Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/277

This page needs to be proofread.

Byron affair would render it judicious to defer further plays by Chapman rather point to the Whitefriars. The Epistle commends the play because 'Howsoever therefore in the scenical presentation it might meet with some maligners, yet considering even therein it passed with approbation of more worthy judgments'.

Chabot Admiral of France, c. 1613 (?) S. R. 1638, Oct. 24 (Wykes). 'A Booke called Phillip Chalbott Admirall of France and the Ball. By James Shirley. vj^d.' Crooke and William Cooke (Arber, iv. 441). 1639. The Tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France. As it was presented by her Majesties Servants, at the private House in Drury Lane. Written by George Chapman, and James Shirly. Tho. Cotes or Andrew Crooke and William Cooke. Edition by E. Lehman (1906, Pennsylvania Univ. Publ.). The play was licensed by Herbert as Shirley's on 29 April 1635 (Variorum, iii. 232). But critics agree in finding much of Chapman in it, and suppose Shirley to have been a reviser rather than a collaborator. Parrott regards I. i, II. iii, and V. ii as substantially Chapman; II. i and III. i as substantially Shirley; and the rest as Chapman revised. He suggests that Chapman's version was for the Queen's Revels c. 1613. Fleay, ii. 241, put it in 1604, but it cannot be earlier than the 1611 edition of its source, E. Pasquier, Les Recherches de la France.

Caesar and Pompey, c. 1613 (?) S. R. 1631, May 18 (Herbert). 'A Playe called Caesar and Pompey by George Chapman.' Harper (Arber, iv. 253). 1631. The Warres of Pompey and Caesar. Out of whose euents is euicted this Proposition. Only a iust man is a freeman. By G. C. Thomas Harper, sold by Godfrey Emondson, and Thomas Alchorne. [Epistle to the Earl of Middlesex, signed 'Geo. Chapman'.] 1631. . . . Caesar and Pompey: A Roman Tragedy, declaring their Warres. . . . By George Chapman. Thomas Harper [&c.]. [Another issue.] 1653. . . . As it was Acted at the Black-Fryers. . . . [Another issue.] Chapman says that the play was written 'long since' and 'never touched at the stage'. Various dates have been conjectured; the last, Parrott's 1612-13, 'based upon somewhat intangible evidence of style and rhythm' will do as well as another. Parrott is puzzled by the 1653 title-page and thinks that, in spite of the Epistle, the play was acted. Might it not have been acted by the King's after the original publication in 1631? Plays on Caesar were so common that it is not worth pursuing the suggestion of Fleay, i. 65, that fragments of the Admiral's anonymous Caesar and Pompey of 1594-5 may survive here.

Doubtful and Lost Plays

Chapman's lost plays for the Admiral's men of 1598-9 have already been noted. Two plays, 'The Fatall Love, a French Tragedy', and