Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

George Chapman

1559?–1634

Introduction

Autograph Inscriptions

None of Chapman's literary works is known to survive in his own handwriting, but some miscellaneous examples of his hand are to be found. The most interesting are his inscriptions to friends and patrons written in various printed exempla of his translations of Homer and some other works (ChG 18-27). Some of these inscriptions were regarded by Tannenbaum in the 1930s as indubitable, clumsy and barefaced forgeries. Since Professor Tannenbaum tended, however, to regard any irregularities of penmanship as the patching and mending of modern fabrication and thus to see forgeries everywhere, his objections can be safely dismissed. Various other exempla of Chapman's Homer, as well as of his of plays and poems, contain early MS corrections, some perhaps made in the printing house and some even by the author (although a very close scrutiny and comparison would be necessary to determine this more clearly). Those corrections found in exempla of the comedies have been collated in the Urbana edition and are recorded in the entries below.

Other known speciments of Chapman's hand occur chiefly in the so-called Diary of Philip Henslowe, which is preserved chiefly at Dulwich College, but portions of which were excised in the nineteenth century by John Payne Collier and are now widely scattered (ChG 30-32).

Letters

Another important manuscript relating to Chapman is the so-called Dobell-White MS (Folger, MS V.a.321). This volume of transcripts of letters originally written c.1582-1613 includes some by Ben Jonson (JnB 744) and a number which can be attributed to Chapman (*ChG 29). The recent discovery of a partial transcript of this volume (Cardiff Central Library, MS 1.172) throws at least some light on its providence, being owned in the eighteenth century by John Arden, High Sheriff of Cheshire.

One of the anonymous letters in the Dobell-White MS (No. 21: f. 19v), which Eccles originally attributed to George Chapman, has been attributed to the dramatist's brother Thomas Chapman in Albert H. Tricomi, Two Letters concerning George Chapman, Modern Language Review, 75 (1980), 241-8. Tricomi also prints here Thomas Chapman's petition to Sir Edward Phelips, Master of the Rolls, 18 November 1611, now in the National Archives, Kew (C31/A1/169).

Miscellaneous

Other documents of biographical interest relating to Chapman (in the National Archives, Kew) are discussed in Eccles; in Jean Robertson, Modern Language Review, 40 (1945), 157-65; and in C.J. Sisson and Robert Butman, George Chapman, 1612-22: Some New Facts, Modern Language Review, 46 (1951), 185-90.

Among the items given entries below, a few of Chapman's poems and some extracts from his plays are found copied in seventeenth-century miscellanies (notabaly Nicholas Burghe's: ChG 1, ChG 2, ChG 5). For some musical pieces, largely preserved in manuscript sources which may belong to entertainments by Chapman, see Four Hundred Songs and Dances from the Stuart Masque, ed. Andrew J. Sabol (Providence, Rhode Island, 1978), passim (esp. Nos. 78, 90-2, 106, 109, 183, 261-8).

Some 34 documents or entries relating to Chapman's The Memorable Masque … of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn presented at Court in 1613 are edited by Tucker Orbison in Malone Society Collections Volume XII (Oxford 1983), and by John R. Elliott in Collections XV (Oxford, 1993), 171-94 (pp. 173-7). The Masque of the Twelve Months (1619) which was first printed, in a garbled format, by J.P. Collier in 1848 is now also generally accepted as by Chapman, despite the unreliability of Collier, even though the manuscript he used is still untraced (ChG 11.5).

Chapman's name is among those inscribed in the anonymous manuscript play The Second Maiden's Tragedy (British Library, Lansdowne MS 807, ff. 29-56), but which is now attributed to Thomas Middleton (see MiT 20.8). An anonymous masque in the British Library (Egerton MS 1994, ff. 212r-23r) incorporates borrowings from Chapman's Tragedy of Byron but is almost certainly not his work: see J.D. Jump, The Anonymous Masque in MS. Egerton 1994, Review of English Studies, 11 (1935), 186-91; 12 (1936), 455. This masque has been edited by Diane W. Strommer as Time's Distraction (Texas A & M University Press, 1976). The manuscript play Charlemagne or the Distracted Emperor, also in Egerton MS 1994 (ff. 119r-35r), has been similarly attributed to Chapman but on no real evidence: see W.W. Greg's edition, Malone Society (Oxford, 1938).

