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CHAPMAN, GEORGE (? 1559–1634)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 854 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAPMAN, See also:GEORGE (? 1559–1634) , See also:English poet and dramatist, was See also:born near See also:Hitchin. The inscription on the portrait which forms the See also:frontispiece of The Whole See also:Works of See also:Homer states that he was then (1616) fifty-seven years of See also:age. See also:Anthony a See also:Wood (Athen. Oxon. ii. 575) says that about 1574 he was sent to the university, " but whether first to this of Oxon, or that of See also:Cambridge, is to me unknown; sure I am that he spent some See also:time in Oxon, where he was observed to be most excellent in the Latin and See also:Greek See also:tongues, but not in See also:logic or See also:philosophy." Chapman's first extant See also:play, The See also:Blind See also:Beggar of See also:Alexandria, was produced in 1596, and two years later See also:Francis See also:Meres mentions him in Palladis Tamia among the " best for tragedie " and the " best for comedie." Of his See also:life between leaving the university and settling in See also:London there is no See also:account. It has been suggested, from the detailed knowledge displayed in The See also:Shadow of See also:Night of an incident in See also:Sir Francis See also:Vere's See also:campaign, that he saw service in the See also:Netherlands. There are frequent entries with regard to Chapman in See also:Henslowe's See also:diary for the years 1598–1599, but his dramatic activity slackened during the following years, when his See also:attention was chiefly occupied by his Homer. In 1604 he was imprisoned with See also:John See also:Marston for his See also:share in Eastward Ho, in which offence was given to the Scottish party at See also:court. See also:Ben See also:Jonson voluntarily joined the two, who were soon released. Chapman seems to have enjoyed favour at court, where he had a See also:patron in See also:Prince See also:Henry, but in 16o5 Jonson and he were for a See also:short time in See also:prison again for " a play." See also:Beaumont, the See also:French See also:ambassador in London, in a despatch of the 5th of See also:April 16o8, writes that he had obtained the See also:prohibition of a performance of See also:Biron in which the See also:queen of See also:France was represented as giving Mademoiselle de See also:Verneuil a See also:box on the ears. He adds that three of the actors were imprisoned, but that the See also:chief See also:culprit, the author, had escaped (See also:Raumer, Briefe aus See also:Paris, 1831, ii.

276). Among Chapman's patrons was See also:

Robert Carr, See also:earl of See also:Somerset, to whom he remained faithful after his disgrace. Chapman enjoyed the friendship and admiration of his See also:great contemporaries. John See also:Webster in the See also:preface to The See also:White See also:Devil praised " his full and heightened See also:style," and Ben Jonson told See also:Drummond of Hawthornden that See also:Fletcher and See also:Chap-See also:man " were loved of him." These friendly relations appear to have been interrupted later, for there is extant in the Ashmole See also:MSS. an " Invective written by Mr George Chapman against Mr Ben Jonson." Chapman died in the See also:parish of St See also:Giles in the See also:Fields, and was buried on the 12th of May 1634 in the See also:churchyard. A See also:monument to his memory was erected by Inigo See also:Jones. (M. BR.) Chapman, his first biographer is careful to let us know, " was a See also:person of most See also:reverend aspect, religious and temperate, qualities rarely See also:meeting in a poet "; he had also certain other merits at least as necessary to the exercise of that profession. He had a singular force and solidity of thought, an admirable ardour of ambitious devotion to the service of See also:poetry, a deep and burning sense at once of the See also:duty implied and of the dignity inherent in his See also:office; a vigour, opulence, and loftiness of phrase, remarkable even in that age of spiritual strength, See also:wealth and exaltation of thought and style; a robust eloquence, touched not unfrequently with flashes of See also:fancy, and kindled at times into See also:heat of See also:imagination. The See also:main See also:fault of his style is one more commonly found in the See also:prose than in the See also:verse of his time,—a See also:quaint and florid obscurity, rigid with elaborate See also:rhetoric and tortuous with labyrinthine See also:illustration; not dark only to the rapid reader through closeness and subtlety of thought, like See also:Donne, whose miscalled obscurity is so often " all glorious within," but thick and slab as a See also:witch's gruel with forced and barbarous eccentricities of See also:articulation. As his See also:language in the higher forms of See also:comedy is always pure and clear, and sometimes exquisite in the simplicity of its See also:earnest and natural See also:grace, the stiffness and See also:density of his more ambitious style may perhaps be attributed to some pernicious theory or conceit of the dignity proper to a moral and philosophic poet. Nevertheless, many of the gnomic passages in his tragedies and allegoric poems are of singular See also:weight and beauty; the best of these, indeed; would not discredit the fame of the very greatest poets for sublimity of equal thought and expression: See also:witness the lines chosen by See also:Shelley as the See also:motto for a poem, and See also:fit to have been chosen as the motto for his life. The romantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur of Chapman's Homer remains attested by the praise of See also:Keats, of See also:Coleridge and of See also:Lamb; it is written at a See also:pitch of strenuous and laborious exaltation, which never flags or breaks down, but never flies with the ease and smoothness of an See also:eagle native to Homeric See also:air.

