George Chapman - Note

Poet and playwright, born near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SE England, UK. He studied at Oxford, then worked in London. He is best known for his translations of Homer's Iliad (1598–1611) and Odyssey (1616), followed by the minor works (c.1624). He joined Jonson and Marston in the composition of Eastward Ho (1605), and in 1607 Bussy d'Ambois appeared, which had a sequel in 1613.

Chapman was born at Hitchin in Hertfordshire.

By the end of the 1590s he had become a successful playwright, working for Philip Henslowe and later for the Children of the Chapel.

His greatest tragedies took their subject matter from recent French history, the French ambassador taking offence on at least one occasion. These include Bussy D'Ambois (1607), The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608), The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613) and The Tragedy of Chabot (published 1639).

He wrote many plays in collaboration.

Other poems include De Guiana, Carmen Epicum (1596), on the exploits of Sir Walter Raleigh, a continuation of Christopher Marlowe's unfinished Hero and Leander (1598), and Euthymiae Raptus;

From 1598 he published his translation of the Iliad in instalments. In 1616 the complete Iliad and Odyssey appeared in The Whole Works of Homer, the first complete English translation. Idiosyncratic but containing passages of brilliance, Chapman's Homer was much admired by John Keats, notably in his famous poem On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, but is now rarely read.

Chapman died in London, having lived his latter years in poverty.

Note

^ Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and Their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood, London, Routledge, 2006;