Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'AmboisChapman, George
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Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
Chapman, George
Bussy d'Amboise, 1549?-1579 -- Drama; English drama -- 17th century; Revenge -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
Like Hamlet, too, Clermont, "generous and free from all contriving," is
slow to suspect evil in others, and though warned by an anonymous
letter--here Chapman draws the incidents from the story of Count
D'Auvergne--he lets himself be entrapped at a "muster" or review of
troops by the King's emissaries. But the intervention of Guise soon
procures his release. In the dialogue that follows between him and his
patron the influence of Shakespeare's tragedy is unmistakably patent.
The latter is confiding to Clermont his apprehensions for the future,
when the ghost of Bussy appears, and chides his brother for his delay in
righting his wrongs. That the _Umbra_ of the elder D'Ambois is here
merely emulating the attitude of the elder Hamlet's spirit would be
sufficiently obvious, even if it were not put beyond doubt by the
excited dialogue between Guise, to whom the Ghost is invisible, and
Clermont, which is almost a verbal echo of the parallel dialogue between
the Danish Prince and the Queen. This second visitation from the unseen
world at last stirs up Clermont to execute the long-delayed vengeance
upon Montsurry, though he is all but forestalled by Charlotte, who has
donned masculine disguise for the purpose. But hard upon the deed comes
the news of Guise's assassination, and impatient of the earthly barriers
that now sever him from his "lord," Clermont takes his own life in the
approved Stoic fashion. So passes from the scene one of the most
original and engaging figures in our dramatic literature, and the more
thorough our analysis of the curiously diverse elements out of which he
has been fashioned, the higher will be our estimate of Chapman's
creative power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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