Abbreviations

  • Bartlett — The Poems of George Chapman, ed. Phyllis Brooks Bartlett (London, 1941).
  • Cummings — L. A. Cummings, Geo: Chapman his Crowne and Conclusion: A Study of his Handwriting (Saltzburg, Austria, 1989).
  • Eccles, SP (1946) — Mark Eccles, Chapman's Early Years, Studies in Philology, 43 (1946), 176-93.
  • Tannenbaum — Samuel A. Tannenbaum, Shaksperian Scraps and other Elizabethan Fragments (New York, 1933), Chapter IX: George Chapman Autographs and Forgeries (pp. 142-52).
  • Urbana edition, Comedies — The Plays of George Chapman: The Comedies, general editor Allan Holaday (Urbana, 1970).

Verse

An Epicede or Funerall Song: On the most disastrous Death, of the High-borne Prince of Men, Henry Prince of Wales ('If euer aduerse Influence enui'd')

First published in London, 1612.

See ChG 2.

Epicures Frugallitie ('Frugallitie is no philosophie')

First published in The Works of George Chapman, ed. R.H. Shepherd, II, Poems and Minor Translations (London, 1875). Bartlett, pp. 373-4.

ChG 1

Copy, ascribed to Ge. Chapman.

Edited from this MS in Shepherd and in Bartlett.

In: A large folio composite verse miscellany, chiefly folio, partly quarto, 243 pages, in contemporary calf.

Including 18 poems by Carew and two of doubtful authorship, compiled by Nicholas Burghe (d.1670), Royalist Captain during the Civil War and one of the poor Knights of Windsor in 1661 (references to I Nicholas Burgh occurring on ff. 165r, with the date 3d of June 1638, and 166r, and his name partly in cipher on other pages); predominantly in his hand, with some later additions in other hands.

c.1638

Afterwards owned by Elias Ashmole (1617-92), astrologer and antiquary.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Burghe MS: CwT Δ 1.

Epitaph ('Whom all the vast frame of the fixed Earth')

First published on the folded engraving in An Epicede or Funerall Song: On the most disastrous Death, of the High-borne Prince of Men, Henry Prince of Wales (London, 1612). Bartlett, p. 268.

ChG 2

Copy headed On Prince Henrye.

This MS recorded in Bartlett, p. 477.

In: A large folio composite verse miscellany, chiefly folio, partly quarto, 243 pages, in contemporary calf.

Including 18 poems by Carew and two of doubtful authorship, compiled by Nicholas Burghe (d.1670), Royalist Captain during the Civil War and one of the poor Knights of Windsor in 1661 (references to I Nicholas Burgh occurring on ff. 165r, with the date 3d of June 1638, and 166r, and his name partly in cipher on other pages); predominantly in his hand, with some later additions in other hands.

c.1638

Afterwards owned by Elias Ashmole (1617-92), astrologer and antiquary.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Burghe MS: CwT Δ 1.

Hero and Leander

Chapman's continuation of Marlowe's poem (Sestiads III-VI). First published in London, 1598. Bartlett, pp. 132-70.

ChG 3

Copy of a couplet in Sestiad III (lines 231-2), headed Loue and here beginning Loue is a golden bubble full of dreames.

In: A folio verse miscellany, 215 leaves (plus a few blanks), in modern calf gilt.

Entirely in the hand of John Hopkinson (1610-80), Yorkshire antiquary, of Lofthouse, near Leeds, and comprising Volume 17 of the Hopkinson MSS.

c.1670

Signed bookplate of Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), book collector, of Eshton Hall, West Yorkshire. Subsequently owned by her step-father Matthew Wilson.

