George Chapman
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George Chapman (vers 1559 - 12 mai 1634) fut un poète anglais.
Connaisseur érudit du latin et du grec, il traduisit l'Iliade (en 1600) puis l'Odyssée (en 1614) en vers anglais. On prétend que Alexander Pope a fait de cette traduction un plus grand usage qu'il ne l'a avoué.
On a aussi de Chapman 17 pièces de théatre réputées.
Ce poète fut lié à Shakespeare, Ben Jonson et Edmund Spencer.
The Shadow of Night - Hymnus in noctem
1.Great Goddesse to whose throne in Cynthian fires,
2.This earthlie Alter endlesse fumes expires,
3.Therefore, in fumes of sighes and fires of griefe,
4.To fearefull chances thou sendst bold reliefe,
5.Happie, thrise happie, Type, and nurse of death,
6.Who breathlesse, feedes on nothing but our breath,
7.In whom must vertue and her issue liue,
8.Or dye for euer; now let humor giue,
9.Seas to mine eyes, that I may quicklie weepe
10.The shipwracke of the world: or let soft sleepe
11.(Binding my sences) lose my working soule,
12.That in her highest pitch, she may controule
13.The court of skill, compact of mysterie,
14.Wanting but franchisement and memorie
15.To reach all secrets: then in blissfull trance,
16.Raise her (deare Night) to that perseuerance,
17.That in my torture, she all earth may sing,
18.And force to tremble in her trumpeting
19.Heauens christall temples: in her powrs implant
20.Skill of my griefs, and she can nothing want.
21.Then like fierce bolts, well rammd with heate and cold
22.In Ioues Artillerie; my words vnfold,
23.To breake the labyrinth of euerie eare,
24.And make ech frighted soule come forth and heare,
25.Let them breake harts, as well as yeedling ayre,
26.That all mens bosoms (pierst with no affaires,
27.But gaine of riches) may be lanced wide,
28.And with threates of vertue terrified.
29.Sorrowes deare soueraigne, and the queene of rest,
30.That when vnlightsome, vast, and indigeste
31.The formelesse matter of this world did lye,
32.Fildst euery place with thy Diuinity,
33.Why did thy absolute and endlesse sway,
34.Licence heavens torch, the scepter of the Day,
35.Distinguish intercession to thy throne,
36.That long before, all matchlesse rulde alone ?
37.Why letst thou order, orderlesse disperse,
38.The fighting parents of uniuerse ?
39.When earth, the ayre, and sea, in fire remaind,
40.When fire, the sea, and earth, the ayre containd,
41.When ayre, the earth, and fire, the sea enclosde
42.When sea, fire, ayre, in earth were indisposde,
43.Nothing, as now, remainde so out of kinde,
44.All things in grosse, were finer than refinde,
45.Substance was sound within, and had no being,
46.No forme giues being; all our essence seeming,
47.Chaos had soule without a bodie then,
48.Now bodies liue without the soules of men,
49.Lumps being digested, monsters, in our pride.
50.And as a weatlthie fount, that hils did hide,
51.Let forth by labor of industrious hands,
52.Powres out her treasure through the fruitefull strands,
53.Seemely diuided to a hunderd streames,
54.Whose bewties shed such profitable beames,
55.And make such Orphean Muicke in their courses,
56.That the Citties follow their enchanting forces,
57.Who running farre, at length ech powres her hart
58.Into the bosom of the gulfie desart,
59.As much confounded there, and indigest,
60.As in the chaos of the hills comprest:
61.So all things now (extract out the prime)
62.Are turnd to chaos, and confound the time.
