Chapman, George - Millar MacLure (essay date 1966)
Millar MacLure (essay date 1966)
SOURCE: MacLure, Millar. “Tragedy.” In George Chapman: A Critical Study, pp. 108-57. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966.
[In the following essay, MacLure provides a comprehensive survey of Chapman's tragedies, demonstrating that the playwright displays a marked conflict between pedantic knowledge and creative imagination in his works.]
Chapman's definition of tragedy is frequently quoted, with or without the reservation that it does not necessarily describe his own contributions to the genre:
Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs and limits of an autentical tragedy.
A highly characteristic utterance, complete with physiological analogy, moral energy, and contempt for such poor creatures as...
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