Temporis_ was the basis of Chapman's tragedy, has been completely disproved. The passage in which he narrates the story of Bussy's death does not occur in the earlier editions of his work, and first found its way into the issue published at Geneva in 1620. A similar narrative appeared in the following year in L'Estoile's _Journal_, which first saw the light in 1621, ten years after its author's death. But under a thin disguise there had already appeared a detailed history of Bussy's last _amour_ and his fall, though this, too, was later than Chapman's drama. A novelist, François de Rosset, had published a volume of tales entitled _Les Histoires Tragiques de Nostre Temps_. The earliest known edition is one of 1615, though it was preceded, probably not long, by an earlier edition full of "_fautes insupportables_," for which Rosset apologizes. He is careful to state in his preface that he is relating "_des histoires autant veritables que tristes et funestes. Les noms de la pluspart des personnages sont seulement desguisez en ce Theatre, à fin de n'affliger pas tant les familles de ceux qui en ont donné le sujet._" The fate of Bussy forms the subject of the seventeenth history, entitled "_De la mort pitoyable du valeureux Lysis_." Lysis was the name under which Margaret of Valois celebrated the memory of her former lover in a poem entitled "_L'esprit de Lysis disant adieu à sa Flore_." But apart from this proof of identification, the details given by Rosset are so full that there can be no uncertainty in the matter. Indeed, in some of his statements, as in his account of the first meeting between the lovers, Rosset probably supplies facts unrecorded by the historians of the period.From a comparison of these more or less contemporary records it is evident that, whatever actual source Chapman may have used, he has given in many respects a faithful portrait of the historical Bussy D'Ambois. It happened that at the time of Bussy's death the Duke of Anjou, his patron, was in London, laying ineffective siege to the hand of Elizabeth. This coincidence may have given wider currency in England to Bussy's tragic story than would otherwise have been the case. But a quarter of a century later this adventitious interest would have evaporated, and the success of Chapman's play would be due less to its theme than to its qualities of style and construction. To these we must therefore now turn.

With Chapman's enthusiasm for classical literature, it was natural that he should be influenced by classical models, even when handling a thoroughly modern subject. His Bussy is, in certain aspects, the _miles gloriosus_ of Latin drama, while in the tragic crisis of his fate he demonstrably borrows, as is shown in this edition for 

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