« Onely Paine crownes Worth » : George Chapman et la difficile gloire du poète-traducteur

Abstract

George Chapman’s translations of Homer at the beginning of the seventeenth century played a decisive role in the poet’s works. Tackling this colossal task could satisfy Chapman’s ambitious sense of poetic achievement and it also allowed him to display a genuine theoretical reflexion on translation itself. But it is worth looking for the deeper connexions between Chapman and Homer, as Chapman did more than just translate Homer. Particularly in the paratext that introduces his translations, the authorial figures of Homer and Chapman coalesced and sometimes even merged, as Homer’s poetic persona and literary trajectory echoed Chapman’s own career expectations and literary prospects. The Homeric model was absorbed by Chapman through aesthetic, editorial and ideological strategies, which reveal the features of his poetic identity, torn between his deliberate elitism and reception anxiety.

Keywords

• George Chapman
• Homer
• translation
• paratext
• authorship
• author’s status