Note 264 — Chapter V

Fleay considers the Faithful Shepherdess a joint production of Beaumont and Fletcher. The only external evidence in favour of this theory is a remark of Jonson's reported by Drummond: 'Flesher and Beaumont, ten yeers since, hath [sic] written the Faithfull Shipheardesse, a Tragicomedie, well done.' Considering that the same authority makes Jonson ascribe the Inner Temple Masque to Fletcher, his statement as to the Faithful Shepherdess cannot be allowed much weight, while I hardly think that the fact of Beaumont having prefixed commendatory verses to Fletcher in the original edition can be set aside as lightly as Fleay appears to think. He relies chiefly upon internal evidence, but in his Biographical Chronicle, at any rate, does not venture upon a detailed division. For myself, I can only discover one hand in the play, and that hand Fletcher's. Fleay places the date of representation before July, 1608, on account of an outbreak of the plague lasting from then to Nov. 1609, but A. H. Thorndike (The Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher on Shakspere, Worcester, Mass., 1901, p. 14) has shown good reason for believing that dramatic performances were much less interfered with by the plague than Fleay imagined.