George Chapman

George Chapman (c. 1559-1634), English dramatist and translator of classical literature, born near Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He is most famous for his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were printed together in 1616 and were followed by a collection of Homeric hymns in 1624. They were the inspiration for the poem “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer” by the English poet John Keats. Chapman's interest in the classics, particularly the philosophy of Stoicism, had a great impact on his tragedies, including Bussy D'Ambois (1607), The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608), and Caesar and Pompey (1631). His comedies, on the other hand, are lively and realistic. The most famous are May Day (1611), The Widow's Tears (1612), and Eastward Ho! (1605), which was written in collaboration with the English dramatists Ben Jonson and John Marston and earned him a spell in the Tower of London. Chapman also translated the poems of the Italian poet Petrarch in 1612, the Works and Days of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod in 1618, and a poem by the Roman satirist Juvenal in 1629.