The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in Ten Volumes - Volume I | Page 4

you shall not chuse but consent, and & go
along with them, finding your self at last grown insensibly the very
same person you read, and then stand admiring the subtile Trackes of
your engagement. Fall on a Scene of love and you will never believe
the writers could have the least roome left in their soules for another
passion, peruse a Scene of manly Rage, and you would sweare they
cannot be exprest by the same hands, but both are so excellently
wrought, you must confesse none, but the same hands, could worke
them.
Would thy Melancholy have a cure? thou shalt laugh at_ Democritus
_himselfe, and but reading one piece of this Comick variety, finde thy

exalted fancie in Elizium; And when thou art sick of this cure, (for the
excesse of delight may too much dilate thy_ soule,) _thou shalt meete
almost in every leafe a soft purling passion or_ spring _of sorrow so
powerfully wrought high by the teares of innocence, and_ wronged
Lovers, _it shall persuade thy eyes to weepe into the streame, and yet
smile when they contribute to their owne ruines.
Infinitely more might be said of these rare Copies, but let the ingenuous
Reader peruse them & he will finde them so able to speake their own
worth, that they need not come into the world with a trumpet, since any
one of these incomparable pieces well understood will prove a_ Preface
_to the rest, and if the Reader can fast the best wit ever trod our English
Stage, he will be forced himselfe to become a_ breathing Panegerick
_to them all.
Not to detaine or prepare thee longer, be as capritious and sick-brain'd,
as ignorance & malice can make thee, here thou art rectified, or be as
healthfull as the inward calme of an honest_ Heart, Learning, _and_
Temper _can state thy disposition, yet this booke may be thy fortunate_
concernement _and Companion.
It is not so remote in Time, but very many Gentlemen may remember
these Authors & some familiar in their conversation deliver them upon
every pleasant occasion so fluent, to talke a Comedy. He must be a
bold man that dares undertake to write their Lives. What I have to say
is, we have the precious_ Remaines, _and as the wisest contemporaries
acknowledge they Lived a_ Miracle, _I am very confident this volume
cannot die without one.
What more specially concerne these Authors and their workes is told
thee by another hand in the following Epistle of the_ Stationer to the
Readers.
_Farwell, Reade, and feare not thine owne understanding, this Booke
will create a cleare one in thee, and when thou hast considered thy
purchase, thou wilt call the price of it a Charity to thy selfe, and at the
same time forgive thy friend, and these Authors humble admirer_,

JA. SHIRLEY.
The Stationer to the Readers.
_Gentlemen,_ before you engage farther, be pleased to take notice of
these Particulars. You have here a _New Booke_; I can speake it
clearely; for of all this large Volume of _Comedies_ and _Tragedies_,
not one, till now, was ever printed before. A _Collection of Playes_ is
commonly but a _new Impression_, the scattered pieces which were
printed single, being then onely Republished together: 'Tis otherwise
here.
Next, as it is all New, so here is not any thing _Spurious_ or _impos'd_;
I had the Originalls from such as received them from the Authours
themselves; by Those, and none other, I publish this Edition.
And as here's nothing but what is genuine and Theirs, so you will finde
here are no _Omissions_; you have not onely All I could get, but All
that you must ever expect. For (besides those which were formerly
printed) there is not any Piece written by these _Authours_, either
Joyntly or Severally, but what are now publish'd to the World in this
_Volume_. One only Play I must except (for I meane to deale openly)
'tis a _COMEDY_ called the _Wilde-goose Chase_, which hath beene
long lost, and I feare irrecoverable; for a _Person of Quality_ borrowed
it from the _Actours_ many yeares since, and (by the negligence of a
Servant) it was never return'd; therefore now I put up this _Si quis_,
that whosoever hereafter happily meetes with it, shall be thankfully
satisfied if he please to send it home.
Some _Playes_ (you know) written by these _Authors_ were heretofore
Printed: I thought not convenient to mixe them with this _Volume_,
which of it selfe is entirely New. And indeed it would have rendred the
Booke so Voluminous, that _Ladies_ and _Gentlewomen_ would have
found it scarce manageable, who in Workes of this nature must first be
remembred. Besides, I considered those former Pieces had been so long
printed and re-printed, that many Gentlemen were already