Beaumont, << BOH mont, >> Francis (1584?-1616), was an English playwright. He is best known for his collaboration with John Fletcher (see Fletcher, John).
Beaumont was born in Leicestershire of a good family. His career helped bring the English theater a respectability it had not possessed earlier. Beaumont wrote poetry and plays before collaborating with Fletcher from about 1608 to 1613. His play The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607) ridicules the simplicity of middle-class Londoners, their pride in their merchant guilds, and their taste for old-fashioned romance.
Beaumont and Fletcher excelled at tragicomedies with artificial romantic plots, brilliant but shallow characters, sentiment, and calculated surprise. Their works include Philaster (1609), A King and No King (1611), and The Maid’s Tragedy (1611). Beaumont died on March 6, 1616.
