From today's perspective, the piece is one of the most successful English shepherd dramas. It can also political- allegorical be interpreted by the heroine, the chaste shepherdess chlorine, as a representation of Elizabeth I is seen. In his comedies Fletcher repeatedly thematized the battle of the sexes; In 1611 he wrote the play The Tamed Tamer (original title: The Woman's Prize or the Tamer Tamed ), a parody of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew , which was created 20 years earlier.

Title page of the quarto edition by Philaster 1620

Between 1610 and 1614 Fletcher wrote The Tragedy of Valentinian , which can be counted among the great Roman dramas of the Tudor and Stuart periods . In this play the last year of the reign of Valentinian III (424–455 AD), the murder of Flavius ​​Aëtius (454 AD), the death of Valentinian and the brief reign of his successor, Flavius ​​Petronius Maximus , are vividly staged as a classic revenge tragedy . As part of the political discourse of the Stuart period, Fletcher's multi-perspective examination of the problem of the right to resist the tyrannical rule of Valentinian tries to sound out the conditions and limits of absolute rule .

From 1613 Fletcher worked frequently with Philip Massinger , who after Fletcher's death took over his position as the first playwright of the King's Men.

Fletcher's tragicomedies, which were created in collaboration with Beaumont and which, in their amalgamation of heroic and romance-like parts, already met the tastes of the upscale aristocratic theater audience in particular, became famous. However, Fletcher's social comedies, which were shaped by the influence of Jonson's satirical comedies, also proved to be stage successes with lasting effects in the theater of the restoration period. Fletcher's late tragicomedies such as Monsieur Thomas (around 1616), The Loyal Subject (around 1618), The Humorous Lieutenant (around 1619) or The Loyal Princess (around 1620) do not contain any particular depth, but reflect with their successful, quite elegant combination of comical or farce-like with sentimental or pathetic elements, however, the aristocratic taste of the time and the culture of the Stuart restoration.

In 1647, Fletcher and Beaumont's joint works appeared in a folio edition. After Ben Jonsons (1616) and Shakespeare's Folio (1623), this was only the third folio edition of dramatic pieces and thus reflected the general appreciation of Fletcher and Beaumont at the time.

At the age of 46, John Fletcher fell victim to the plague epidemic in London in August 1625 ; As John Aubrey reports in Brief Lives , Fletcher is said to have stayed in town to make new clothes instead of fleeing to the country. Fletcher found his final resting place on August 29th in St. Savior's Church in Southwark .

Fletcher's theatrical works were not forgotten even after his death and remained quite popular until the 18th century. Although Fletcher is hardly known to today's theater audiences, his plays are still sometimes performed. Above all, various of the pieces he wrote together with Beaumont as well as with Shakespeare are still on the regular repertoire of numerous English stages, while the works he wrote alone have been read rather than performed since the second half of the 17th century at the latest.

Works

As the sole author

  • The Faithful Shepherdess
  • The Woman's Prize or the Tamer Tamed
  • Valentinian
  • Bonduca
  • Monsieur Thomas
  • The Mad Lover
  • The Chances
  • The Loyal Subject
  • Women Pleased
  • The Humorous Lieutenant
  • The Island Princess
  • The Pilgrim
  • The Wild Goose Chase
  • A Wife for a Month
  • Rule a Wife and Have a Wife

Together with Beaumont

  • The Woman Hater
  • Cupid's Revenge
  • The Coxcomb
  • Philaster
  • The captain
  • The Maid's Tragedy
  • A King and No King
  • Love's pilgrimage
  • The Scornful Lady
  • The noble gentleman

Together with Massinger

  • Barnavelt
  • The Little French Lawyer
  • The False One
  • The double marriage
  • The Custom of the Country
  • The Lovers' Progress
  • The Spanish Curate
  • The Prophetess
  • The Sea Voyage
  • The Elder Brother
  • A very woman

Together with Beaumont & Massinger

  • Thierry and Theodoret
  • Beggars' Bush
  • Love's Cure

Together with Massinger & Field

  • The Honest Man's Fortune
  • The Queen of Corinth
  • The Knight of Malta

Together with Field

  • Four Plays, or Moral Representations, in One

Together with Shakespeare (?)