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, pp. 295-6.

Bradford Archives (32D86/17 f. 18v)
ChG 4

Copy of three couplets, i.e. (i) Sestiad III, lines 231-2, headed Loue and here beginning Loue is a golden bubble full of dreames; (ii) Sestiad IV, lines 68-9, headed Loue and here beginning Trifling attempts, noe serious acts advance; and (iii) Sestiad III, lines 395-6, headed Beauty and here beginning Beauty is heauen & earth this grace doth win.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, including fifteen poems by Donne, with a title-page Miscellanies Or A Collection of Diuers Witty and pleasant Epigrams, Adages, poems Epitaphes &c for the recreation of ye ouertravelled sences: 1630 Robert Bishop, in a single mixed hand, probably associated with the University of Oxford, 306 pages, in old calf.
c.1630

Owned and probably compiled by Robert Bishop. Later owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9549. A.S.W. Rosenbach's sale catalogue, English Poetry to 1700 (1941), item 187.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the Bishop MS: DnJ Δ 59. Edited in David Coleman Redding, Robert Bishop's Commonplace-Book: An Edition of a Seventeenth Century Miscellany (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1960) [Mic 60-3608].

ChG 4.5

Copy of the Third Sestiad, lines 35-6, beginning Joy, graven in sense, like snow in water wastes.

In: An octavo commonplace book of verse and prose, in two or more secretary hands, 41 leaves, in a recycled illuminated vellum music document.

Inscribed (ff. 1r, 2r) Samuell Watts.

Early 17th century

Among the papers of the Sanford family. Formerly DD/SF 3970.

Somerset Heritage Centre (DD/SF/10/5/1 f. 38r) | Catalogue
An Invective Wrighten by Mr. George Chapman against Mr. Ben: Johnson ('Greate-Learned wittie-Ben: be pleasd to light')

First published in The Works of George Chapman, ed. R.H. Shepherd, II, Poems and Minor Translations (London, 1875). Bartlett, pp. 347-8.

ChG 5

Edited from this MS in Bartlett.

In: A large folio composite verse miscellany, chiefly folio, partly quarto, 243 pages, in contemporary calf.

Including 18 poems by Carew and two of doubtful authorship, compiled by Nicholas Burghe (d.1670), Royalist Captain during the Civil War and one of the poor Knights of Windsor in 1661 (references to I Nicholas Burgh occurring on ff. 165r, with the date 3d of June 1638, and 166r, and his name partly in cipher on other pages); predominantly in his hand, with some later additions in other hands.

c.1638

Afterwards owned by Elias Ashmole (1617-92), astrologer and antiquary.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Burghe MS: CwT Δ 1.

The Shadow of Night ('Great Goddesse to whose throne in Cynthian fires')

First published in London, 1594. Bartlett, pp. 17-45.

ChG 6

Copy of the complete work, with no general title, consisting of two hymns: i.e. Hymnus in Noctem (ff. 75r-82r) and Hymnus in Cynthiam (ff. 82r-9v), the second beginning Natures bright eye-sight, and the Nights faire soule), followed by a glossary (ff. 90r-1v), transcribed from the edition of 1594.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in an accomplished mixed hand throughout, with headings or incipts in engrossed lettering, 194 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.
c.1596-1601

This MS volume discussed in Katherine K. Gottschalk, Discoveries concerning British Library MS Harley 6910, MP, 77 (1979-80), 121-31.

Dramatic works

All Fools

First published in London, 1605. Edited by G. Blakemore Evans in Urbana edition, Comedies, pp. 227-309.

ChG 7

Extracts, transcribed from the edition of 1605.

In: A folio composite miscellany of verse and prose, compiled entirely by William Drummond, 403 leaves, in 19th-century calf gilt.
c.1606-14

Among the working papers and collections of William Drummond of Hawthornden: Hawthornden Vol. VII.

