Chapman's Homer

by Homer; Nicoll, Allardyce; Chapman, George; Wills, Garry

• ISBN13: 9780691048918
• ISBN10: 0691048916
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-27
• Publisher: Bollingen Foundation

Summary

George Chapman's translations of Homer are among the most famous in the English language. Keats immortalized the work of the Renaissance dramatist and poet in the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." Swinburne praised the translations for their "romantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur," their "freshness, strength, and inextinguishable fire." The great critic George Saintsbury (1845-1933) wrote: "For more than two centuries they were the resort of all who, unable to read Greek, wished to know what Greek was. Chapman is far nearer Homer than any modern translator in any modern language." This volume presents the original text of Chapman's translation of theOdyssey(1614-15), making only a small number of modifications to punctuation and wording where they might confuse the modern reader. The editor, Allardyce Nicoll, provides an introduction, textual notes, a glossary, and a commentary. Garry Wills's preface to theOdysseyexplores how Chapman's less strained meter lets him achieve more delicate poetic effects as compared to theIliad. Wills also examines Chapman's "fine touch" in translating "the warm and human sense of comedy" in theOdyssey. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold. --John Keats

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2000 Edition	vii
Introduction	xv
Homer's Odysses
To the Earle of Somerset	3	(6)
Certaine Ancient Greeke Epigrammes	9	(2)
The First Booke	11	(17)
The Second Booke	28	(15)
The Third Booke	43	(17)
The Fourth Booke	60	(28)
The Fifth Booke	88	(17)
The Sixth Booke	105	(13)
The Seventh Booke	118	(12)
The Eighth Booke	130	(20)
The Ninth Booke	150	(19)
The Tenth Booke	169	(18)
The Eleventh Booke	187	(21)
The Twelfth Booke	208	(17)
The Thirteenth Booke	225	(16)
The Fourteenth Booke	241	(18)
The Fifteenth Booke	259	(18)
The Sixteenth Booke	277	(16)
The Seventeenth Booke	293	(19)
The Eighteenth Booke	312	(15)
The Nineteenth Booke	327	(20)
The Twentieth Booke	347	(14)
The Twenty-First Booke	361	(14)
The Twenty-Second Booke	375	(16)
The Twenty-Third Booke	391	(13)
The Twenty-Fourth Booke	404	(17)
[Final Verses]	421	(2)
Textual Notes	423	(38)
Commentary	461	(10)
Glossary	471