s of the King while attending a review of
troops. The position of this narrative (translated from P. Matthieu) at
the close of the folio must have helped to draw Chapman's special
attention to it, and having expended his genius so liberally on the
career of the arch-conspirator of the period, he was apparently moved to
handle also that of his interesting confederate. But D'Auvergne's
fortunes scarcely furnished the stuff for a complete drama, on Chapman's
customary broad scale, and he seems therefore to have conceived the
ingenious idea of utilising them as the groundwork of a sequel to his
most popular play, _Bussy D'Ambois_.

He transformed the Count into an imaginary brother of his former hero.
For though D'Ambois had two younger brothers, Hubert, seigneur de
Moigneville, and Georges, baron de Bussy, it is highly improbable that
Chapman had ever heard of them, and there was nothing in the career of
either to suggest the figure of Clermont D'Ambois. The name given by
Chapman to this unhistorical addition to the family was, I believe, due
to a mere chance, if not a misunderstanding. In Grimeston's narrative of
the plot against D'Auvergne he mentions that one of the King's agents,
D'Eurre, "came to Clermont on Monday at night, and goes unto him
[D'Auvergne] where he supped." Here the name Clermont denotes, of
course, a place. But Chapman may have possibly misconceived it to refer
to the Count, and, in any case, its occurrence in this context probably
suggested its bestowal upon the hero of the second D'Ambois play.

A later passage in Grimeston's history gives an interesting glimpse of
D'Auvergne's character. We are told that after he had been arrested, and
was being conducted to Paris, "all the way he seemed no more afflicted,
then when he was at libertie. He tould youthfull and idle tales of his
love, and the deceiving of ladies. Hee shott in a harquebuse at birds,
wherein hee was so perfect and excellent, as hee did kill larkes as they
were flying."

From this hint of a personality serenely proof against the shocks of
adversity Chapman elaborated the figure of the "Senecall man," Clermont
D'Ambois. In developing his conception he drew, however, not primarily,
as this phrase suggests, from the writings of the Roman senator and
sage, but from those of the lowlier, though not less authoritative
exponent of Stoic doctrine, the enfranchised slave, Epictetus. As is
shown, for the first time, in the Notes to this edition,