63.A stepdame Night of minds about vs clings,
64.Who broodes beneath her hell obscuring wings,
65.Worlds of confusion, where the soule defamde,
66.The bodie had bene better neuer framde,
67.Beneath thy soft, and peace-full couert then,
68.(Most sacred mother both of Gods and men)
69.Treasures vnknowne, and more vnprisde did well;
70.But in the blind borne shadow of this hell,
71.This horrid stepdame, blindnesse of the minde,
72.Nought worth the sight, no sight, but worse then blind,
73.A Gorgon that with brasse, and snakie brows,
74.(Most harlot-like) her naked secrets shows:
75.For in th'expansure, and distinct attire,
76.Of light, and darcknesse, of the sea, and fire,
77.Of ayre, and earth, and all, all these create,
78.First set and rulde, in most harmonious state,
79.Disiunction showes, in all things now amisse,
80.By that first order, what confusion is:
81.Religious curb, that manadgd men in bounds,
82.Of publique wellfare; lothing private grounds,
83.(Now cast away, by self-lou's paramores)
84.All are transformed to Calydonian bores,
85.That kill our bleeding vines, displow our fields,
86.Rend groues in peeces; all things nature yeelds
87.Supplanting: tumbling vp in hills of dearth,
88.The fruitfull disposition of the earth,
89.Ruine creates men: all the slaughter bent,
90.Like enuie, fed with others famishment.
91.And what makes men without the parts of men,
92.Or in their manhoods, lesse then childeren,
93.But manlesse natures ? all this world was namde
94.A world of him, for whom it first was framde,
95.(Who (like a tender Cheurill,) shruncke with fire
96.Of base ambition, and of self-desire,
97.His armes into his shoulders crept for feare
98.Bountie should vse them; and fierce rape forbeare,
99.His legges into his greedie belly runne,
100.The charge of hospitalitie to shunne)
101.In him the world is to a lump reuerst,
102.That shrunck from forme, that was by forme disperst,
103.And in nought more then thanklesse auarice,
104.Not rendring vertue her diserued price.
105.Kind Amalthaea was transferd in Ioue,
106.Into his sparckling pauement, for her loue,
107.Though but a Goate, and giuing him her milke,
108.Basenesse is flintie; gentrie soft as silke,
109.In heauens she liues, and rules a liuing signe
110.In human bodies: yet not so diuine,
111.That she can work her kindnesse in our harts.
112.The sencelesse Argiue ship, for her deserts,
113.Bearing to Colchos, and for bringing backe,
114.The hardie Argonauts, secure of wracke,
115.The fautor of the God of gratitude,
116.Would not from number of the starres exclude.
117.A thousand such examples I could cite,
118.To damne stone-pesants, that like Typhons fight
119.Against their Maker, and contend to be
120.Of kings, the abiect slaues of drudgerie:
121.Proud of that thraldome: loue the kindest lest,
122.And hate, not to be hates of the best.
123.If then we frame mans figure in his mind,
124.And that at first, his fashion was assignd,
125.Erection in such God-like excellence
126.For his soules sake, and her intelligence:
127.She so degenerate, and growne deprest,
128.Content to share affections with a beast,
129.The shape wherewith he should be now include,
130.Must beare no signe of mans similitude.
131.Therefore Promethean Poets with the coles
132.Of their most geniale, more-then-humane soules
133.In liuing verse, created men like these,
134.With shapes of Centaurs, Harpies, Lapithes,
135.That they in prime erudition,
136.When almoste sauage vulgar men were growne,
137.Seeing them selues in those Pierean founts,
138.Might mend their mindes, asham'd of such accounts.
139.So, when we heare, the sweetest Muses sonne,
140.With heauenly rapture of is Musicke, wonne
141.Rockes, forrests, floods, and winds to leaue their course
142.In his attendance: it bewrayes the force
143.His wisedome had, to draw men growne so rude
144.To ciuill loue of Art, and Fortitude.
145.And not for teaching others insolence,
146.Had he his date-exceeding excellence
147.With soueraigne Poets, but for use applyed,
148.And in his proper actes exemplified;
149.And that in calming the infernall kinde,
150.To wit, the perturbations of his minde,
151.And bringing his Eurydice from hell,
152.(Which Iustice signifies) is proued well.