The Blind Beggar of Alexandria

First published in London, 1598. Edited by W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1928). Edited by Lloyd E. Berry in Urbana edition, Comedies, pp. 7-58.

ChG 8

Extract, headed Irus.

Printed from this MS in Richard Savage, Shakespearean Extracts from Edward Pudsey's Booke (Stratford-upon-Avon, [1887]), p. 7, and in Greg, pp. vi-viii.

In: The greater part of a quarto commonplace book of extracts, compiled by Edward Pudsey (1573-1613), iii + 104 leaves, in 19th-century green morocco gilt.

Four leaves of this commonplace book are in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21.

c.1604-9

Owned in 1615-16 by one Bassett and in the 1880s by Richard Savage. At the Neligan sale, 2 August 1888, lot 1098. Bought by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), and his sale 4 July 1889, lot 1257.

All the Shakespearian texts except Othello were edited from this MS in Richard Savage's Shakespearean Extracts (1887). The MS also edited in Juliet Mary Gowan, An Edition of Edward Pudsey's Commonplace Book (c.1600-1615) (unpublished M. Phil., University of London, 1967). It was then found that the miscellany lacked several of its original leaves, including extracts from six plays by Shakespeare. These leaves were rediscovered in 1977 among Savage's papers at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21, and the Othello extracts identified by Gowan. The MS also discussed in J. Rees, Shakespeare and Edward Pudsey's Booke, 1600, N&Q, 237 (September 1992), 330-1; in Juliet Gowan, One Man in His Time: The Notebook of Edward Pudsey, Bodleian Library Record, 22 (2009), 94–101; in Fred Schurink, Manuscript Commonplace Books, Literature, and Reading in Early Modern England, HLQ, 73/3 (2010), 453-69 (pp. 465-9), with a facsimile of f. 31r on p. 467; and in Tom Lockwood, At Mr Marston’s Request: Edward Pudsey and the Inns of Court, N&Q, 63 (September 2016), 450-3.

Bussy D'Ambois

First published in London, 1607.

ChG 8.5

Copy by Stanhope of seventeen lines in Act V, scene iii: namely lines 215-26 beginning O had I neeuer marryed but for forme and lines 264-70 beginning Farewell Graue relicts of a compleat man.

Quoted in Akrigg, p. 799.

In: A printed exemplum of the 1634 edition of Sir Walter Ralegh's Historie of the World copiously annotated by Charles, second Baron Stanhope of Harrington (1593-1675).
c.1640s

Discussed in G.P.V. Akrigg, The Curious Marginalia of Charles, Second Lord Stanhope, in Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway, Giles E. Dawson, and Edwin E. Willoughby (Washington, DC, 1948), pp. 785-801.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, Printed books (STC 20641 Copy 3 sigs Tttt 2v-3r) | Catalogue
Caesar and Pompey

First published in London, 1631. Edited by Thomas Marc Parrott in The Plays and Poems of George Chapman: The Tragedies (London, 1910), pp. 399-400.

ChG 9

Extracts.

In: An octavo miscellany of extracts chiefly from plays and religious works, closely written in a predominantly italic hand, 33 leaves (plus blanks), in modern half red crushed morocco on marbled boards.

Lettered on the spine W. How's Common-placebook.

Mid-17th century

Later owned by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps and in the Warwick Castle Library.

An Humorous Day's Mirth

First published in London, 1599. Edited by Allan Holaday in Urbana edition, Comedies, pp. 59-130.

ChG 10
Exemplum of the printed quarto edition of 1599 with six MS corrections.
Early 17th century

This item recorded in Holaday, p. 62.

ChG 11
Exemplum of the printed quarto edition of 1599 containing an original proof-sheet, the outer forme of sheet G (sigs G1r, G2v, G3r, G4v) with proof corrections, in modern half-calf.

In the Bute Collection of English Plays purchased in April 1956 from Major Michael Crichton-Stuart of Falkland.

