On the _provenance_ of _The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_ I have been fortunately able, with valuable assistance from others, to cast much new light. In an article in _The Athenæum_, Jan. 10, 1903, I showed that the immediate source of many of the episodes in the play was Edward Grimeston's translation (1607) of Jean de Serres's _Inventaire Général de l'Histoire de France_. Since that date I owe to Mr. H. Richards, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, the important discovery that a number of speeches in the play are borrowed from the _Discourses_ of Epictetus, from whom Chapman drew his conception of the character of Clermont D'Ambois. My brother-in-law, Mr. S. G. Owen, Student of Christ Church, has given me valuable help in explaining some obscure classical allusions. Dr. J. A. H. Murray, the editor of the _New English Dictionary_, has kindly furnished me with the interpretation of a difficult passage in _Bussy D'Ambois_; and Mr. W. J. Craig, editor of the _Arden_ Shakespeare, and Mr. Le Gay Brereton, of the University of Sidney, have been good enough to proffer helpful suggestions. Finally I am indebted to Professor George P. Baker, the General Editor of this Series, for valuable advice and help on a large number of points, while the proofs of this volume were passing through the press. F. S. B. Biography George Chapman was probably born in the year after Elizabeth's accession. Anthony Wood gives 1557 as the date, but the inscription on his portrait, prefixed to the edition of _The Whole Works of Homer_ in 1616, points to 1559. He was a native of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, as we learn from an allusion in his poem _Euthymiæ Raptus_ or _The Teares of Peace_, and from W. Browne's reference to him in _Britannia's Pastorals_ as "the learned shepheard of faire Hitching Hill." According to Wood "in 1574 or thereabouts, he being well grounded in school learning was sent to the University." Wood is uncertain whether he went first to Oxford or to Cambridge, but he is sure, though he gives no authority for the statement, that Chapman spent some time at the former "where he was observed to be most excellent in the Latin & Greek tongues, but not in logic or philosophy, and therefore I presume that that was the reason why he took no degree there."