Date
Nothing is known with certainty about the play's origin or its early stage history (if it had one). Relying on general considerations of style and artistic development, Chapman scholar T. M. Parrott postulated a date of authorship c. 1612-13; E. K. Chambers judged that Parrott's date "will do as well as another." Chapman's earliest works are comedies, actable and effective on the stage; his later tragedies move away from stageworthiness toward closet drama. If Bussy D'Ambois (printed 1607) is compared with its sequel, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (printed 1613), the move away from stage action and toward talkiness is readily apparent. For Parrott and like-minded critics, Caesar and Pompey falls toward the end of this trajectory. Others, however, have placed Caesar and Pompey in the 1599–1607 period, partly on perceived contemporary allusions, and partly on a view that the play's limitations indicate an early work.
(Some scholars argue that in Northward Ho, by Thomas Dekker and John Webster — a play performed in 1605 and printed in 1607 — the character Bellamont is intended to represent Chapman. In IV,i of that play, Bellamont talks of writing about Caesar and Pompey.)
Read more about this topic: Caesar And Pompey
Famous quotes containing the word date:
“In the South, the war is what A.D. is elsewhere: they date from it.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910)
“Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the nativesfrom Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenangowith a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists stage.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“A preschool child does not emerge from your toddler on a given date or birthday. He becomes a child when he ceases to be a wayward, confusing, unpredictable and often balky person-in-the- making, and becomes a comparatively cooperative, eager-and-easy-to-please real human beingat least 60 per cent of the time.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)