Page:George Chapman, a critical essay (IA georgechapmancri00swin).pdf/91

unaffected, as in the best or the worst works of the fitful and powerful hand which gave us The Changeling and The Witch, The Spanish Gipsy and Women beware Women. Were there but one grain of external evidence, though light as that which now inclines the scale of probabilities in favour of Chapman, I should not hesitate in assigning to it the workmanship of this poem also; but as even such a grain of proof or of likelihood as this is wanting, we may remark one or two points in which a resemblance may be traced to the undoubted handiwork of Chapman; such as a certain grotesque abruptness and violence in some of the incidents; for example, the discharge of a pistol at the father of the heroine from the hand of her lover, by which that 'ancient sinner' is 'but mocked with death;' a semi-burlesque interlude in a scene of tragic interest and prelude to a speech of vivid eloquence, which may recall the sudden and random introduction of deeds of violence into the action in some of Chapman's plays, as for instance the two attempts at murder in The Gentleman Usher, where, though the plot is neither ill devised nor ill arranged, yet some excesses and