Page:George Chapman, a critical essay (IA georgechapmancri00swin).pdf/165

 perhaps half consciously oppressed and overcome by the sense that now indeed he must put forth all his powers to utter something not unworthy of what the 'dead shepherd' himself might have spoken over the two dead lovers, he does put forth all his powers for evil and for error, and gives such a narrative of their end as might have sufficed to raise from his grave the avenging ghost of the outraged poet who has been supposed—but unless it was said in some riotous humour of jesting irony, the supposition seems to me incredible—to have commended to Chapman, in case of his death, the task thus ill discharged of completing this deathless and half-accomplished work of a genius 'that perished in its pride.'

The faults and weaknesses of strong men seem usually an integral part of the character or the genius we admire for its strength; and the faults ingrained in the work of Chapman were probably indivisible from the powers which gave that work its worth. Those blemishes not less than those beauties of which the student is at almost every other step compelled perforce to take note, seem