Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/56

 Matthew Roydon. In the second hymn Chapman describes with much minuteness of detail an incident in Sir Francis Vere's campaign in the Netherlands; and it has been suggested that the poet may have served in the Netherlands as a volunteer. There is much obscurity of conception and harshness of expression in these hymns, nor do the appended 'Glosses' lighten the difficulties. In 1595 appeared 'Ouid'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,' with a dedicatory epistle to Matthew Roydon. Prefixed are commendatory verses by Richard Stapleton, Thomas Williams, and 'J[ohn?] D[avies] of the Inner Temple.' Another edition, without the dedication and commendatory verses, was issued in 1639. The first poem, 'Ouid's Banquest of Sense,' in which fine poetry alternates with frigid pedantry, seems to have been held in high esteem; for in Allott's 'England's Parnassus,' 1600, it is quoted no less than twenty-five times. 'A Coronet for his Mistresse Philosophie' consists of a series of ten obscure sonnets; and the 'Amorous Zodiacke' is a singularly unattractive poem in praise of the beauty of an imaginary mistress. Very different in style is 'The Amorous Centention of Phillis and Flora,' a light and graceful pastoral poem. Chapman states that the Latin original was written by a friar in 1400, but Ritson showed that the poem is of older date and was probably written by Walter de Mapes. A certain 'R.S. Esquire' republished Chapman's translation in 1598 as a work of his own. Possibly 'R. S.' was Chapman's friend, Richard Stapleton, to whom, perhaps, the verses may legitimately belong. To William Jones's 'Nennio,' 1595, Chapman contributed a complimentary sonnet; and in 1596 he prefixed to 'A Relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana. . . By Lawrence Keymis, Gent.' a poem of nearly two hundred lines entitled 'De Guiana, carmen epicum,' a glowing tribute to English enterprise and valour. In 1598 appeared the first edition of Marlowe's fragment of 'Hero and Leander,' which was followed in the same year by a second edition containing the whole poem as completed by Chapman. Of the 1598 edition of the complete poem, only two copies (preserved at Lamport are known. To Chapman's continuation is prefixed in the edition of 1508 a dedicatory epistle (not found in later editions) to Lady Walsingham, whose patronage Chapman gratefully acknowledges. A passage in the third sestiad would lead us to suppose that Marlowe enjoined upon Chapman the task of completing the poem; but the meaning of the passage is far from clear. In Chapman's continuation, notably in the 'Tale of Teras' (fifth sestiad), there is much fine poetry; but the reader is wearied by tedious conceits and useless digressions.

It is not known in what year Chapman began to write for the stage. In 1698 he is mentioned in Meres' 'Wit's Treasury' as one of the best writers of comedies and tragedies. The earliest entry concerning him in Henslowe's 'Diary' (ed. J. P. Collier, p. 64) is dated 12 Feb. 1595-6, on which day was first produced ' The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (printed in 1598), the crudest of Chapman's plays, but very profitable to Henslowe, as it never failed to draw large audiences. In May 1598 Chapman received an advance of forty shillings for a play of which the name is not given; in June of the same year he was engaged on a play called 'The Will of a Woman,' of which nothing further is known; and in the following year he wrote a (lost) play called 'The Fount of New Fashions.' On 23 Oct. 1598 Chapman received three pounds 'one [on] his playe boocke and ij ectes of a tragedie of bengemens plotte.' The latter part of the entry seems in 1598-9 Chapman was paid for an unnamed tragedy (probably the 'playe boocke' just mentioned), and later in the month he received an advance for a play called 'the world rones on whelles' (i.e., 'The World runs on Wheels '). Under date 2 July 1599 is the curious entry : — 'Lent unto thomas Dowton to pay Mr. Chapman, in full paymente for his boocke called the world rones a whelles, and now all foolles, but the foolle, some of. . . xxxs.' From this entry it may be inferred that 'The World runs on Wheels,' which had been rechristened 'All Fools but the Fool,' is to be identified with the admirable comedy printed in 1605 under the title of 'All Fools.' Only one other play of Chapman's is mentioned in the diary; it is an unpublished piece entitled 'A pastrall tragedie,' and Chapman received an advance of forty shillings for it on 17 July 1599. In the same year was published 'An Humerous dayes Myrth,' which, though superior to the 'Blind Beggar,' has little interest; and about this date Chapman seems to have temporarily withdrawn his attention from the stage in order to devote himself to his translation of Homer.

The first instalment towards the complete translation of Homer was published in 1698, with the title 'Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of