CHAPTER VI. THE LATER ELISABETHANS. of this UNDER the above heading the present chapter will | Contents offer some observations on the more remarkable among Chapter. the dramatists whose literary activity began in the closing years of Queen Elisabeth's reign, and was therefore to some extent contemporary both with that of Shakspere's maturity and with that of Jonson's prime. Among these dramatists the place of honour belongs by something more than the prerogative of age to GEORGE CHAPMAN, whose name is a familiar one in the history of our poetic literature. It is difficult to say whether on the whole Chapman's fame as a dramatist has gained or lost from his fame as a translator of Homer. In his own day the glory reflecting from what his contemporaries accounted the highest kind of poetical achievement raised his literary reputation higher perhaps than that of any of his fellowdramatists. In these latter times, when a well-known economical principle has generally asserted itself even in the domains of art and literature, few authors are wont to excel equally in species of composition so widely apart as those which Chapman attempted. And, on the other hand, there are not many critics ready to acknowledge varied 1 The Comedies and Tragedies of George Chapman (with Notes and a Memoir). 3 vols. London, 1873. (A literal reprint from the old copies.)-A cheap modernised text of Chapman's plays, edited by Mr. R. H. Shepherd, has been published in the present year (1874).-A well-written but by no means exhaustive essay, Chapman in seinem Verhältniss zu Shakespeare, was contributed by F. Bodenstedt to the Jahrbuch, vol. i (1865). George Chapman (1557 or 91634). His life and literary labours. excellence in the same author, even where it exists; for criticism is quite as much under the influence of its times as productive art. It neither follows, however, that Chapman was eminent as a dramatist because he was eminent as an epic translator, nor that he was incapable of greatness in one branch of the poetic art because he was so successful in another. In such a case a candid judgment will be especially on its guard to 'Avoid extremes, and shun the fault of such Who still are pleas'd too little or too much;' and perhaps the time has arrived for judging Chapman fairly as a dramatist, now that both the merits and the shortcomings of his translation of Homer have come to be more thoroughly examined and appreciated. "Georgius Chapmannus Homeri metaphrastes,' as he is called in the legend of a portrait prefixed to an edition of his Homer issued by himself, was, according to the statement there made as to his age, born in 1559,—according to Wood, in 1557. His birthplace seems to have been near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where he lived for some time1. He is stated to have passed two years at Trinity College, Oxford, 'with a contempt,' says Warton, 'of philosophy2, but in close attention to the Greek and Roman classics.' is supposed to have completed his studies at Cambridge. It is probable that he afterwards travelled, and the intimate acquaintance with the German language as well as with German manners and usages exhibited in one of his plays has been naturally enough made the basis of a conjecture that he passed several years in Germany. From ten to He 'See Memoir, pp. vi-vii. In his poem of Euthymiae Raptus, or, The Teares of Peace, the spirit of Homer recalls his visits to him in his 'native air; and on the hill Next Hitchin's left hand;' and William Browne in his Pastorals refers to him under the periphrasis of 'the learned Shepheard of faire Hitching hill.' 2 Wood had said the same thing; but it may be only an a posteriori conclusion. At the same time, Chapman's Caesar and Pompey seems to show that he had at some time studied metaphysics. 3 See Elze's Introduction to Alphonsus Emperor of Germany, p. 31 of the edition of the play cited below. Elze, however, himself prefers the supposition |