George Chapman

Born at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, George Chapman is thought to have attended Oxford or Cambridge before serving in the army and working as a playwright in London. He was patronized by the Countess of Walsingham and Lucy, Countess of Bedford; Chapman held the position of sewer-in-ordinary to Prince Henry. Though a successful dramatist, his modern reputation is founded on his rugged translation of Homer, much admired by John Keats and the romantic poets.

TEXT RECORDS:

1606Monsieur D'Olive. A Comedie.
1612An Epicede or Funerall Song.

PUBLICATIONS:

The shadow of night, containing two poetical hyms. 1594.
Ovids banquet of sence, A coronet for his mistresse Philosophe, and his amorous zodiacke, with a translation of a Latin coppie written by a fryer. 1595.
Achilles shield, translated as the other seven bookes of Homer out of his eighteenth booke of Iliades. 1598.
The blinde begger of Alexandria. 1598.
Seven bookes of the Iliades of Momere, prince of poets, translated according to the Greeke in judgement of his best commentaries. 1598.
A pleasant comedy entituled An humerous dayes myrth. 1599.
Peisteros: or the male turtle. 1601.
Al fooles, a comedy. 1605.
Eastward hoe. 1605 (with Jonson and Marston).
The gentleman usher. 1606.
Monsieur D'Olive: a comedie. 1606.
Sir Gyles Goosecappe knight: a comedie. 1606.
Bussy D'Ambois: a tragedie. 1607.
The conspiracie and tragedie of Charles Duke of Byron. 1608.
Euthymiae raptus: or the teares of peace, with interlocutions. 1609.
Homer, prince of poets, translated according to the Greeke in twelve bookes of his Iliads. 1611.
May-day: a witty comedie. 1611.
An epicede or funerall song on the death of Henry Prince of Wales. 1612.
Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalmes, paraphrastically translated with other philosophicall poems and a Hymne to Christ upon the cross. 1612.
The widdowes teares: a comedy. 1612.
The memorable maske of the two honorable houses or Inns of Courte. 1613.
The revenge of Bussy D'Ambois: a tragedie. 1613.
Andromeda liberata: or the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda. 1614.
Eugenia: or true nobilities trance for the most memorable death of William Lord Russell. 1614.
A free and offenceless justification of Andromeda liberata. 1614.
Twenty-four bookes of Homers Odisses. 1615.
The divine poem of Musaeus: first of all bookes, translated according to the originall. 1616.
The whole works of Homer, prince of poetes. 1616.
The Georgicks of Hesiod, translated elaborately out of the Greek. 1616.
Pro Vere autumni lachrymae, inscribed to the immortal memorie of Sir Horatio Vere.
The crowne of all Homers workes, Batrachomyomachia or the battaile of frogs and mise, his hymn's and epigrams. 1624.
A justification of the strange action of Nero. 1629.
Caesar and Pompey: a Roman tragedy. 1631.
The tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France. 1639.
Select early English poets, ed. S. W. Singer. 1817.
Plays and poems, ed. Thomas Marc Parrott. 2 vols, 1910.
Poems, ed. Phyllis Brooks Bartlett. 1941.
Plays: the comedies, ed. Allan Holaday. 1970.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Trinity College Oxford
courtier

dramatist
poet

Sir John Beaumont
Christopher Brooke
William Browne of Tavistock
Samuel Daniel
Thomas Freeman
William Herbert
Hugh Holland
Ben Jonson
Christopher Marlowe
Philip Massinger
Rev. John Marston
Matthew Roydon
William Shakespeare
James Shirley
Francis Walsingham
Prince Henry
Countess of Bedford

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675); William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687); Gerard Langbaine, Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691); Charles Gildon, Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1699); Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719); Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 1:592-93; Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); James Granger, Biographical History (1769; 1824) [portrait]; Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Thomas Warton, History of English Poetry (1774-81); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); George Ellis, Specimens of Early English Poetry (1790; 1801); Samuel Egerton Brydges, Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum (1800); Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 156-57; William Beloe, Anecdotes of Literature 1 (1807) 280-83, 2 (1807) 33; Censura Literaria 6 (1808) 239-47; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses (1815); Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 2 (1815) 81-96, 4 (1816) 169-75, 433-37; Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838); Samuel Weller Singer, in Select Early English Poets No. 2-3 (1817); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Retrospective Review 4 (1821) 333-81, 5 (1822) 315-22; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Edward Farr, Select Poetry, chiefly sacred, of the Reign of King James the First (1847); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Bush, OHEL (1945); Jean Jacquot, George Chapman 1559-1634, sa vie sa poesie, son theatre, sa pensee (1951); Lewis, OHEL (1954); Charlotte Spivak, George Chapman (1967); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for George Chapman:

1.	1595  Richard Stapleton, "To the Author" Chapman, Ovids Banquet of Sence (1595) sig. A3.
2.	1595  Sir John Davies, "To the Author" Chapman, Ovids Banquet of Sence (1595) sig. A3v.
3.	1611 ca.  John Davies of Hereford, "To Mr. George Chapman, Father of our English Poets" in Scourge of Folly (1611 ca.); Davies, Works, ed. Grosart (1878) 2:59-60.
4.	1614  Thomas Freeman, "To George Chapman" in Rubbe, and a Great Cast. Epigrams" (1614) sig. K2.
5.	1616  William Browne of Tavistock, in Britannia's Pastorals (1616) 2:36-37.
6.	1616  Robert Anton, in "Sixth Satyr of Mercurie" Philosophers Satyres (1616) 64.
7.	1618  Michael Drayton, "To my worthy Friend Mr. George Chapman, and his translated Hesiod" The Georgicks of Hesiod, by George Chapman (1618) sig. A4-A4v.
8.	1618  Ben Jonson, "To my worthy and honour'd Friend Mr. George Chapman, on his Translation of Hesiods Works, and Dayes" The Georgicks of Hesiod, by George Chapman (1618) sig. A4v.
9.	1618 ca.  Edmund Bolton, 1618 ca.; in Hypercritica (1722) 235.
10.	1627  Michael Drayton, in "To Henry Reynolds" Battaile of Agincourt (1627) 207.
11.	1640  Anonymous, "To Mr. George Chapman on his Translation of Homers Works into English Meter" Wits Recreations (1640) sig. B4v.
12.	1651  Samuel Sheppard, "On Mr. Chapmans incomparable Translation of Homers Workes" Sheppard, Epigrams (1651) 162-63.
13.	1683  John Dryden, in William Soame, trans.; The Art of Poetry (1683) 36.
14.	1699  Charles Gildon, in Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1699) 18.
15.	1700  Samuel Wesley, in Epistle Concerning Poetry (1700) 12.
16.	1740 ca.  William Oldys, ca. 1740; in Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 2 (1815) 30.
17.	1764  David Erskine Baker, in Companion to the Play-House (1764) 2:Sig. E4v.
18.	1781  Thomas Warton, in History of English Poetry (1774-81; 1840) 3:358-59.
19.	1793  William Cowper to Thomas Park, 15 July 1793; in Southey, Life and Works of Cowper (1835-37) 7:332.
20.	1802  Charles Lamb to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 23 October 1802; in Letters, ed. Thomas Noon Talfourd (1837) 1:236-37.
21.	1814  B. L. O., "An Epicede or Funerall Song" British Bibliographer 4 (1814) 36-37.
22.	1816  Thomas Park, in Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 4 (1816) 433-34.
23.	1816  John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"; The Examiner (1 December 1816) 762.
24.	1824  Charles Lamb to Charles Abraham Elton, 17 August 1824?; Works of Charles Lamb, ed. Lucas (1903-05) 7:650-51.
25.	1824  Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 24-25.
26.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries (1828) 248-49.
27.	1837  Henry Hallam, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (1837-39; 1882) 3:226-27.
28.	1847  Edward Farr, in Select Poetry, chiefly sacred, of the Reign of King James the First (1847) xxx.
29.	1880  Andrew Laing, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 1:510-15.
30.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 18-19.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for George Chapman:

1.	1675  Edward Phillips, in Theatrum Poetarum (1675) 2:53.
2.	1687  William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) 113.
3.	1690  Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 1:592.
4.	1691  Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 57-67.
5.	1719  Giles Jacob, in Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1719) 35-37.
6.	1757  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1757) 1:229-34.
7.	1769  James Granger, in Biographical History of England (1769; 1824) 2:129-30.
8.	1781  Thomas Warton, in History of English Poetry (1774-81; 1840) 3:361-62.
9.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 9:124-28.
10.	1817  Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838) 295.
11.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 130.
12.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:210-11.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1595  Matthew Roydon:   George Chapman, "Dedication to Mathew Royden" in Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595); Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 2 (1815) 54.
2.	1605  Ben Jonson:   George Chapman, in Jonson, Sejanus (1605) sig. Av.
3.	1607  Ben Jonson:   George Chapman, "To his deare Friend, Mr. Benjamin Jonson his Volpone" Jonson, Volpone (1607) sig. A3.
4.	1614  Christopher Brooke:   George Chapman, "To his ingenuous, and much lov'd Friend, the Author" Brooke, The Ghost of Richard the Third (1614) 1-2.