Together with Shirley

  • The Night Walker
  • Wit Without Money

Together with Rowley

  • The Maid in the Mill

Together with Massinger, Chapman & Jonson

  • Rollo, Duke of Normandy

Together with Massinger, Ford & Webster

  • The Fair Maid of the Inn

Work edition

  • Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon. Edited by Fredson Bowers . 5 volumes. Cambridge University Press, 1966-1982.

literature

  • Mary Cone: Fletcher without Beaumont: a study of the independent plays of John Fletcher . (Salzburg Studies in English Literature; 60). University of Salzburg 1976.
  • John F. Danby: Elizabethan and Jacobean Poets. Studies in Sidney, Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher . Faber, London 1965.
  • Philip J. Finkelpearl: Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Princeton University Press, 1990.

Web links

Wikisource: Author: John Fletcher  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Willi Erzgräber , Bernhard Fabian , Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Wolfgang Weiß: The English literature. Volume 1, Epochs - Shapes. German Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich, 2nd edition 1994, ISBN 978-3-423-04494-3 , p. 397.
  2. ↑ See the entry on John Fletcher (1779-1625). In: Willi Erzgräber , Bernhard Fabian , Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Wolfgang Weiß: The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Munich (dtv) 2000, original edition October 1971, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 158. Also available online as a scanned PDF file under Die Englische Literatur ,, accessed on December 12, 2018. See also the biographical entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica , available online from John Fletcher . Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  3. ↑ See the biographical entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica , accessible online under John Fletcher . Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  4. ↑ See the biographical entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica , accessible online under John Fletcher . Retrieved December 20, 2018. See also entry on John Fletcher (1779-1625). In: Willi Erzgräber , Bernhard Fabian , Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Wolfgang Weiß: The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Munich (dtv) 2000, original edition October 1971, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 158. Also available online as a scanned PDF file under Die englische Literatur ,, accessed on December 12, 2018.
  5. ↑ See John Butler: John Fletcher (1579-1625) . On: Luminarium.org . Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  6. ↑ See for example the edition of The Faithful Shepherdess , published by FW Moormann , Aldine House, London 1897, available online as a PDF document at [1] , Preface , pp. V-VII and pp. 2-7. See also the brief notes in the entry on John Fletcher (1779-1625). In: Willi Erzgräber , Bernhard Fabian , Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Wolfgang Weiß: The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Munich (dtv) 2000, original edition October 1971, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 158. Also available online as a scanned PDF file under Die englische Literatur ,, accessed on December 12, 2018.
  7. ↑ See Uwe Baumann: Fletcher, John. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning , Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , p. 206.
  8. ↑ See Uwe Baumann: Fletcher, John. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , p. 206.
  9. ↑ See John Fletcher - English dramatist . On: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  10. ↑ See the entry on John Fletcher (1779-1625). In: Willi Erzgräber , Bernhard Fabian , Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Wolfgang Weiß: The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Munich (dtv) 2000, original edition October 1971, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 158. Also available online as a scanned PDF file under Die englische Literatur ,, accessed on December 12, 2018.
  11. ↑ See Uwe Baumann: Fletcher, John. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , p. 206.
  12. ↑ See John Fletcher - English dramatist . On: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved June 23, 2015. See also John Butler: John Fletcher (1579-1625) . On: Luminarium.org . Retrieved June 23, 2015. In this context, Butler quotes the corresponding passage from Aubrey's Lives : “John Fletcher, invited to goe with a Knight into Norfolke or Suffolke in the Plague-time of 1625, stayd but to make himselfe a suite of Cloathes, and while it was makeing, fell sick of the plague and dyed. This I had (1668) from his Tayler, who is now a very old man, and Clarke of St. Mary Overy's in Southwark. Mr. Fletcher had an Issue in his arm (I thought it had not used so long ago). The Clarke (who was wont to bring him Ivy-leaves to dresse it) when he came, found the Spotts upon him. Death stopped his journey and laid him low here ” .
  13. ↑ See Uwe Baumann: Fletcher, John. In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X , p. 206. See also John Butler: John Fletcher (1579–1625) . On: Luminarium.org . Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  14. ↑ See Horst Oppel : Shakespeare or Fletcher? The banquet scene in "Henry VIII" as a criterion of authorship (= treatises of the humanities and social science class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born 1965, No. 7).
personal data
SURNAME Fletcher, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English playwright
DATE OF BIRTH December 1579
PLACE OF BIRTH Rye , Sussex, England
DATE OF DEATH August 1625