Vnder that tree due to the Delphian God, Musaus, and that Iliad Singer sit, And neare to them that noble Hesiod, Smoothing their rugged foreheads; and do smile After so many hundred yeares to see Their Poems read in this farre westerne Ile, Translated from their ancient Greeke, by thee. The reader may perhaps wish for a short specimen of this translation, which shall be taken from near the close of the second book of Georgicks: Be not a common host for guests, nor one A forlorne Pouertie, which God hath laid On any man, in so seuere a kinde As quite disheartens, and dissolues his Minde. An ampler treasure than a sparing tongue, Which yet, most grace gains when it sings the Meane. Make not thy selfe at any publique feast A troublesome or ouercurious guest. 'Tis common cheare, nor touches thee at all; It is believed that not more than three or four copies of this work are in existence. One sold at Sotheby's in 1821 for 5l. 5s.; Bibl. Heber, pt. iv. No. 340, 71.; Bibl. Ang. Poet., No. 100, 127. 128.; Thorpe's Cat. for 1825, No. 1,367, 127. 12s.; Bindley's Cat., pt. ii. No. 1,862, 187. 188.; Jolley's ditto, pt. ii. No. 665, 4l. 188. Collation Sig. A to F 4 inclusive, in fours. Bound by Charles Lewis. In Venetian Morocco. CHAPMAN, (GEORGE.)-Pro Vere Autumni Lachrymæ. Inscribed to the Immortal Memorie of the most Pious and Incomparable Souldier, Sir Horatio Vere, Knight: Besieged and distrest in Mainhem. Pers: Sat: IV. da verba et decipe neruos. By Geo. Chapman. London, Printed by B. Alsop for Th. Sir Horace Vere Knt., in whose memory this poem was written, was the younger brother of Sir Francis Vere, with whom he served in the Low Countries, and was present in several of his actions. He was sent by King James I., in 1620, at the head of the forces, into the Palatinate to try to recover back that country, and was at this time shut up and besieged in Manheim, and compelled to surrender on honourable terms to Count Tilly. He was a distinguished commander and a brave and courageous man, and was afterwards, for his valuable services, created Baron Vere of Tilbury by King Charles I. He died in 1635, in the seventieth year of his age. The poem is inscribed in verse "To the most worthily Honored and Iudicially-Noble Louer and Fautor of all Goodnesse and Vertue, Robert, Earle of Somerset, &c." It is written in rhyming couplets of ten syllables each, and we select a short passage from it descriptive of the danger in which his hero was then placed in Manheim, and of the poet's urgent desire for his rescue: As when the Sunne in his Equator shines Eyther to other, in the Rule of Warre; Whose Each, was All, his three-forckt-Fire and Starre: Their last, this VERE; being no lesse Circular In guard of our engag'd Ile (were he here) Then Neptunes Marble Rampier: But (being there) As round, as wrackfull, and Reciprocall. In Thee (O VERE) confound their Spring and Fall? In lesse bounds, then the broad wings of the Winde) In a Dutch Cytadell, dye pinn'd, and pin'de? O England, Let not thy old constant Tye To Vertue, and thy English Valour lye Ballanc't (like Fortunes faithlesse leuitie) 'Twixt two light wings; Nor leaue Eternall VERE In this vndue plight. But much rather beare Armes in his Rescue, and resemble her, Whom long time thou hast seru'd (the PAPHIAN Queene) When (all asham'd of her still-giglet Spleene) She cast away her Glasses, and her Fannes, And habites of th' Effeminate Persians, Her Ceston, and her paintings, and in grace Of great LYCURGUS, tooke to her embrace Cask, Launce, and Shield, and swam the Spartan Flood Of so much Iustice, as in him had feare To wracke his Kingdome. Be (I say) like her, In what is chaste and vertuous. This poem does not appear to have been known to Warton, but is included in the list of Chapman's works given by Ritson, and in Wood's Ath. Oxon., vol. ii. p. 576. It is very rare, and sold in Bibl. Heber, pt. iv. No. 341, for 4l. 2s. 6d.; Thorpe's Catal. for 1834, 5l.; Bright's ditto, No. 1168, 31. 198. It was not in the Bibl. Ang. Poet., nor does Lowndes refer to the sale of any copy except the present. A volume of Elegies celebrating the happy Memory of Sir Horatio Veere, Baron of Tilbury, Colonell Generall of the English in the United Provinces, &c., was published soon after his death, in 1642, London, printed by T. Badger, sm. 8vo. See Restituta, vol. i. p. 355. Collation: Sig. A to Ci inclusive, in fours. Steevens's copy. Bound by Charles Lewis. In Dark Green Morocco, gilt leaves. CHAPMAN, (GEORGE.)