153.But if in right obseruance any man
154.Looke backe, with boldnesse lesse then Orphean,
155.Soone falls he to the hell from whence he rose:
156.The fiction then would temperature dispose,
157.In all the tender motiues of the minde,
158.To make man worthie his hel-danting kinde.
159.The golden chaine of Homers high deuice
160.Ambition is, or cursed auarice,
161.Which all Gods haling being tyed to Ioue,
162.Him from his setled height could never move:
163.Intending this, that though that powrefull chaine
164.Of most Herculean vigor to constraine
165.Men from true vertue, of their pristine states
166.Attempt a man that manlesse changes hates
167.And is enobled with a deathlesse loue
168.Of things eternall, defined aboue:
169.Nothing shall stirre him from adorning still
170.This shape with vertue, and his powre with will.
171.But as rude painters that contend to show
172.Beasts, foules or fish, all artlesse to bestow
173.On euery side his natiue counterfet,
174.Aboue his head, his name had needed to set:
175.So men that will be men, in more then face,
176.(As in their foreheads) should in actions place
177.More perfect characters, to proue they be
178.No Mockers of their first nobilitie:
179.Else may they easly passe for beasts or foules:
180.Soules praise our shapes, and not our shapes our soules.
181.And as when Chloris paints th'ennamild meads,
182.A flocke of shepherds to the bagpipe treads
183.Rude rurall dances with their countrey loues:
184.Some of a farre off obseruing their remoues,
185.Turnes, and returnes, quicke footing, sodaine stands,
186.Reelings aside, od actions with their hands;
187.Now backe, now forwards, now lockt arme in arme,
188.Now hearing musicke, thinke it is a charme,
189.That like loose froes at Bacchanalean feasts,
190.Makes them seemse franticke in ther barraine iestes;
191.And being clusterd in a shapeless croude,
192.With much lesse admiration are allowd.
193.So our first excellence, so much abusd,
194.And we (without the harmonie was vsd,
195.When Saturnes golden scepter stroke the strings
196.Of Ciuill gouernement) make all our doings
197.Sauour of rudenesse, and obscuritie,
198.And in our forms shew more deformitie,
199.Then if we still were wrapt, and smoothered
200.In that confusion, out of which we fled.
201.And as when hosts of starres attend thy flieght,
202.(Day of deepe students, most contentfull night)
203.The morning (mounted on the Muses stead)
204.Vsher the sonne from the Vulcans golden bed,
205.And then from forth their sundrie roofes of rest,
206.All sorts of men, to sorted taskes addrest,
207.Spreade this inferiour element : and yeeld
208.Labour his due: the souldier to the field,
209.State-men to counsell, Iudges to their pleas,
210.Merchants to commerce, mariners to the seas:
211.All beasts, and birds, the groues and forrests range,
212.To fill all corners of this round Exchange,
213.Till thou (deare Night, ô goddesse of most worth)
214.Letst thy sweet seas of golden humor forth
215.And Eagle-like dost with thy starry wings,
216.Beate in the foules, and beasts to Somnus lodgings,
217.And haughtie Day to the infernall deepe,
218.Proclaiming scilence, studie, ease and sleepe.
219.All things before thy forces put it rout,
220.Retiring where the morning fir'd them out.
221.So to the chaos of our first descent,
222.(All dayes of honor, and of vertue spent)
223.We basely make retrait, and are no lesse
224.Then huge impolisht heapes of filthinesse.
225.Mens faces glitter, and their hearts are blacke,
226.But thou (great Mistresse of heauens gloomie racke)
227.Art blacke in face, and glitterst in thy heart.
228.There is thy glorie, riches, force, and Art;
229.Opposed earth, beates blacke and blewe thy face,
230.And often doth thy heart is selfe deface,
231.Fore spite that to thy vertue-famed traine,
232.All the choise worthies that did euer raigne
233.In eldest age, were still preferd by Ioue,
234.Esteeming that due honor to his loue.
235.There shine they; not to sea-men guides alone,
236.But sacred presidents to euerie one.
