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 Chapman "The Learned Shepheard of Faire Hitching Hill" (DNB). By 1585 he was working in London for the wealthy commoner Sir Ralph Sadler and probably served as a volunteer in the Netherlands. His Homer translations inspired the sonnet of John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer (1815). His main publications: The Shadow of Night, Two Poeticall Hymnes, 1593. Ovids Banquet of Sence, 1595. All Fools, 1605. Eastward Ho! 1605 (written with Ben Jonson and John Marston. The authors were imprisoned because James I found the play offensive to his fellow Scots). Bussy D'Ambois, 1607. The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Byron, 1608. Iliad (translation) 1612. Odyssey, 1614-1615 (translation). Some of his poems: "Bridal Song," "Certain Ancient Greek Epigrams," "Complimentary Sonnets," "For Good Men," "Helen and the Elders," "Of Friendship," "Of Great Men," "The Amorous Zodiac," "Winter."

   Sources: Chapman's Homer: The Iliad. Steven Shankman, ed. Princeton University Press, 1956. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html), I-V. W.H. Auden, and Norman Holmes Pearson, ed. Viking Press, 1950. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1950. Helen Gardner, ed. Oxford University Press, 1972. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.