t it.
Crafty wag, ready to impose on everybody!

_Countess_--You beg pardon, but you never grant pardon. If I grant it,
it shall only be on condition of a general amnesty.

_Count_--Well, then, so be it. I agree. But I don't understand how your
sex can adapt itself to circumstances so quickly and so nicely. You were
certainly much agitated; and for that matter, you are yet.

_Countess_--Men aren't sharp enough to distinguish between honest
indignation at unjust suspicion, and the confusion of guilt.

_Count_--We men think we know something of politics, but we are only
children. Madame, the King ought to name you his ambassador to
London.--And now pray forget this unfortunate business, so
humiliating for me.

_Countess_--For us both.

_Count_--Won't you tell me again that you forgive me?

_Countess_--Have I said _that_, Susanna?

_Count_--Ah, say it now.

_Countess_--Do you deserve it, culprit?

_Count_--Yes, honestly, for my repentance.

_Countess [giving him her hand_]--How weak I am! What an example I set
you, Susanna! He'll never believe in a woman's anger.

_Susanna_--You are prisoner on parole; and you shall see we are
honorable.

FRANCIS BEAUMONT and JOHN FLETCHER

(1584-1616) (1579-1625)

"The names of Beaumont and Fletcher," says Lowell, in his lectures on
'Old English Dramatists,' "are as inseparably linked together as those
of Castor and Pollux. They are the double star of our poetical
firmament, and their beams are so indissolubly mingled that it is vain
to attempt any division of them that shall assign to each his rightful
share." Theirs was not that dramatic collaboration all too common among
the lesser Elizabethan dramatists, at a time when managers, eager to
satisfy a restless public incessantly clamoring for novelty, parceled
out single acts or even scenes of a play among two or three playwrights,
to put together a more or less congruous piece of work. Beaumont and
Fletcher joined partnership, not from any outward necessity, but
inspired by a common love of their art and true congeniality of mind.
Unlike many of their brother dramatists, whom the necessities of a lowly
origin drove to seek a livelihood in writing for the theatres, Beaumont
and Fletcher were of gentle birth, and sprung from families eminent at
the bar and in the Church.

[Illustration: Francis Beaumont]

Beaumont was born at Grace-Dieu in Leicestershire, 1584, the son of a
chief justice. His name is first me