Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/58

 Daniel in 'A Defence of Ryme (1602-3), written when only a portion of the 'Iliad' had been published, showed happy discrimination in styling Chapman 'our Homer-Lucan.' Drayton in his 'Epistle to Henry Reynolds' (published in 1627) names Chapman first in the list of translators. Ben Jonson, though he told Drummond that 'the translations of Homer and Virgil in long Alexandrines were but prose,' in some complimentary verses prefixed to Chapman's 'Hesiod' warmly praises his friend's Homeric translutions, with special reference, it would seem, to the 'Odyssey' and 'Hymns.' Chapman's Homer has never been without admirers. Dryden, in the dedication to the third volume of his 'Miscellanies,' writes:— 'The Earl of Mulgrave and Mr. Waller, two of the best judges of our age, have assured me they could never read over the translation of Chapman without incredible transport.' Pope acknowledges the merits of his predecessor's labours; and Dr. Johnson affirms that Pope never translated any passage of Homer without consulting Chapman's version. Coleridge said that Chapman's Homer was as truly an original poem as the 'Faerie Queene;' Lamb was a fervid admirer of the rough old translation; and Keats has a noble sonnet 'On first looking into Chapman's Homer.' Among more recent panegyrists are Emerson and Mr. Swinburne.

There is some break in Chapman's dramatic career after 1598. An anonymous comedy, 'Sir Gyles Goosecappe,' produced by the Children of the Chappel about the autumn of 1601 (and printed in 1606) is so strongly marked with Chapman's peculiar mannerisms that we must either grant that he was the author or suppose that it was written in close imitation of his style (, Old English Plays, iii. 1-2, 95-6). In 1605 appeared the admirable comedy, 'Eastward Hoe,' which Chapman wrote in conjunction with Ben Jonson and Marston. For introducing some satirical reflections on the Scots the authors were thrown into prison, and the report went that their ears were to be cut and their noses slit; but happily they were released without being put to this inconvenience. In a few of the extant copies there is found a satirical allusion to the raacity of James's Scotch followers; but the passage is suppressed in many copies. There is preserved at Hatfield an autograph letter (discovered by Birch) of Ben Jonson to the Earl of Salisbury, dated in the same year (1605), in which the writer states:— 'I am here, my most honoured lord, unexamined and unheard, committed to a vile prison, and with me a gentleman (whose name may perhaps have come to your lordship), one Mr. George Chapman, a learned and honest man.' Probably Jonson is here referring to the imprisonment which followed the production of 'Eastward Hoe,' but Gilford is of opinion that Jonson and Chapman suffered a second time for some injudicious satire introduced into another play, now unknown. 'Eastward Hoe' was revived at Drury Lane in 1751 under the title of 'The Prentices,' and again in 1775 under the title of 'Old City Manners.' It is supposed that Hogarth took from 'Eastward Hoe' the plan of his set of prints of the Idle and Industrious Apprentices. In this year of troubles (1005) was published the comedy of 'All Fools,' produced in 1598, a well-constructed and well-written play, the most artistic of Chapman's dramatic compositions. The author seems to have attached little value to this work; for in the dedicatory sonnet to Sir Thomas Walsingham (which was almost immediately withdrawn, and is found in very few copies) he describes it as 'the least allow'd birth of my shaken brain.' In 1600 appeared 'The Gentleman Usher,' which contains some love scenes of great beauty and refinement. Another of Chapman's comedies, 'Monsieur d'Olive,' was published in the same year. It opens very promisingly, but the interest is not skilfully sustained. In 1607 appeared the first edition of 'Bussy d'Ambois: a Tragedie.' This was the most popular of Chapman's tragedies. It was republished in 1608, 1610, 1641 (with a text 'corrected and amended by the author before his death '), and 1657. Nathaniel Field acted the part of Bussy with great applause; and at a later date the performances of Hart of Mountford were much admired. In 1691 Durfey 'writ the plot new,' and published his alteration under the title of 'Bussy d'Ambois; or the Husband's Revenge.' Dryden, in the dedicatory epistle prefixed to 'The Spanish Fryar' (1681), criticises Chapman's play with the greatest severity. He found in it 'a dwarfish thought dressed up in gigantic words, repetition in abundance, looseness of expression, and gross hyperboles; the sense of one line expanded prodigiously into ten; and, to sum up all, incorrect English, and a hideous mingle of false poetry and true nonsense.' Much of the writing is mere fustian; but there is also an abundance of noble poetry, The character of Bussy, a magnificent braggart of matchless self-confidence, is powerfully conceived; but the other characters are colourless. 'The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois,' published in 1613, has even less dramatic power than the 'Tragedy of Bussy d'Ambois;' but it displays great richness of moral reflection. In 1608 appeared (in one volume) the two historical plays, 'The