This item reproduced and discussed in Akihiro Yamada, A Proof-Sheet in An Humorous Day's Mirth (1599) printed by Valentine Simmes, The Library, 5th Ser. 21 (1966), 155-7. Also discussed in James P. Hammersmith, Early Proofing: The Evidence of Extant Proof-Sheets, AEB, 7 (1983), 188-215 (pp. 197-9). Recorded in Holaday, p. 60, and in Jan Moore, p. 69.

The Masque of the Twelve Months

Written in 1619. First published, in a garbled format, by John Payne Collier in Vol. 39 of the Publications of the Shakspeare Society (1848). Edited from Collier's text, in rearranged form, in Martin Butler, George Chapman's Masque of the Twelve Months (1619), ELR, 37/3 (Autumn 2007), 360-400.

May Day

First published in London, 1611. Edited by Robert F. Welsh in Urbana edition, Comedies, pp. 311-96.

ChG 12
A printed exemplum of the edition of 1611 with some MS corrections (on sig. A2).
c.1611?

This item recorded in Welsh, p. 388.

ChG 12.5
An exemplum of the printed edition of 1611 with the text of missing leaves supplied in MS.

In the secretary hand of a professional scribe, associated with the playhouse, also responsible for HyT 5, MiT 6, and the verse miscellany British Library Add. MS 33998.

c.1630s

This MS discussed, with a facsimile example of the MS pages, in Akihiro Yamada, The Seventeenth-Century Manuscript Leaves of Chapman's May Day, 1611, The Library, 6th Ser. 2 (1980), 61-9.

The Memorable Masque

First published in London, [1613]. Edited by G. Blakemore Evans in Urbana edition, Comedies, pp. 557-94. Also in Stephen Orgel and Roy Strong, Inigo Jones: The Theatre of the Stuart Court, 2 vols (University of California Press, 1973), I, 253-63.

ChG 15
An exemplum of the first printed edition, with extensive MS corrections.
c.1613?

This item recorded in Blakemore Evans, pp. 559-60, and the corrections printed, pp. 592-3.

ChG 16
An exemplum of the first printed edition with MS corrections.
[1613?]

This item recorded in Blakemore Evans, pp. 559-60.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 2045 (Pressmark Dyce 26 Box. 5/5)) | Catalogue
Monsieur D'Olive

First published in London, 1606. Edited by Allan Holaday in Urbana edition, Comedies, pp. 397-471.

ChG 17
An original proof-sheet (inner forme of sheet D) with MS corrections, in an exemplum of the printed quarto edition of 1606.
1606

This item described in W.W. Greg, A Proof-Sheet of 1606, The Library, 4th Ser. 17 (1936-7), 454-7. Also discussed in James P. Hammersmith, Early Proofing: The Evidence of Extant Proof-Sheets, AEB, 7 (1983), 188-215 (pp. 198-9).

Recorded in Holaday, pp. 401-2, and in Jan Moore, p. 69.

The Second Maiden's Tragedy

See MiT 20.8.

Books Inscribed by Chapman

Chapman, George. The Crowne of all Homer's Worckes Batrachomyomachia (London, [1624?])
*ChG 19
Autograph
An autograph(?) fifteen-line inscription, presenting a volume, probably The Crowne of all Homer's Worckes, to Sir Albertus Morton, on what is now a detached flyleaf only, the book itself being lost.
c.1624

Inscribed on the verso Thomas Marsh his booke, with a draft letter apparently by him. Once owned by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger.

Facsimile in Cummings, p. 219.

Dulwich College (MSS 94, item 3)
*ChG 20
Autograph
Autograph seventeen-line inscription by Chapman, presenting the volume to Henry Reynolds, with a few possibly autograph MS alterations in the printed text, in calf gilt.
c.1624

Also inscribed Jo: Gorges. and I Ferdi Gorges have reade ouer this Booke. Bookplate of Harry Elkins Widener (1885-1912), American businessman and book collector.

