Commendatory Verses. TO MR. GEORGE CHAPMAN ON HIS TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH METRE.* As 'bout the fly Menelaus* did inspire, Juno's retreat, Achilles' strange desire; But he, to his own sense doth him restore, And comments on him better than before THOU ghost of Homer 'twere no fault to Any could do, for which (with Homer) call His the translation, thine the original, Did we not know 'twas done by thee so well Thou makest Homer Homer's self excel. ON MR. CHAPMAN'S INCOMPARABLE TRANSLATION OF HOMER'S WORKS. WHAT none before durst ever venture on, Unto our wonder is by Chapman done, Who by his skill hath made great Homer's Song To vail its bonnet to our English tongue, So that the learned well may question it, Whether in Greek, or English, Homer writ. O happy Homer, such an able pen To have for thy Translator, happier than Ovid, or Virgil, who beyond their strength Are stretch'd, each sentence near a mile in length. But our renowned Chapman worthy praise And meriting the never blasted bays, Hath render'd Homer in a genuine sense, Yea, and hath added to his eloquence: And in his comments his true sense doth show, Telling Spondanus, what he ought to know, Eustathius, and all that on them take Great Homer's mystic meaning plain to make, Yield him more dark with far-fetch'd allegories, Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother, a soft Sometimes mistaking clean his learned pated Prince, as Homer covertly renders him throughout his Iliads, and as Mr. Chapman hath aptly observed in Homer. Epigrams, Theological, Philosophical and Romantic, by S. Sheppard. Lond. 1651, pp. 162-163. Poems: Lond. 1817, p. 89. "Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homere, Prince of Poets, Translated according to the Greeke, in iudgement of his best Commentaries by George Chapman Gent. Scribendi recte sapere est & principium & fons. London. Printed by John Windet, and are to be solde at the signe of the Crosse-Keyes, neare Paules Wharffe. 1598." (4to.) "Achilles Shield. Translated as the other seven Bookes of Homer, out of his Eighteent booke of Iliades. By George Chapman Gent. London. Imprinted by John Windet, and are to be sold at Paules Wharfe, at the signe of the Crosse Keyes. 1598." (4to.) "Homer Prince of Poets, translated according to the Greeke in twelue Bookes of his Iliads By Geo: Chapman. At London printed for Samuel Macham." (no date.) Sm. folio. "The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. Neuer before in any language truely translated With a Coment upon some of his chiefe places; Donne according to the Greeke by Geo: Chapman. At London printed for Nathaniell Butter." [fol.] |