Although John Fletcher is recognized as one of the most influential dramatists of the early modern period, many of the theories concerning the divisions of authorship in his collaborative plays continue to present insoluble difficulties. For instance, according to the soundly based chronology developed by Martin Wiggins, many plays attributed in part to Francis Beaumont appear to have been written after Beaumont had ceased writing (c. 1613), or even after he died in 1616. A prime example would be The Noble Gentleman (1626), which E. H. C. Oliphant and Cyrus Hoy attributed in part to Beaumont. Modern scholarship holds that this was Fletcher’s last play and that it was completed by another hand after Fletcher died in 1625. This article offers the most comprehensive analysis yet undertaken of the stylistic qualities of the “non-Fletcher” portions in this play in relation to dramatists writing for the King’s Men at the time, thereby opening up several new lines of enquiry for co-authored plays of the period. Seeking to broaden our understanding of the collaborative practices in plays produced by that company in or around 1626, through a combination of literary-historical and quantitative analysis, the article puts forth a new candidate for Fletcher’s posthumous collaborator: John Ford.

中文翻译：

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约翰弗莱彻的合作者高贵的绅士

尽管约翰·弗莱彻被公认为现代早期最有影响力的剧作家之一，但许多关于他合作戏剧中作者身份划分的理论仍然存在无法解决的难题。例如，根据马丁·威金斯（Martin Wiggins）开发的基于可靠的年表，许多部分归因于弗朗西斯·博蒙特（Francis Beaumont）的剧本似乎是在博蒙特停止写作之后（约 1613 年）甚至在他于 1616 年去世之后创作的。一个典型的例子是是高贵的绅士（1626），EHC Oliphant 和 Cyrus Hoy 部分归因于 Beaumont。现代学术认为这是弗莱彻的最后一部戏剧，是在弗莱彻于 1625 年去世后由另一只手完成的。本文提供了迄今为止对该剧中“非弗莱彻”部分的文体品质进行的最全面的分析，与当时为国王的人写作的剧作家有关，从而为共同创作的戏剧开辟了几条新的探究路线的时期。为了扩大我们对该公司在 1626 年或前后制作的戏剧中的合作实践的理解，通过文学历史和定量分析的结合，本文提出了弗莱彻死后合作者的新候选人：约翰福特。