237.There fixt for euer, where the Day is driuen,
238.Almost foure hundred times a year from heauen.
239.In hell then let her sit, and neuer rise,
240.Till Morns leaue blushing at her cruelties.
241.Meane while, accept, as followers of thy traine,
242.(Our better parts aspiring to thy raigne)
243.Vertues obscur'd, and banished the day,
244.With all the glories of this spongie sway,
245.Prisond in flesh, and that poore flesh in bands
246.Of stone, and steele, chiefe flowrs of vertues Garlands.
247.O then most tender fortresse of our woes,
248.That bleeding lye in vertues ouerthroes,
249.Hating the whoredome of its painted light:
250.Raise thy chast daughters, ministers of right,
251.The dreadfull and the iust Eumenides,
252.And let them wreake the wrongs of our disease,
253.Drowing the world in bloud, and staine the skies
254.With their spilt soules, made drunk with tyrannies.
255.Fall Hercules from heauen in tempestes hurld,
256.And cleanse this beastly stable of the world:
257.Or bend thy brasen bow against the Sunne,
258.As in Tartessus, when thou hadst begunne
259.Thy taske of oxen: heat in more extreames
260.Then thou wouldst suffer, with his enuious beames:
261.Now make him leaue the world to Night and dreames.
262.Neuer were vertues labours so enuy'd
263.As in this light: shoote, shoote, and stoope his pride:
264.Suffer no more his lustfull rayes to get
265.The Earth with issue: let him still be set
266.In Somnus thickets: bound about the brows,
267.With pitchie vapours, and with Ebone bowes.
268.Rich-tapird sactuaries of the blest,
269.Pallace of Ruth, made all of teares, and rest,
270.To thy blacke shades and desolation,
271.I consecrate my life; and liuing mone,
272.Where furies furies shall for euer fighting be,
273.And adders hisse the world for hating me,
274.Foxes shall barke, and Night-rauens belch in grones,
275.And owles shall hollow my confusions:
276.There will I furnish vp my funerall bed,
277.Strewd with the bones and relickes of the dead.
278.Atlas shall let th'Olimpick burthen fall,
279.To couer my vntombed face withall.
280.And when as well, the matter of our kind,
281.As the materiall substance of the mind,
282.Shall cease their reuolutions, in abode
283.Of such impure and vgly period,
284.As the old essence, and insensiue prime:
285.Then shall the ruines of the fourefold time,
286.Turnd to that lumpe (as rapting Torrents rise)
287.For euer murmure forth my miseries.
288.Ye liuing spirits then, if any liue,
289.Whom like extreames, do like affection giue,
290.Shun, shun this cruell light, and end your thrall,
291.In these soft shades of sable funerall:
292.From whence with ghosts, whom vengeance holds from rest,
293.Dog-friends ans monsters hanting in distrest,
294.As men whose parents tyrannie hath slaine,
295.Whose sisters rape, and bondage do sustaine.
296.But you that ne'er had birth, nor euer prou'd
297.How deare a blessing tis to be belou'd,
298.Whose friends idolatrous desire of gold,
299.To scorne, and ruine haue your freedome sold:
300.Whose vertues feele all this, and shew your eyes,
301.Men made of Tartar, and of villanies:
302.Aspire th'extraction, and the quintessence
303.Of all the ioyes in earths circumference:
304.With ghosts, fiends, monsters: as men robd and rackt,
305.Murtherd in life: from shades with shadowes blackt.
306.Thunder your wrongs, your miseries and hells,
307.And with the dismall accents of your knells
308.Reuiue the dead, and make the liuing dye,
309.In ruth, and terror of your torturie:
310.Still all the powr of Art into your grones,
311.Scorning your triuiall and remissiue mones,
312.Compact of fiction, and hyperboles,
313.(Like wanton mourners, cloyd with too much ease)
314.Should leave the glasses of the hearers eyes
315.Vnbroken, counting all but vanities.
