Page:George Chapman, a critical essay (IA georgechapmancri00swin).pdf/45

 of seeking a solution for riddles to us insoluble, we may note in this poem the first sign of that high patriotic quality which, though common to all the great of his generation, is more constantly perceptible in the nobler moods of Chapman's mind than in the work of many among his compeers. Especially in the reference of one elaborate simile to a campaign in the Netherlands, and the leadership of the English forces by

"War's quick artisan, Fame-thriving Vere, that in those countries wan More fame than guerdon,"

we trace the lifelong interest taken by this poet in the fortunes of English fighting men in foreign wars and the generous impulse which moved him twenty-eight years later, at the age of sixty-three, to plead in earnest and fervent verses the cause of Sir Horatio Vere, then engaged 'with his poor handful of English' in the 'first act of the Thirty Years' War, ('besieged and distressed in Mainhem,' Chapman tells us,) in the ears of the courtiers of James I, A quainter example of this interest in the