SOURCE: Burbridge, Roger Truscott. “Speech and Action in Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois.” Tennessee Studies in Literature 17 (1972): 59-65.

In the following essay, Burbridge argues that despite Chapman's efforts to unite language and action in Bussy D'Ambois, he succeeds in representing “the constructive force of virtue only in words, not in deeds.”

Early in the first act of Bussy D'Ambois, Bussy justifies his entering the corrupt world of the court by announcing:

I am for honest actions, not for great: If I may bring up a new fashion, And rise in Court with virtue, speed                     his [Monsieur's] plough. 

(I.i.128-30)¹

In the rest of this speech Bussy prepares the audience for a struggle between his virtue and the “policy” of Monsieur and other politicians of the court. As the play progresses, however, this conflict between good and evil is blurred by the action, as well as by the inaction, of...