Chapman, George

Chapman, George

▪ English writer
born 1559?, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, Eng.
died May 12, 1634, London
 English poet and dramatist, whose translation of Homer long remained the standard English version.

      Chapman attended the University of Oxford but took no degree. By 1585 he was working in London for the wealthy commoner Sir Ralph Sadler and probably traveled to the Low Countries at this time. His first work was The Shadow of Night . . . Two Poeticall Hymnes (1593), followed in 1595 by Ovids Banquet of Sence. Both philosophize on the value of an ordered life. His poem in praise of Sir Walter Raleigh, De Guiana, Carmen Epicum (“An Epic Poem about Guiana,” 1596), is typical of his preoccupation with the virtues of the warrior-hero, the character that dominates most of his plays.

      The first books of his translation of the Iliad appeared in 1598. It was completed in 1611, and his version of the Odyssey appeared in 1616. Chapman's Homer contains passages of great power and beauty and inspired the sonnet of John Keats “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer” (1815).

      Chapman's conclusion to Christopher Marlowe's unfinished poem Hero and Leander (1598) emphasized the necessity for control and wisdom. Euthymiae Raptus; or the Teares of Peace (1609), Chapman's major poem, is a dialogue between the poet and the Lady Peace, who is mourning over the chaos caused by man's valuing worldly objects above integrity and wisdom.

      Chapman was imprisoned with Ben Jonson (Marlowe, Christopher) and John Marston (Marston, John) in 1605 for writing Eastward Ho, a play that James I, the king of Great Britain, found offensive to his fellow Scots. Of Chapman's dramatic works, about a dozen plays survive, chief of which are his tragedies: Bussy d'Ambois (1607), The Conspiracie, and Tragedie of Charles Duke of Byron . . . (1608), and The Widdowes Teares (1612).

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  • CHAPMAN, George — (c. 1559 1634) A complex poet and innovative playwright, George Chapman was also a respected scholar, a supporter of writers and artists, and, most famously, a trans­lator of Homer. Chapman was the second son in a well connected and prosper­ous… …   Renaissance and Reformation 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary

  • Chapman, George — (?1559 1634)    Born near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, it is thought he attended Oxford University, Cambridge or both, but whichever, he was an excellent Greek and Latin scholar. William Browne, in the second book of Britannia s Pastorals, styles… …   British and Irish poets

  • Chapman,George — Chap·man (chăpʹmən), George. 1559? 1634. English writer, dramatist, and translator noted for his translations of Homer s Iliad (1598 1611) and Odyssey (1616). * * * …   Universalium

  • Chapman, George — (1560 1634)    English poet, dramatist, and translator. His comedies All Fools (1605) and The Widow s Tears (1612) were successful on the London stage, and his classical education (probably at Oxford) is reflected in his tragedy Bussy d Ambois… …   Historical Dictionary of Renaissance

  • Chapman, George — ► (1559 1634) Escritor inglés. Cultivó la tragedia histórica, como en la tragedia Bussy d´Ambois (1597) …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • CHAPMAN, GEORGE —    English dramatic poet, born at Hitchin, Hertfordshire; wrote numerous plays, both in tragedy and comedy, as well as poems, of unequal merit, but his great achievement, and the one on which his fame rests, is his translation into verse of the… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Chapman, George — (1559 1634)    Dramatist and translator, was b. near Hitchin, and probably ed. at Oxf. and Camb. He wrote many plays, including The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (1596), All Fools (1599), A Humerous Daye s Myrthe (1599), Eastward Hoe (with Jonson),… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • George Chapman (Giftmörder) — George Chapman George Chapman (* 14. Dezember 1865 in Nagórna, (Polen) als Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski; † 7. April 1903 im Wandsworth Gefängnis) war ein bekannter Giftmörder. Es wird vermutet, dass er auch Jack the Ripper gewesen sein könnte …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • CHAPMAN (G.) — CHAPMAN GEORGE (1559 env. 1634) Poète, dramaturge et traducteur de l’époque élisabéthaine. Celui que Shakespeare nommait, non sans quelque ironie, son rival se croyait inspiré des dieux et plus particulièrement pour traduire Homère. C’est… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Chapman — Chapman, George * * * (as used in expressions) Andrews, Roy Chapman Catt, Carrie Chapman Chapman, Frank Michler Chapman, Maria Weston …   Enciclopedia Universal

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