Beggars Bush: A Comedy

Fletcher, John, 1579-1625Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 123K words
Chapters: 13

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Beggars Bush: A Comedy by Francis Beaumont and John FletcherAuthor: Fletcher, John, 1579-1625,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher, an important work of English Renaissance drama. It continues the city comedy tradition of Shakespeare's contemporaries: mistaken identities among beggars, vagrants and respectable people generate the humor, the language is witty, and the plot carries a pastoral irony. For readers studying early modern English drama, especially playwrights on the periphery of Shakespeare's circle, this work offers a rare textual sample. Readers may wish to note how it shapes images of the lower classes and how comedy uses marginal figures to reflect on the mainstream order. As a public-domain e-book, this edition has no modern annotations; it suits readers with a reasonable command of English who are willing to consult background materials as they study.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature students and scholars of English Renaissance drama
Readers who have read Shakespeare's comedies and want to broaden their view of contemporary playwrights
English-language readers interested in early modern English city life and marginal groups
English learners who wish to practice close reading with public-domain electronic texts

Not a good fit for

Beginning English readers who prefer modern prose or need detailed annotations
Theater practitioners expecting full production information or performance history
Readers who want light contemporary comedy and have little patience for seventeenth-century idiom

Reading tips

Read the plot summary and character list first to sort out the mistaken-identity relationships before entering the text.
Prepare a glossary of early modern English; mark slang and puns first and look them up afterward.
Read it alongside Shakespeare's comedies to observe similarities and differences in city-comedy technique.
For course use, read act by act and note how each scene advances the conflict.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this play co-written by Beaumont and Fletcher?

Sources attribute the play to Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher; the author field in this entry lists Fletcher. The two were an important playwrighting team in early seventeenth-century England, and this form of attribution is common in their collaborative works.

Does this e-book edition have modern annotations?

This is a Project Gutenberg public-domain text, which usually provides only the original text without modern scholarly notes or an introduction. Readers who need background explanations must consult dramatic histories and author studies separately.

Can readers with average English read it?

The original is in seventeenth-century English, whose idiom and spelling are remote from modern English, so beginning readers will find it difficult. A good command of English reading is advisable, along with a glossary and plot summary for support.

Is it suitable for classroom teaching?

It can serve as supplementary reading for a course on English Renaissance drama, but the lack of annotations adds to the preparation burden. Teachers should prepare their own background materials and choose relatively clear-language scenes for close reading.

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About the author

Fletcher, John, 1579-1625 Author

John Fletcher (1579–1625) was a playwright of the English Renaissance, and he is the author addressed here. Public information about his life is limited: details of his education, official positions and specific experiences are largely unknown, and his literary standing rests chiefly on plays written in collaboration with Francis Beaumont and others. The collection holds twenty-three related works, mostly in collection form, including several volumes of the ten-volume Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, as well as plays such as The Maids Tragedy, A King, and No King and The Loyal Subject. These works are notable for tragedy and tragicomedy, with tightly constructed plots, witty dialogue and intense personal conflict, making effective use of dramatic tension and stagecraft. His plays hold a place in the seventeenth-century English dramatic tradition and are often named alongside Beaumont, exercising a certain influence on later English drama.