SOURCE: Krasner, James N. “The Tragedy of Bussy D'Ambois and the Creation of Heroism.” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism, and Reviews, Vol. 4, edited by Leeds Barroll, pp. 107-21. New York: AMS Press, 1989.

In the following essay, Krasner argues that Chapman attempts to reconcile two conflicting conceptions of the artist in Bussy D'Ambois: “the artist as political myth-maker and the artist as aesthetic creator.”

Bussy D'Ambois has frequently been referred to as a hero of epic proportions. The relationship between Chapman's understanding of the epic hero and his portrayal of Bussy, a tragic hero in a degenerate time, has already been insightfully examined by Richard Ide in his book Possessed with Greatness.¹ But Ide neglects to discuss Chapman's view of the relationship between artist and hero that so thoroughly informs The Tragedy of Bussy D'Ambois. The major conflict in the play is not...