George Chapman's All Fools - some wit, some wealth

George Chapman has the funny distinction of being famous, courtesy of Keats, but unread. He was one of the finest poets and playwrights of the Age of Shakespeare, one of the great Not Shakespeares. His 1604 comedy All Fools gives a good idea of how he is good and why he is little read. All Fools is a blend of two Terence plays, much like Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors is a mix of two Plautus plays. The sons want to marry for love, against the will of their fathers. The sons are right; the fathers get their (mild) comeuppance. In the B-plot, a jealous husband also learns his lesson. The sons and their secret wives and girlfriends are barely distinguishable, like the romantic quartet in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The distinctive character is Rynaldo, a younger brother, who is the trickster figure, arranging various schemes so the lovers can put one or two or more over on their gullible fathers. He is a bit like Puck, or the Duke in Measure for Measure, “gulling” the other characters,…