Possessed with Greatness

Ide argues that some of Chapman's and Shakespeare's best Jacobean plays are related by genre, tragic hero, and the type of tragic conflict. Although the two playwrights clearly share a fascination for the soldier hero and an acute awareness of his social incompetence and deviance, the dramas reveal sharply divergent attitudes toward his heroic idealism. In this respect, the heroic tragedies form a dialogue on the values, ideals, and assumptions of the epic genre and the heroic tradition.

Originally published in 1980.

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