ABSTRACT

One of the most mysterious poems of the Elizabethan age is George Chapman’s The Shadow of Night. It opens by describing a ‘humour of the night’, a sad and weeping humour, but devoted to abstruse studies. The profound contemplations of the Night are then contrasted with the foolish and pointless activities of the Day. These experiences lead finally to a vision of the Moon, rising in magical splendour out of the darkness of the Night. The poem is in two parts, Hymnus in Noctem and Hymnus in Cynthiam. Many have been the attempts to unravel the hidden meanings of this most strange work. What is that darkness and that weeping humour through which the poet arrives at his moonlit visions?