From his occasional poems an See also:

expert and careful See also:hand might easily gather a See also:noble See also:anthology of excerpts, chiefly gnomic or meditative, allegoric or descriptive. The most notable examples of his tragic See also:work are comprised in the See also:series of plays taken, and adapted sometimes with singular See also:licence, from the records of such See also:part of French See also:history as lies between the reign of Francis I. and the reign of Henry IV., ranging in date of subject from the trial' and See also:death of See also:Admiral See also:Chabot to the See also:treason and See also:execution of See also:Marshal Biron. The two plays bearing as epigraph the name of that famous soldier and conspirator are a storehouse of lofty thought and splendid verse, with scarcelya flash or sparkle of dramatic See also:action. The one play of Chapman's whose popularity on the See also:stage survived the Restoration is See also:Bussy d'Ambois (d'See also:Amboise),—a tragedy not lacking in violence of action or emotion, and abounding even more in sweet and sub-See also:lime interludes than in crabbed and bombastic passages. His rarest jewels of thought and verse detachable from the context See also:lie embedded in the tragedy of See also:Caesar and See also:Pompey, whence the finest of them were first extracted by the unerring and unequalled See also:critical See also:genius of See also:Charles Lamb. In most of his tragedies the lofty and labouring spirit of Chapman may be said rather to shine fitfully through parts than steadily to pervade the whole; they show nobly altogether as they stand, but even better by help of excerpts and selections. But the excellence of his best comedies can only be appreciated by a student who reads them fairly and fearlessly through, and, having made some small deductions on the See also:score of occasional pedantry and occasional indecency, finds in All See also:Fools, See also:Monsieur d'See also:Olive, The See also:Gentleman See also:Usher, and The Widow's Tears a wealth and vigour of humorous invention, a See also:tender and earnest grace of romantic poetry, which may atone alike for these passing blemishes and for the lack of such clear-cut perfection of See also:character and such dramatic progression of See also:interest as we find only in the yet higher poets of the English heroic age. So much it may suffice to say of Chapman as an See also:original poet, one who held of no man and acknowledged no See also:master, but from the See also:birth of See also:Marlowe well-nigh to the death of Jonson held on his own hard and haughty way of austere and See also:sublime ambition, not without kindly and graceful inclination of his high See also:grey See also:head to salute such younger and still nobler compeers as Jonson and Fletcher. With See also:Shakespeare we should never have guessed that he had come at all in contact, had not the keen intelligence of See also:William See also:Minto divined or rather discerned him to be the See also:rival poet referred to in Shakespeare's sonnets with a See also:grave See also:note of passionate See also:satire, hitherto as enigmatic as almost all questions connected with those divine and dangerous poems. This conjecture See also:Professor Minto fortified by such See also:apt collocation and confrontation of passages that we may now reasonably accept it as an ascertained and memorable fact. The objections which a just and adequate See also:judgment may bring against Chapman's master-work, his See also:translation of Homer, may be summed up in three epithets: it is romantic, laborious, Elizabethan. The qualities implied by these epithets are the See also:reverse of those which should distinguish a translator of Homer; but setting this apart, and considering the poems as in the main original works, the superstructure of a romantic poet on the submerged See also:foundations of Greek verse, no praise can be too warm or high for the See also:power, the freshness, the indefatigable strength and inextinguishable See also:fire which animate this exalted work, and secure for all time that shall take See also:cognizance of English poetry an honoured See also:place in its highest See also:annals for the memory of Chapman.

(A. C. S.) Chapman's works include:—E,ai vueros: The Shadow of Night: Containing two Poetical/ Hymnes . (1594), the second of which deals with Sir Francis Vere's campaign in the Netherlands; See also:

Ovid's Banquet of Sence. A Coronet for his Mistresse Philosophie; and His Amorous Zodiacke with a translation of a Latine coppie, written by a Fryer, See also:Anno Dom. 1400 (1595, 2nd ed. 1639), a collection of poems frequently quoted from in See also:England's See also:Parnassus (1600); " De See also:Guiana, carmen epicum," a poem prefixed to See also:Lawrence Keymis's A Relation of the second voyage to Guiana (1596) ; See also:Hero and Leander. Begun by See also:Christopher Marloe; and finished by George Chapman (1598); The Blinde begger of Alexandria, most pleasantly discoursing his variable humours . (acted 1596, printed 1598), a popular comedy; A Pleasant Comedy entituled An Humerous dayes Myrth (identified by Mr Fleay with the " Comodey of Umero " noted by Henslowe on the 11th of May 1597; printed 1599) ; Al Fooles, A Comedy (paid for by Henslowe on the 2nd of See also:July 1599, its original name being " The See also:World runs on wheels " ; printed 1605) ; The See also:Gentle-man Usher (c. 1601, pr. 1606), a comedy; Monsieur d'Olive (1604, pr. 1606), one of his most amusing and successful comedies; See also:East-See also:ward See also:Hoe (1605), written in See also:conjunction with Ben Jonson and John Marston, an excellent comedy of See also:city life; Bussy d'Ambois,' A 1 Chapman's source in this piece remains undetermined.

