translations were finally dedicated. In this same year we find proof of Southampton's influence with Essex, who was then chief of the college of Heralds, in the fact that Shakespeare at this date finally secured the confirmation of his long-sought honor of arms. That Chapman was fully conscious of the fact that the repulse he met with, in seeking Southampton's favor, was due to Shakespeare's objections, he plainly shows in a poem of this date. Appended to a translation of the 18th book of the Iliad, published this year (1598) under the name of "Achilles' Shield," there is a poem addressed as follows: "To my admired and soul-loved friend, master of all essential and true knowledge, M. Harriots." In the poem Chapman sings the same high praise of learning, and castigates the pretensions of “ignorants," in much the same terms as I have shown in "A Coronet for his Mistress Philosophy." Taking the date of this poem into consideration, and in the light of the references I find in the poem, I am fully convinced that it is Chapman's revenge for the repulse he has recently met with in soliciting Southampton's favor, as well as his answer to a satire which Shakespeare produced this year upon his Homer-worship in "Troilus and Cressida." There can be no doubt but that Chapman, at the time of writing this poem, had read the Sonnets by which Shakespeare had wrought on Southampton to refuse his dedications. In the first passage in which I notice references to Shakespeare in this poem to Harriots, Chapman says: "When, absurd and vain, Most students in their whole instruction are, But in traditions more particular; Leaning like rotten houses, on out beams, And with true light fade in themselves like dreams." Here we find the same idea expressed which Chapman voices in "A Coronet for his Mistress Philosophy," where he indicates Shakespeare's lack of classical knowledge in the line: "Muses that Fame's loose feathers beautify." 66 He here accuses Shakespeare of being "absurd and vain" in his whole instruction, but particularly so in his knowledge of traditions, that is, ancient history and mythology; he says he uses out beams" of knowledge, intimating by that term that he makes use of stray translations. In the use of this word "traditions," Chapman is not making a mere general charge of ignorance, but is definitely alluding to his version of the story of "Troilus and Cressida," which I shall show in a later chapter that Shakespeare produced this year as an attack upon Chapman's Homer-worship. Shakespeare's proved sources for this play were Chaucer's poem "Troylus and Cryseyde," Lydgate's "Troye Book," and Caxton's "Recuyell of the Historie of Troye." It is to this fact that Chapman refers when he says, "Absurd and vain, Most students in their whole instruction are, contrasting Shakespeare's play, done from translations, with his own great work, which he asserts he takes directly from the Greek. Chapman continues this passage as follows: "True learning hath a body absolute, Like spirits fantastic, that put men in fear, In these lines he distinctly refers to Shakespeare's attack upon his spirit-taught Muse in the 86th Sonnet: "Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write Chapman claims that learning has an absolute body and is not hid in airy terms "Like spirits fantastic that put men in fear," and in using these terms, shows very plainly in the next line that he is quoting someone who has used a like simile, when he says: "And are but bugs formed in their foul conceits." This word "bug," for spirit or ghost, is still used with variations of pronunciation in this same sense in many parts of the United Kingdom even at this day, and upon the Continent many forms of the same word still exist; the "pucca "of Welsh, the "pooka" of Irish, and the "bock " of German folklore have, I believe, the same origin; and the boogie," which children fear, is of the same stock. I am inclined to the opinion that Shakespeare's Puck" is also connected with this family. 66 66 Chapman continues his praise of learning and his scolding of ignorance, thus: "Not made for sale, glazed with sophistic sleights, But wrought for all times proof, strong to bid prease And shiver ignorants, like Hercules, On their own dung-hills; but our formal clerks, Blown for profession, spend their souls in sparks, Framed of dismember'd parts that make most show, And like to broken links of knowledge go." In the first line of the extract he echoes back the slur which Shakespeare casts at him in the 21st Sonnet where he refers to Chapman's avowed intention to publish "The Amorous Zodiac," and says of his own Sonnets, I will not praise that purpose not to sell." The remainder of this extract bears the usual stamp of his anti-Shakespearean passages: "ignorant" and "dung-hill" are words which he often uses against our poet. The last four lines of the extract, "But our formal clerks, Blown for profession, spend their souls in sparks, Framed of dismember'd parts that make most show And like to broken links of knowledge go," almost spell the word sonnets. In the following passage I quote, Chapman evidently refers again to Shakespeare's Sonnets to his patron: "When thy true wisdom by thy learning won, 66 He speaks of the Sonnets as tympanies of state." Shakespeare very probably refers to this passage in the 124th Sonnet, where he says: "If my dear love were but the child of state, It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd, As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate, Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd. No, it was builded far from accident." |