-A Iustification of a Strange Action of Nero in burying with a solemne Funerall one of the cast Hayres of his Mistresse Poppœa. Also a iust reproofe of a Romane smell-Feast, being the fifth Satyre of Ivuenall. Translated by George Chapman. Imprinted at London by Tho. Harper M.DC.XXIX. 4to, pp. 32. Chapman seems to have intended the first tract in this book as a sort of satire or burlesque, on treating light trifles of no moment as matters of great and serious importance. It is dedicated "To the Right Vertuous and Worthily honoured Gentleman Richard Hubert Esquire" and although now at the advanced age of 72, he speaks in it of "having yet once more some worthier worke than this Oration, and following Translation, to passe this sea of the land," and that "these slight adventures" were thrown out as a tub to the whale, "the rather because the Translation contains in two or three instances a preparation to the iustification of my ensuing intended Translations, lest some should account them, as they haue my former conuersions in some places, licenses, bold ones, and utterly redundant." It is supposed from this that Chapman by his "ensuing intended Translations" was meditating a complete translation of the satires of Juvenal and Persius, of which this was put forth as a specimen, but which he did not live to complete. In a prose address "To the Reader" which follows, Chapman justifies himself from "a most asinine error which hath gotten eare and head in opinions of translation, that men must attempt it as a mastery in rendring any originall into other language, to doe it in as few words and the like order," and presents the reader with some "examples of what he esteemed fit to save the liberty and dialect of his owne language;" shewing that it is necessary in a translator in giving the meaning and spirit of his author occasionally to "avoid verball seruitude" and to use a little circumlocution and enlargement of the original. "The Funerall Oration" is in prose, and does not require particular notice beyond a short extract to enable the reader to judge of its satire. But wee must not thinke (Princes and Senators) that the vndaunted heart of our Emperor, which neuer was knowne to shrinke at the butchering of his owne mother Agrippina; and could without any touch of remorse, heare (if not behold) the murther of his most deare wife Octavia after her diuorce; we must not thinke (I say) this Adamantine heart of his could resolue into softnesse, for the losse of a common or ordinary hayre. But this was (alas why is it not) a hayre of such rare and match lesse perfection, whether yee take it by the colour or by the substance, as it is impossible for nature in her whole shop to patterne it: So subtill and slender as it can scarce be seene, much lesse felt; and yet so strong as it is able to binde Hercules hand and foot; and make it another of his labours to extricate himselfe. In a word it is such a flower as growes in no garden but Poppaas; borne to the wonder of men, the enuie of women, the glory of the Gods &c. A hayre of such matchlesse perfection, that if any where it should be found by chance, the most ignorant would esteeme it of infinite value, as certaynely some hayres haue beene. The purple hayre of Nisus whereon his kingdome and life depended, may serue for an instance. And how many young gallants doe I know my selfe, euery hayre of whose chin is worth a thousand crowns; and others that haue never a hayre on their crownes, but is worth a King's ransome. The translation of Juvenals fifth Satire is addressed "To Trabius, Labouring to bring him in dislike of his continued course of frequenting the Table of Virro, a great Lord of Rome.” It is not remarkable for any superior excellence, and we therefore forbear making any quotation from it. This was one of the latest of Chapman's publications, who died in his 77th year on the 12th of May 1634, although some of his plays appeared after that date. He was a voluminous writer, living most probably chiefly by the labours of his pen, and besides the works which we have here noticed, was the author of eighteen or nineteen plays. Ritson seems never to have seen the present tract, as he mentions it as two separate works. See Collier's Poet. Decam., vol. ii. p. 60. A copy was sold in Inglis's Sale, No. 349, for 17. 108.; Heber's ditto, pt. iv. No. 342, 2l. 1s.; Sir F. Freeling's ditto, No. 867, 27.; Bright's ditto, No. 1170, 2l. 28. The present copy formerly belonged to the eccentric Henry Dyson, and has his autograph on the title, of whom see an account in Dibdin's Bibliomania, 1811, p. 398. Collation: Sig A to D 4 inclusive, in fours. Bound in Calf extra, gilt leaves. CHAPMAN, (GEORGE.) - The Whole Works of Homer Prince of Poetts in his Iliads and Odysses. Translated according to the Greeke. By Geo: Chapman. De Il. et Odyss. Omnia ab his; et in his sunt omnia; sive beati Te decor eloquii, seu rerum pondera tangunt. Angel. Pol: |