rlapped with his own.

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 Athenaeum_, 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 General
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 _Euthymiae 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."

His life for almost a couple of decades afterwards is a blank, though it
has been conjectured