Genealogy: John Fletcher and the Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen

Another famous Fletcher.

John Fletcher (1579 - 1625): 

''I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, And from that full meridian of my glory, I haste now to my setting. I shall fall, Like a bright exhalation in the evening, And no man see me more.''

John Fletcher's father William Fletcher is famous as the chaplain who tormented Mary, Queen of Scots at her execution; 'So perish all the Queen's enemies.' Little is known of the playwright's early life, born in Rye, Susses in 1579. He entered Benet (now Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge, at the age of eleven. About 1607 John Fletcher began to work with Francis Beaumont, mainly at the Globe and Blackfriars theatres. After 1613 he often collaborated with Philip Massinger, who actually succeeded him in 1625 as chief playwright of the King's Men; other collaborators included Nathan Field and William Rowley. Sometime around 1606 he began writing for the London stage, working first for the Children of the Queen's Revels. He later moved on to Shakespeare's company, the King's Men, where he eventually became chief playwright. Fletcher was a member of the 'Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen' or the 'Mermaid Club' created by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 for literary types, meeting the first Friday of every month at the Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside, east of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Drama was a very popular form of entertainment in the Jacobean age, and there was a constant demand for new plays. Some idea of Fletcher's rate of production can be gathered from the 1679 folio edition of the plays he wrote with Beaumont; it does not contain everything he wrote (and may well contain much that he did not write), but the total of fifty-two plays is impressive - sixteen more than the 1623 Shakespeare Folio.

Realistic characterization and plot was not Fletcher's strong point, but his plays contain some fine poetry, and satisfied his audience's taste for sensation and emotional dilemmas. It is rumored that he collaborated with Shakespeare on the play King Henry VIII. His successful career was cut short by the great London Plague of 1625. Most people who could afford to fled to the safety of the country, but Fletcher was infected when he stayed in town to be measured for a new suit, and died soon after-wards.

"Drink to-day, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do 't to-morrow."

The Copyright to Contradictions, Gross Factual Errors and Plain Plagiarism Reserved: David John (Fletcher) Drew, 2013.