The inscription is printed in Chapman's Homer, ed. Allardyce Nicoll (New York, 1956), II, 503, and in Tannenbaum, p. 114, with a facsimile, Plate XIII. Facsimile of the inscribed page also in Cummings, p. 211.

*ChG 21
Autograph
Autograph inscription, presenting the volume to Ralph Sadler.

The inscription is printed in G. T[horn].-D[rury], George Chapman, RES, 1 (1925), 350; in Tannenbaum, p. 148, with a facsimile, plate XIV; in Jean Robertson, The Early Life of George Chapman, MLR 40 (1945), 157-65 (p. 157); in Eccles, p. 177. Facsimile in Index, I.i (1980), Facsimile VIII (p. 193).

Inner Temple Library ([no shelfmark])
Chapman, George. Epicede or Funeral Song: On the most disastrous Death, of ... Henry Prince of Wales (London, 1612)
*ChG 22
Autograph
Autograph four-line inscription, presenting the volume to Inigo Jones, followed by the inscription Inigo Jones 1613.
1613

Later owned by Robert Hoe (1839-1909), New York businessman and book collector.

Facsimile in Cummings, p. 229.

Chapman, George. The Georgicks of Hesiod (London, 1618)
*ChG 23
Autograph
Autograph seven-line inscription by Chapman, on a possibly tipped-in leaf, presenting the volume to Jaspar Tyon.
c.1618

Inscribed Wm. Young 1753. Later owned by Isaac Reed (1742-1807), literary editor and book collector; by W.H. Miller, MP (1789-1848), of Britwell Court, Burnham, Buckinghamshire, book collector; in 1924 by Dr A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia bookseller and scholar; and by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr (1906-90), American businessman and collector. Christie's, 13 June 1979 (Houghton sale, Part I), Lot 111, to Fleming. Sotheby's, New York, 9 November 1989 (Garden sale), lot 93.

The inscription is printed in Tannenbaum, p. 146, with a facsimile, Plate IX. A facsimile of the inscription is also in Christie's sale catalogue (Plate 16), and in Cummings, p. 225.

John Wolfson, New York ([Chapman's Hesiod])
Chapman, George. Homer, Prince of Poets, translated according to the Greeke in Twelve Books of his Iliads (London, [1609?])
*ChG 24
Autograph
Autograph ten-line inscription, presenting the volume to Sir Henry Crofts.
c.1609

Apparently once owned, or used, by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger (? acquired from the Bridgewater library). Possibly later owned in 1933 by Frank Brewer Bemis (1861-1935), Boston banker and book collector.

The inscription is printed in Tannenbaum, p. 145, from the facsimile which appears in John Payne Collier, A Catalogue, Bibliographical and Critical, of Early English Literature (London, 1837), p. 53. The facsimile reproduced in Cummings, p. 223.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Chapman's Homer])
Chapman, George. Homers Odysses, Books I-XII (London [1614?])
*ChG 25
Autograph
Autograph four-line inscription, presenting the volume to Sir Henry Fanshawe.
c.1614

Later owned by the Rev. Richard Farmer, FSA (1735-97), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, literary scholar. Farmer sale, 7 May-16 June 1798, lot 6670, to Park, thence to Francis Douce.

The inscription is edited in The Odysseys of Homer translated by George Chapman, ed. Richard Hooper (London, 1857), I, xxvii, and in Chapman's Homer, ed. Allardyce Nicoll (New York, 1956), II, xiii. Facsimile in Cummings, p. 221.

*ChG 25.5
Autograph

An exemplum, inscribed to Sir Henry Fanshawe.

The inscription is edited in Hooper, op. cit., I, xxvii, and in Chapman's Homer, ed. Allardyce Nicoll (New York, 1956), II, xiii.

