Page:George Chapman, a critical essay (IA georgechapmancri00swin).pdf/120

 master of Chabot the radiant and exuberant lover of the whole world of women,

"ce roi sacré chevalier par Bayard, Jeune homme auquel il faut des plaisirs de vieillard,"

who in our own age has been far otherwise presented on the theatre of a far mightier poet, There is no hint in the play that any more prevailing and less legitimate influence than a wife's was brought to bear in favour of Chabot on a king with whom his lawful consort might have been supposed of all women the least likely to prevail; and by this suppression or disguise of the personal interest actually exerted on behalf of his hero the dramatist has defrauded of her due credit the real friend of the fallen admiral; for it was not at the instance of the queen, but at the instance of Madame d'Etampes, a kinswoman of Chabot, that the chancellor Poyet was arrested and disgraced in the same year (1542) which had seen the fall, the restoration, and the death by heartbreak of the faithful minister who owed not to the intercession of the king's wife but to his own alliance by blood with the king's