Chapman’s works include:—Σκιά νυκτός: The Shadow of Night: Containing two Poeticall Hymnes ... (1594), the second of which deals with Sir Francis Vere’s campaign in the Netherlands; 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, Anno Dom. 1400 (1595, 2nd ed. 1639), a collection of poems frequently quoted from in England’s Parnassus (1600); “De Guiana, carmen epicum,” a poem prefixed to Lawrence Keymis’s A Relation of the second voyage to Guiana (1596); Hero and Leander. Begun by 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 July 1599, its original name being “The World runs on wheels”; printed 1605); The Gentleman Usher (c. 1601, pr. 1606), a comedy; Monsieur d’Olive (1604, pr. 1606), one of his most amusing and successful comedies; Eastward Hoe (1605), written in conjunction with Ben Jonson and John Marston, an excellent comedy of city life; Bussy d’Ambois,[1] A Tragedie (1604, pr. 1607, 1608, 1616, 1641, &c.), the 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 Duke of Byron. Marshall of France, ... in two plays (1607 and 1608; pr. 1608 and 1625); May-Day, A witty Comedie (pr. 1611; but probably acted as early as 1601); The widdowes Teares. A Comedie (pr. 1612; produced perhaps as early as 1605); Caesar and Pompey: A Roman Tragedy, declaring their warres. Out of whose events is evicted this Proposition. Only a just man is a freeman (pr. 1631), written, says Chapman in the dedication, “long since,” but never staged.
The Tragedy of Alphonsus Emperour of Germany (see the edition by Dr Karl Elye; Leipzig, 1867) and Revenge for Honour (1654)[2] both bear Chapman’s name on the title-page, but his authorship has been disputed. In The Ball (lic. 1632; pr. 1639), a comedy, and The Tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France (lic. 1635; pr. 1639) he collaborated with James Shirley. The memorable Masque of the two Honourable Houses or Inns of Court; the Middle Temple and Lyncoln’s Inne, was performed at court in 1613 in honour of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth.
The Whole Works of Homer: Prince of Poets. In his Iliads and Odysseys ... appeared in 1616, and about 1624 he added The Crowne of all Homers works Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise. His Hymns and Epigrams. But the whole works had been already published by instalments. Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homer had appeared in 1598, Achilles Shield in the same year, books i.-xii. about 1609; in 1611 The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets ...; and in 1614 Twenty-four Bookes of Homer’s Odisses were entered at Stationers’ Hall. In 1609 he addressed to Prince Henry Enthymiae Raptus; or the Teares of Peace, and on the death of his patron he contributed An Epicede, or Funerall Song (1612). A paraphrase of Petrarchs Seven Penitentiall Psalms (1612), a poem in honour of the marriage of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and Frances, the divorced countess of Essex, indiscreetly entitled Andromeda Liberata ... (1614), a translation of The Georgicks of Hesiod (1618), Pro Vere Autumni Lachrymae (1622), in honour of Sir Horatio Vere, A justification of a Strange Action of Nero ... also ... the fifth Satyre of Juvenall (1629), and Eugenia ... (1614), an elegy on Sir William Russell, complete the list of his separately published works.
Chapman’s Homer was edited in 1857 by the Rev. Richard Hooper; and a reprint of his dramatic works appeared in 1873. The standard edition of Chapman is the Works, edited by R.H. Shepherd (1874-1875), the third volume of which contains an “Essay on the Poetical and Dramatic works of George Chapman,” by Mr Swinburne, printed separately in 1875. The selection of his plays (1895) for the Mermaid Series is edited by Mr W.L. Phelps. For the sources of the plays see Emil Koeppel, “Anellen Studien zu den Dramen George Chapman’s, Philip Massinger’s und John Ford’s” in Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach und Kulturgeschichte (vol. 82, Strassburg, 1897). The 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 Matthew Arnold, Lectures on translating Homer (1861), and Dr A. Lohff, George Chapman’s Ilias-Übersetzung (Berlin, 1903).
(M. Br.)
[1] Chapman’s source in this piece remains undetermined. It cannot be the Historia sui temporis of Jacques de Thorn, for the 4th volume of his work, which relates the story, was not published until 1609 (see Koeppel, p. 14).
[2] This play appears to have been issued in 1653 with the title The Parracide, or Revenge for Honour as the work of Henry Glathorne.
CHAPMAN (from O. Eng. céap, and Mid. Eng. cheap, to barter, cf. “Cheapside” in London, and Ger. Kaufmann), one who buys or sells, a trader or dealer, especially an itinerant pedlar. The word “chap,” now a slang term, meant originally a customer.