them, and at the same time throws fresh light on the problem of
the _provenance_ of the second D'Ambois drama.

In his scholarly monograph _Quellen Studien zu den Dramen George
Chapmans, Massingers, und Fords_ (1897), E. Koeppel showed that the
three connected plays were based upon materials taken from Jean de
Serres's _Inventaire General de l'Histoire de France_ (1603), Pierre
Matthieu's _Histoire de France durant Sept Annees de Paix du Regne de
Henri IV_ (1605), and P. V. Cayet's _Chronologie Septenaire de
l'Histoire de la Paix entre les Roys de France et d'Espagne_ (1605).
The picture suggested by Koeppel's treatise was of Chapman collating a
number of contemporary French historical works, and choosing from each
of them such portions as suited his dramatic purposes. But this
conception, as I have shown in the _Athenaeum_ for Jan. 10, 1903, p. 51,
must now be abandoned. Chapman did not go to the French originals at
all, but to a more easily accessible source, wherein the task of
selection and rearrangement had already been in large measure performed.
In 1607 the printer, George Eld, published a handsome folio, of which
the British Museum possesses a fine copy (c. 66, b. 14), originally the
property of Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. Its title is: "_A
General Inventorie of the Historie of France, from the beginning of that
Monarchie, unto the Treatie of Vervins, in the Yeare 1598. Written by
Jhon de Serres. And continued unto these Times, out of the best Authors
which have written of that Subiect. Translated out of French into
English by Edward Grimeston, Gentleman._" This work, the popularity of
which is attested by the publication of a second, enlarged, edition in
1611, was the direct source of the "Byron" plays, and of _The Revenge_.

In a dedication addressed to the Earls of Suffolk and Salisbury,
Grimeston states that having retired to "private and domesticke cares"
after "some years expence in France, for the publike service of the
State," he has translated "this generall Historie of France written by
John de Serres." In a preface "to the Reader" he makes the further
important statement:

"The History of John de Serres ends with the Treatie at
Vervins betwixt France and Spaine in the yeare 1598. I have
been importuned to make the History perfect, and to continue
it unto these times, whereunto I have added (for your better
satisfaction) what I could extract out of Peter Mathew and