Beaumont's Lives

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.3337

Keywords:

Beaumont, life-writing, biography

Abstract

This essay explores the ‘lives’ of Francis Beaumont at the point of the four hundredth anniversary of his death, through elegies by John Earle and Thomas Pestell and hitherto unknown and newly interpreted biographical information that sheds fresh light on the relationship between his life and works. Focusing in particular on his plays The Scornful Lady and The Woman Hater, it argues that Beaumont and his regular collaborator, John Fletcher, mix (auto)biographical allusions with satire and fantasy. This analysis offers new perspectives on the ways in which their imaginations were sparked by their lived experience.

Author Biography

Lucy Munro, King's College London

Lucy Munro (lucy.munro@kcl.ac.uk) is a reader in Shakespeare and early modern literature at King's College London. Her books include Children of the Queen's Revels: A Jacobean Theatre Repertory (Cambridge, 2005), Archaic Style in English Literature, 1590-1674 (Cambridge, 2013), and, most recently, an edition of Thomas Dekker, John Ford, and William Rowley's The Witch of Edmonton (London, 2016). She is currently writing a book about Shakespeare and the King's Men.

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Published

2017-12-15

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 2 (2017)

Section

Issues in Review Essays

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