Chapman, George. The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets (London [1611])
*ChG 26
Autograph
Autograph eight-line inscription, presenting the volume to Henry Jones.
c.1611

Inscribed in 1796 by George Steevens (1736-1800), literary editor and scholar. Afterwards owned by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector; by Robert Stayner Holford, MP (1808-92), of Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, art collector; by Frank Brewer Bemis (1861-1935), Boston banker; and by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr (1906-90), American businessman and collector. Christie's 13 June 1979 (Houghton. sale Part I), lot 110, to Fleming. Sotheby's, New York, 9 November 1989 (Garden sale), lot 89. Quaritch's sale catalogue No. 1165, item 15.

Facsimile of the inscription in Christie's sale catalogue, Plate 16, and in Cummings, p. 227.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Chapman's Iliads])
Iamblichus de Mysteriis Ægyptiorum, Chaldæorum, Assyriorum (Lyons, 1577)
*ChG 27
Autograph
Signatures of Chapman, deleted.

Bookplate of Pauncefort Duncombe, Buckhill Manor, Buckinghamshire. Later owned by Professor John D. Rea (d.1933), of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Recorded in Tannenbaum, p. 143. Discussed, with a facsimile of the inscribed title-page, in L.A. Cummings, A New Basis for the Hand of George Chapman: The 1577 Rea Iamblichus Volume, Explorations in Renaissance Culture, 11 (1985), 120-7. Facsimiles also in Cummings (1989), pp. 203, 205, 206, 208.

Professor John A. Rea (Iamblichus)

Letters

Letter(s)
ChG 28

Copies of letters and petitions by Chapman, to Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton; to the Privy Council; to King James I; and to Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain (2). All undated.

These letters correspond to Nos 88, 139, 124-6 in Folger MS V.a.321 (see ChG 29).

In: An octavo volume of state letters, in a single neat italic hand, 184 pages (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary calf.

Inscribed (p. 162) Hitherto from the beginning of the Book, from a Manuscript in 4to: belonging to John Arden of Stockport Esqr: i.e. probably John Arden (1742-1823), of Harden, Utkinton and Pepper Halls, High Sheriff of Cheshire, the MS in question evidently Folger MS V.a.321. Entries after p. 163, and relating to the Civil War, are copied from MSS including a Folio M.S. at Bramhall and an historical 4to M.S. at Withenshaw in Cheshire.

c.1772-5

Inscribed E libris Reverendi Viri Joannis Watson A.M. Rectoris Ecclesiæ Parochialis de Stockport Com: Cest: 1772: i.e. the Rev. John Watson (1725-83), antiquary, and with his bookplate. Later booklabel of Sarah Wood / 9th April 1889.

Cardiff Central Library (MS 1.172 pp. 25-30) | Catalogue
ChG 29

Copy of fourteen letters and petitions by, or probably by, Chapman, to unidentified ladies and other correspondents (5); to George Buc; to King James I (2); to Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton; to ? Sir Edward Phelips; to Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk (2); to Mr Crane; and to Lord Ellesmere; and to the Privy Council; all undated, but probably ranging between 1600 and 1615.

Braunmuller Nos 38, 49, 73, 86-9, 112, 124-6, 136, 138, 139.

Various letters edited, some with discussions of authorship, in Eccles, p. 185; in Robert D. Parsons, Chapman's Letter to Mr. Sares: A Hamlet Parallel, N&Q, 214 (April 1969), 137; in Tucker Orbison, The Case for the Attribution of a Chapman Letter, SP, 72 (1975), 72-84; and elsewhere.

In: A quarto volume of transcripts of letters by various people, in several secretary and italic hands, 95 leaves (plus a few blanks), in modern calf gilt.
c.1620s

Evidently the MS from which selected items are transcribed in Cardiff Central Library MS 1.172, pp. 1-162, which is inscribed (p. 162) Hitherto from the beginning of the Book, from a Manuscript in 4to: belonging to John Arden of Stockport Esqr: i.e. probably John Arden (1742-1823), of Harden, Utkinton and Pepper Halls, High Sheriff of Cheshire. Acquired in 1942.

