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George Chapman

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Author

The Resume

    (circa 1559-May 12, 1634)
    Born in Hitchin, United Kingdom
    English playwright/translator
    Believed to have attended Oxford
    Plays include 'The Blind Beggar of Alexandria,' 'May Day,' 'Bussy D'Ambois' and 'The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France'
    Translated Homer's 'Odyssey' and 'Iliad' from Greek to English

Why he might be annoying:

    He was sued and arrested twice for failing to repay a loan that he had signed for but never actually received.
    He was poor most of his adult life and died broke.
    A couple of his plays were censored and he was almost arrested for defaming the Scottish people in another play.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His translations of Homer were incredible pieces of work: his English translation of the 'Odyssey' was in iambic pentameter, the 'Iliad' was translated into iambic hextameter, which is made even more amazing by the fact that in the original Greek they were both in dactylic hexameter!
    John Keats wrote his poem 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' in honor of his work.
    His translations were also praised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and T.S. Eliot, and quoted in their own works by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Oscar Wilde.
    He may have been the 'rival poet' mentioned in Shakespeare's sonnets.

Credit: tom_jeffords


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 77 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 9 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 54 Votes: 79.63% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 26 Votes: 11.54% Annoying