It cannot be the Historia sui temporis of Jacques de Thom, for the 4th See also:

volume of his work, which relates the See also:story, was not published until 1609 (see Koeppel, p. 14). Tragedie (1604, pr. 1607, 16o8, 1616, 1641, &c.), the See also:scene of which is laid in the court of Henry III.; The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois. A Tragedie (pr. 1613, but probably written much earlier) ; The Conspiracie, And Tragedie of Charles See also:Duke of See also:Byron, See also:Marshall of France ...in two plays (1607 and 16o8; pr. 16o8 and 1625) ; May-See also:Day, A witty Comedie (pr. 1611; but probably acted as See also:early as 1601) ; The widdowes Teares. A Comedie (pr.' 1612; produced perhaps as early as 1605); Caesar and Pompey: A See also:Roman Tragedy, declaring their warres. Out of whose events is evicted this Proposition. Only a just man is a See also:freeman (pr. 1631), written, says Chapman in the See also:dedication, " See also:long since," but never staged.

The Tragedy of Alphonsus Emperour of See also:

Germany (see the edition by Dr Karl Elye; See also:Leipzig, 1867) and Revenge for See also:Honour (1654) i both See also:bear Chapman's name on the See also:title-See also:page, but his authorship has been disputed. In The See also:Ball (lie. 1632; pr. 1639), a comedy, and The Tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France (lic. 1635 ; pr. 1639) he collaborated with See also:James See also:Shirley. The memorable Masque of the two See also:Honourable Houses or Inns of Court; the See also:Middle See also:Temple and Lyn-See also:coin's Inne, was performed at court in 1613 in honour of the See also:marriage of the Princess See also:Elizabeth. The Whole Works of Homer: Prince of Poets. In his Iliads and Odysseys . . . appeared in 1616, and about 1624 he added The See also:Crowne of all Homers works See also:Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and See also:Mise. His See also:Hymns and Epigrams. But the whole works had been already published by instalments.

Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homer had appeared in 1598, See also:

Achilles See also:Shield in the same See also:year, books i.-xii. about 1609; in 1615 The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets . . . ; and in 1614 Twenty-four Bookes of Homer's Odisses were entered at Stationers' See also:Hall. In 1609 he addressed to Prince Henry Enthymiae Raptus; or the Teares of See also:Peace, and on the death of his patron he contributed An Epicede, or Funerall See also:Song (1612). A See also:paraphrase of Petrarchs Seven Penitentiall See also:Psalms (1612), a poem in honour of the marriage of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and Frances, the divorced countess of See also:Essex, indiscreetly entitled See also:Andromeda Liberata . (1614), a translation of The Georgicks of See also:Hesiod (1618), See also:Pro Vere Autumni Lachrymae (1622), in honour of Sir Horatio Vere, A See also:justification of a See also:Strange Action of See also:Nero . also . . . the fifth Satyre of Juvenall (1629), and Eugenia . . . (1614), an See also:elegy on Sir William See also:Russell, See also:complete the See also:list of his separately published works. Chapman's Homer was edited in 1857 by the Rev. See also:Richard See also:Hooper ; and a reprint of his dramatic works appeared in 1873. The See also:standard edition of Chapman is the Works, edited by R.

H. Shepherd (1874–1875), the third volume of which contains an " See also:

Essay on the Poetical and Dramatic works of George Chapman," by Mr See also:Swinburne, printed separately in 1875. The selection of his plays (1895) for the Mermaid Series is edited by Mr W. L. See also:Phelps. For the See also:sources of the plays see Emil Koeppel, " Anellen Studien zu den Dramen George Chap-man's, See also:Philip See also:Massinger's and John See also:Ford's " in Quellen and Forschungen zur Sprach und Kulturgeschichte (vol. 82, See also:Strassburg, 1897). The See also:suggestion of W. Minto (see Characteristics of the English Poets, 1885) that Chapman was the " rival poet " of Shakespeare's sonnets is amplified in Mr A. Acheson's Shakespeare and the Rival Poet 1903). Much satire in Chapman's introduction is there applied to Shakespeare. For other criticisms of his translation of Homer see See also:Matthew See also:Arnold, Lectures on translating Homer (1861), and Dr A.

Lohff, George Chapman's Ilias-Ubersetzung (See also:

Berlin, 1903). (M.

End of Article: CHAPMAN, GEORGE (? 1559–1634)

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