Chapman, George (c. 1559–1634)

English poet and dramatist. His translations of the Greek epics of Homer (completed 1616) were the earliest in England; his plays include the comedy Eastward Ho (with Ben Jonson and John Marston, 1605) and the tragedy Bussy d'Ambois (1607).

Chapman's translations of Homer are among the most faithful to the original in English verse. Of his plays, All Fools (1605) and The Widow's Tears (1612) are among his better comedies, whereas Bussy d'Ambois is a tragedy written in the tradition of the Roman writer Lucius Seneca. Chapman also published several other translations and various poetical works.

Chapman was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. He is said to have been educated at Oxford, which he left for London about 1576. There he settled at once to a literary career, was patronized by Thomas Walsingham, Henry, Prince of Wales, and powerful noblemen including Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, and became friendly with the writers Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Samuel Daniel, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and the architect Inigo Jones.