This volume discussed and various letters printed in Bertram Dobell, Newly Discovered Documents of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods, The Athenaeum (1901: 23 March, pp. 369-70; 30 March, pp. 403-4; 6 April, pp. 433-4; 13 April, pp. 465-7). A complete transcription and facsimile of the volume in A Seventeenth-Century Letter-Book: A Facsimile Edition of Folger MS. V.a.321, ed. A.R. Braunmuller (Newark, London & Toronto, 1983).

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 300 through end (MS V.a.321 ff. 26v-7r, 30v-1r, 49r, 60r-2r, 83v-4r, 88r-v, 89v, 93r-5r) | Catalogue

Documents

Document(s)
*ChG 30
Autograph
A signature of Chapman on a slip cut from a page in the Diary of Philip Henslowe (c.1555-1616), theatre financier.

Extracted, probably by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger, from the Diary now at Dulwich College, and now pasted in a printed exemplum of Chapman's The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (London, 1598).

c.1590s-1600s

Facsimiles in W. W. Greg, Fragments from Henslowe's Diary, Collections: Volume IV, Malone Society (Oxford, 1956), pp. 27-32, and in Cummings, p. 191.

ChG 31 1599

A receipt by Chapman to Philip Henslowe, relating to Chapman's Pastoral Tragedy, possibly in another cursive secretary hand, 17 July 1599, on a slip extracted, probably by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger, from the Diary of Philip Henslowe (c.1555-1616), theatre financier, now at Dulwich College.

Facsimiles in W.W. Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XII(b); in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977); and in Cummings, p. 197.

In: A folio composite volume of miscellaneous papers, in various hands, 97 leaves.
*ChG 32 1598
Autograph

A statement of Chapman's debt to Henslowe of £10 10s, in the hand of Robert Shaa, and signed by Chapman, 24 October 1598.

Facsimiles in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XII(a); in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 41; in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977); and in Cummings, p. 105.

In: The folio diary and account book of Philip Henslowe (c.1555-1616), theatre financier, 238 leaves.
1592-1609

Formerly Alleyn Papers MS VII.

Dulwich College (MSS 7 f. 90r)
*ChG 33
Autograph
Answer to a bill in the Court of Star Chamber signed by Chapman, 30 May 1603.
1603

Facsimile of the signature in C.J. Sisson, Lost Plays of Shakespeare's Age (1936), Plate I, and in Cummings, p. 191.

National Archives, Kew (STAC 8, A8/2)

Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Chapman

Extracts
ChG 34

Extracts from Chapman's works, including examples on pp. 31-2, 66, 74, 76, and 84.

In: A quarto miscellany of extracts in verse and prose, in a single largely italic hand, 142 pages, in contemporary mottled calf gilt.

Compiled by Sir John Cotton, Bt (1621-1702).

Mid-17th century
ChG 35

Extracts from plays.

In: A large untitled folio anthology of quotations chiefly from Elizabethan and Stuart plays, alphabetically arranged under subject headings, in a single mixed hand, in double columns, 900 pages (lacking pp. 1-4, 379-80, 667-8, 715-20 and 785-8), including (pp. 893-7) an alphabetical index of some 351 titles of plays, in modern boards.

This is the longest known extant version of the unpublished anthology Hesperides or The Muses Garden, by John Evans, entered in the Stationers' Register on 16 August 1655 and subsequently advertised c.1660, among works he purposed to print, by Humphrey Moseley. Another version of this work, in the same hand, dissected by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), is now distributed between Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Halliwell-Phillipps, Notes upon the Works of Shakespeare, Folger, MS V.a.75, Folger, MS V.a.79, and Folger, MS V.a.80.

c.1656-66

Formerly MS 469.2.

This MS identified in IELM, II.i (1980), p. 450. Discussed, as the master draft, with a facsimile of p. 7 on p. 381, in Hao Tianhu, Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden and its Manuscript History, The Library, 7th Ser. 10/4 (December 2009), 372-404 (the full index printed as Catalogue A on pp. 385-94).

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