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Stylistic Devices in Chapman's Iliads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

Phyllis Brooks Bartlett
Phyllis Brooks Bartlett*
Affiliation:
Russell Sage College
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Extract

The verse preface which Chapman addressed “To the Reader” in 1609 when he brought out the first twelve books of the Iliads contains a succinct statement of his doctrine of translation. This preface is fairly well known as one of the significant critical essays of the English renaissance, but his translation of the Iliad itself has not been fully explored in the light of his doctrine. When the poem is measured against the precepts, it can be observed that nearly all of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of Chapman's translation, as distinct from the conceptual divergencies of his rendering, accord with his stated principles. In fact, the pertinent passage from the epistle makes the best possible introduction to a study of the poetic style of the translation.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , September 1942 , pp. 661 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1942

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References

Notes

1 James Russell Lowell, Conversations on Some of the Old Poets (Philadelphia: McKay, 1883), p. 157.

2 P. A. Robin, The Old Physiology (London: Dent, 1911), pp. 15-16.

3 Ibid., p. 49.

4 Ibid., p. 116.

5

  1. (1)

    (1) , vacuus, inanis, Arist. hist. anim. lib. 8. . . . ventres evacuantur. Item tenuis, mollis. Hippocr. in lib. .

  2. (2)

    (2) , dicitur ea pars corporis etc. (as above in Chapman's note). Il. γ. α. η.

6 For further illustrations of current concepts, however, see:

Humours xvii. 208

xi. 201-202

Liver xi. 507-508

xvii. 300-301

xx. 417

Nerves xx. 383-386

Spirits xi. 496

xv. 221-223

Spleen xxiii. 488-489

7 See H. B. Lathrop, Translations from the Classics into English from Caxton to Chapman, 1477-1620 (“University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature” xxxv; Madison: 1933), passim; and compare Phaer whose practice in this matter is not unlike Chapman's.

8 Arnold, On Translating Homer, Lecture i in Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914), p. 251.

9 Ibid., Lecture ii, p. 276.

10 Here is a typical selection. The italics indicate words which are a forth-right addition to the original; figurative phrases not in italics are a recasting of an Homeric phrase.

II. 452 And those that dwell where Cephisus casts up his silken mists.

564 their glasses all were run.

11 i. 592-593.

12 vi. 45.

13 vi. 189-190.

14 vii. 463.

15 xii. 186.

16 xvi. 120-122.

17 xvi. 827-829.

18 xxi. 217.

19 xxii. 387-388.

20 “Chapman's Revisions in his Iliads,” ELH, A Journal of English Literary History, ii, no. 1 (1935).

21 With xviii. 184-189 compare Homer 219-221.

Compare also xii 424-432 Chapman with 432-438 Homer.*

22 xi. 292-298.

23 xi. 305-309.

24 Compare xx. 57-66.

25 As: xxii. 171-175 and xxiii. 61-62.

26 Cf. Homer, xvi. 633-635; xviii. 317-322; xxiii. 228-230.