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MERMAID SERIES, THE BEST TLtdYS OF THE OLD V^c4^Ic4TISTS GEORGE CHAPMAN W.L. PHELPS /J^^O. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE ?^m^ THE mE'BJMQAIT> SERIES The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists -i" aXsX—^..|^— }<^>o-;- George Chapman THE MERMAID SERIES. THE BEST PLA YS OF THE OLD DRAMATISTS LITERAL RErKODUCTIONS OF THE OLD TEXT. THE BEST PLAYS OP CHRIS- THE COMPLETE PLAYS OF JOPHER MARLOWE. Edited, WILLIAM CONGREVE. Edited with Critical Memoir and Notes, by Alex. C. Ewald. by Havelock Ellis ; and contain- ing a General Introduction to . the Series by John Addington THE BEST OP SVMONDS. PLAYS WEB- STER and TOURNEUR. With II. an Introduction and Notes by THE BEST PLAYS of THOMAS J(jh.\ .-Xddi.ngtdn' Symonus. O'rW'AY. Introduction and Notes by the Hon. Kodex Noki.. XIII. & XIV. THE BEST PLAYS of THOMAS III. .MIDDLETON. With an Intro- THE BEST PLAYS OF JOHN duction by Alger.non Charles FORD. Edited by Havei.ock; SwiNliURNE. Ellis. IV. S; V. THE BEST PLAYS OF PHILIP THE BEST PLAYS OP JAMBS MASSINC.Kk. With Critical and SHIRLEY. With Introduction by BioRraphical Essay and Notes by Edmund Gosse. Arthur Symons. VI. THE BEST PLAYS of THOMAS of THE BEST PLAYS THOMAS DEKKER. Introductory Essay HEYWOOD. Edited by A. W. and Notes by Ernest Rhys. Verity. With Introduction by J. Symonds. Addington XVII. VII. THE BEST PLAYS OF BEN THE COMPLETE PLAYS OF JONSON. Fir.st .Series. Edited WILLIAM WVCHERLEY. by Brinsley Nicholson, M.D. Edited, with Introduction and XVIII. Notes, by W. C. Waku. THE COMPLETE PLAYS OP RICHARD S;rEELE. Edited, NERO, AND OTHER PLAYS. with Introduction and Notes, by G. K. AlTKhX. Edited by H. 1'. Hhkni:, Aimhuk Symonds, A. W. Verity, and H. XIX. Ellis. THE BEST PLAYS OF BEN IX. & X. JONSON. .Second Series. THE BEST PLAYS OP BEAU- MI )N'r AM> FLETCHICR. In- XX. trcKluction and Notes by J. St. THE BEST PLAYS OF BEN LoE Stkaciiev. JONSON. Third Series. Issued in post 8vo Volumes, each containing about 500 pp., and an Etched Frontispiece, bound in cloth. London : T. FISHER UNWIN, Paternoster Square, E.G. New York: CHARLES SCRH'.NER'S SONS. Cva/l _.- k ^^otaey 0/^/7A/^/lyn^ The best plays of the Old Dramatists - -;- tXsX—^I"I^^K'cXj -;- GEORGE CHAPMAN EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY WILLIAM LYON PHELPS M.A. {Harvard), Ph.D. (Yak), INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AT YALE COLLEGE "I lie and dream ot your full Mermaid v/'me." — Beaumont LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1895 " What thini;.s have we seen Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life." Master Francis Beaumont to Ben Jonson. -0-0»<CK>— " Souls of Poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern. Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?'' Keais. PREFATORY NOTE. The text of this edition has been carefully taken from the literal reprint of Chapman's plays, published by John Pear- son in 1873. The spelling has been modernised, and the punctuation altered to fit the sense ; here I have been helped by R. H. Shepheid's edition, though I have often found It advisable to differ from that. I have had to insert many stage directions, to account for the presence and absence of characters ; and for three plays I have had to make lists of the dramatis pcrsoiice. It was not altogether easy to select "best plays" of Chapman for publication, but I finally decided on All Fools as his best comedy, the D'Ambois plays as most charac- teristic, and the Byron series as the best examples of " that full and heightened style" which Webster admired. It is hoped that this edition of Chapman, containing the only comfortably readable text, will be found useful not merely in University courses, but for general purposes. W. L. P. Yale College, New Haven, U.S.A., iqjiene, 1895. CONTENTS. »o« PAGE George Chapman 9 All Fools 37 BussY D'Ambois 121 The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois .... 223 The Conspiracy of Charles, Duke of Byron . 325 The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron . 