Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois — John Shaqi
Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'AmboisChapman, George
General
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)
[xii-1] Through the kindness of Professor Baker I have seen an
unpublished paper of Mr. P. C. Hoyt, Instructor in Harvard University,
which first calls attention to the combined suggestiveness of three
entries in _Henslowe's Diary_ (Collier's ed.) for any discussion of the
date of _Bussy D'Ambois_. In Henslowe's "Enventorey of all the aparell
of the Lord Admirals men, taken the 13th of Marcher 1598," is an item,
"Perowes sewt, which Wm Sley were." (_Henslowe's Diary_, ed. Collier, p.
275.) In no extant play save _Bussy D'Ambois_ is a character called Pero
introduced. Moreover, Henslowe (pp. 113 and 110) has the following
entries: "Lent unto Wm Borne, the 19 of novembr 1598 . . . the some of
xijs, wch he sayd yt was to Imbrader his hatte for the Gwisse. Lent Wm
Birde, ales Borne, the 27 of novembr, to bye a payer of sylke stockens,
to playe the Gwisse in xxs." Taken by themselves these two allusions to
the "Gwisse" might refer, as Collier supposed, to Marlowe's _The
Massacre at Paris_. But when combined with the mention of Pero earlier
in the year, they may equally well refer to the Guise in _Bussy
D'Ambois_. Can _Bussy D'Ambois_ have been the unnamed "tragedie" by
Chapman, for the first three Acts of which Henslowe lent him iijli on
Jan. 4, 1598, followed by a similar sum on Jan. 8th, "in fulle payment
for his tragedie?" The words which Dekker quotes in _Satiromastix_, Sc 7
(1602), "For trusty D'Amboys now the deed is done," seem to be a line
from a play introducing D'Ambois. If, however, the play was written
circa 1598, it must have been considerably revised after the accession
of James I to the throne, for the allusions to Elizabeth as an "old
Queene" (1, 2, 12), and to Bussy as being mistaken for "a knight of the
new edition," must have been written after the accession of James I
(_Chronicle of the English Drama_, 1, 59). But Mr Fleay's further
statement that the words, "Tis leape yeere" (1, 2, 85), "must apply to
the date of production," and "fix the time of representation to 1604,"
is only an ingenious conjecture. If the words "Ile be your ghost to
haunt you," etc (1, 2, 243-244), refer to _Macbeth_, as I have suggested
in the note on the passage, they point to a revision of the play not
earlier than the latter part of 1606.
[xxxvii-1] "Hence a deadly feud arose between the kin of Bussy and
Montsurry. The task of carrying this into action was undertaken by Jean
Montluc Baligny, who had married the murdered man's sister, a
high-spirited woman who fanned the flame of her husband's wrath. With
difficulty, after a period of nine years, was an arrangement come to
between him and Montsurry on specified terms by the order of the King."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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