RELATIONS OF BLACKFRIARS 167 
Paul’s by Marston and Middleton, displacing the “musty fop- 
peries” the boys there had been presenting, owes somewhat to 
the influence of Jonson’s and Chapman’s plays at Blackfriars. 
ae introduction of the masque within the play? and the general 
- trend of realism in other theatres are also involved. The in- 
~ fluences on Shakespeare,” as for example in Hamlet, The Tem- 
: pest,* and certain other plays after the period of the histories, as 
_ also on Beaumont and Fletcher, promise peculiar interest. But 
parts of the field, affording only internal evidence and circum- 
_ stantial suggestion, are too shadowy to be alluring. 
It may seem a more tenable thesis that most of the Blackfriars 
_ plays are chargeable with imitation. Chapman, the chief poet 
_ there, took from Shakespeare materials or suggestions in every 
_ play he wrote for the Chapel Children.® But he did not do this 
_ in the plays he wrote before associating himself with Blackfriars. 
_ The extent of his indebtedness seems to be as follows.® 
Chapman seems in each instance to have used Shakespeare’s 
latest play. In Sir Giles Goosecap (ca. fall, 1600) the title char- 
acter in his ninniness and misuse of words looks like the notable 
character of Much Ado about Nothing (ca. 1599) Constable 
Dogberry in excessive leanness of absurdity made lanker by the 
extremities of idiocy protruding from the-dress of knighthood. 
In The Gentleman Usher (ca. summer, 1601) Bassiolo seems 
Niet abe 
“Cf. supra, 118-22, 122°-23. 
*The long dominant supposition 
that Shakespeare by virtue of tran- 
scendent genius was only the giver, 
not likewise the receiver, of dram- 
~atic influences is fortunately pass- 
ing. Among the serious attempts 
to reach the truth in one part of 
the field may be mentioned, despite 
its defects, the work of A. H. Thorn- 
dike, The Influence of Beaumont 
and Fletcher on Shakespeare (1901). 
All evidences tend to show that 
no dramatist of his time influenced 
his fellows more than Shakespeare 
did, and none was influenced by 
them more than he. Professor Dr. 
Emil Koppel, of the University at 
Strassburg, who has made extensive 
researches in the Elizabethan-Jaco- 
bean drama, says, with  refer- 
ence to the influence of Shake- 
speare, “Der weg des sammlers, der 
den spuren der wirkung Shake- 
speares nachgeht, wird so oft ge- 
kreuzt von lockenden pfaden, die zu 
Jonson laufen, dass ihm manchmal 
zweifel aufsteigen konnen, welchem 
der beiden manner die fiihrerrolle 
zuzutheilen sei.”—Vorwort zu Stu- 
dien tiber Shakespeare’s Wirkung 
auf Zeitgendssische  Dramatiker 
(1905). Cf. supra, 123. 
*Cf. supra, 15, 133; infra, 173-85. 
“Chr supra, 10°. 
°On the plays in question, except 
Sir Giles Goosecap, see also E. Kop- 
pel, Quellenstudien zu den Dramen 
George Chapmans, &c. (Quellen und 
Forschungen, Heft 82., Strassb. 
1897). 
*For evidences fixing the dates 
and further discussion see Plays in 
complete work, vol. II. 
281 