399 ; GEOTiGE CHqAPMAV^. HE life of Chapman includes practically that whole period of literature known as the Eliza- bethan drama. He was born before Gorbodiic and Gammer Giirton's Needle ; when Tambnr- laine appeared, he was nearly thirty ; he survived Shakspere, Beaumont, Middleton, and Fletcher every important play of the age was acted during his lifetime. He thus had the opportunity to watch the rise, fruition, and decay of what has been justly called the greatest part of the greatest period of the greatest literature the a tremendous of world ; superlative that will be questioned only by those who have not read the material it describes. Although 1557 is often given as the year of Chapman's birth, we learn, with presumable accu- racy, from the circular inscription on his portrait I o GEORGE CHAPMA N. that he was born in 1559. His birthplace was, in all probability, Hitchin, a town in the northern part of Hertfordshire, thirty-four miles from London. His education was obtained at Oxford, and all indications point to his having also been a student at Cambridge. At Oxford he made something of a reputation as a classical scholar ; and our respect for him is not diminished when we are told that he had a contempt for logic and philosophy. The method of teaching metaphysics at that time was almost sure to arouse repugnance, if not rebellion, in any mind endowed with originality or common sense. So Chapman, who is certainly the most metaphysical of all Elizabethan dramatists, must have cultivated that part of his nature with little help from the university curriculum. From his graduation to the year 1594, we know nothing of his life ; we can only conjecture. But it is probable that he spent some time in Conti- nental travel possibly ; in France and Italy, almost certainly in Germany, if the familiarity with that tongue displayed in Alphonsus is at all significant. In 1594, he published The Sluxdow of Night, " con- taining two poetical hymns." It is impossible to ascertain at what exact time he joined the London playwright group, and became a professional writer for the stage. It was probably about 1595 or 1596, for in 1598 he had an esta- blished reputation. In that year he is mentioned among the well-known dramatists, in the famous GEORGE CHAPMAN. n enumeration of Francis Meres. His first extant comedy, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, was produced on February 12, 1596. From every point of view, it is absolutely worthless. In 1599 was published his next comedy, An Htunorons Dafs MirtJi, which unfortunately shows scarcely any improvement on the other. The work on which Chapman's fame principally depends is, of course, his translation of Homer. The first portion of this appeared in 1598: Seaven Bookes of the 1Hades of Homer, Prince of Poets. Translated according to the Greeke in judgement of his best Commentaries. In translating he used the fourteen syllabled rime, which more nearly expresses the Greek hexameter than any other English measure. In 161 1 the complete transla- tion of the Iliad was published, and by 161 5 the whole of the Odyssey, which was written in the heroic couplet. Although many critics have judged Chapman's Homer to be the finest English trans- lation ever made, it may more properly be ranked as an original work—a great Elizabethan classic. It has not only immortalised Chapman, but it must stand as one of the noblest monuments of the golden age of English literature. In 1605 two remarkable plays appeared ; Chap- man's comic masterpiece. All Fools, and the spirited comedy Eastivard Ho, composed by Chapman, Marston, and Ben Jonson. The three men must have been expert judges of each other's literary — 12 GEORGE CHAPMAN. faults ; for their joint production is singularly free from their individual defects. The play is not marred by Jonson's customary verbosity and pedantry, nor by Marston's disgusting vulgarity, nor by Chapman's obscurity and formlessness. Some remarks in it deemed uncomplimentary to King James caused Chapman and Marston to be sent to prison ; whither Jonson, with that touch of noblesse that makes us forget all his faults, volun- tarily accompanied them. All three were shortly released. The play All Fools has been identified with The World Runs on Wheels, which Chapman wrote in T599, and which was acted the same year. The name was changed to All Fools but the Fool, and then to All Fools. The influence of Ben Jon.son is discernible in two ways ; in the complete cynicism which pervades the play, and in the characters, many of whom are simply humour-studies. But a rare thing in Chapman we find a real plot — ; artificial, over-subtle, too ingenious, perhaps, but steadily moving forward to a climax. The play abounds in excellent scenes ; and the fun lies fully as much in the situations as in the characters ; a skilful combination of two forms of comedy. It impresses one as particularly well adapted for the stage ; but it would require a constellation of actons, since nearly every character has more than one good chance. The Gentleman Usher (1606) has been extrava- — GEORGE CHAPMAN. 13 gantly praised by some of Chapman's admirers.