316.But paint, or else create in serious truth,
317.A bodie figur'd to your vertues ruth,
318.That to the sence may shew what damned sinne,
319.For your extreames this Chaos tumbles in.
320.But wo is wretched me, without a name:
321.Vertue feeds scorne, and noblest honor, shame:
322.Pride bathes in tears of poore submission,
323.And makes his soule, the purple he puts on.
324.Kneele the with me, fall worm-like on the ground,
325.And from th'infectious dunghill of this Round,
326.From mens brasse wits, and golden foolerie,
327.Weepe, weepe your soules, into felicitie:
328.Come to this house mourning, serue the night,
329.To whom pale day (with whoredome soked quite)
330.Is but a drudge, selling her beauties vse
331.To rapes, adultries, and to all abuse.
332.Her labors feast imperiall Night with sports,
333.Where Lovues are Christmastm with all pleasures sorts:
334.And whom her fugitiue, and far-shot rayes
335.Disioyne, and driue into ten thousand wayes,
336.Nights glorious mantle wraps in safe abodes,
337.And frees their neckes from seruile labors lodes:
338.Her trustie shadowes, succour men dismayd,
339.Whom Dayes deceiptfull malice hath betrayd:
340.From the silke vapors of her Iueryport,
341.Sweet Protean dreames she sends of euery sort:
342.Some taking formes of Princes, to perswade
343.Of men deiect, we are their equals made,
344.Some clad in habit of deceased friends,
345.For whom we mournd, and now haue wisht amends,
346.And some (deare fauor) Lady-like attyrd,
347.With pride of Beauties full Meridian fir'd:
348.Who pitie our contemps, reuiue our harts:
349.For wisest Ladies loue the inward parts.
350.If these be dreames, euen so are all things else,
351.That walke this round by heauenly sentinels:
352.But from Nights port of horne she greets our eyes
353.With grauer dreames inspir'd with prophesies,
354.Which oft presage to vs succeeding chances,
355.We proouing that awake, they shew in trances.
356.If these seeme likewise vaine, or nothing are
357.Vaine things, or nothing come to vertues share:
358.For nothing more then dreames, with vs shee findes:
359.Then since all pleasures vanish like the windes,
360.And thant most serious actions not respecting
361.The second light, are worth but the neglecting,
362.Since day, or light, in anie qualitie,
363.For earthly vses do but serue the eye.
364.And since the eyes most quicke and dangerous vse,
365.Enflames the heart, and learnes the soule abuse,
366.Since mournings are preferd to banquettings,
367.And they reach heauen, bred vnder sorrowes wings.
368.Since Night brings terror to our frailties still,
369.And shameless Day, doth marble vs in ill.
370.All you possest with indepressed spirits,
371.Indu'd with nimble, and aspiring wits,
372.Come consecrate with me, to sacred Night
373.Your whole endeuours, and detest the light.
374.Sweete Peaces richest crowne is made of starres,
375.Most certaine guides of honord Marinars,
376.No pen can any thing eternall wright,
377.That is not steept in humor of the Night
378.Hence beasts, and birds to caues and bushes then,
379.And welcome Night, ye noblest heires of men,
380.Hence Phebus to thy glassie trumpets bed,
381.And neuer more let Themis daughters spred,
382.Thy golden harnesse on thy rosie horse,
383.But in close thickets run thy oblique course.
384.See now ascends, the glorious Bride of Brides,
385.Nuptials, ans triumphs, glittering by her side,
386.Iuno and Hymen do her traine adorne,
387.Ten thousand torches round about them borne:
388.Dumble Silence mounted on the Cyprian starre,
389.With becks, rebukes the winds before his carre,
390.Where she aduans; beates downe with cloudie mace,
391.The feeble light to black Saturnius pallace:
392.Behind her, with a brase of siluer Hynds,
393.In Iuorie chariot, swifter then the winds,
394.Is great Hyperions horned daughter drawne
395.Enchantresse-like, deckt in disparent lawne,
396.Circkled with charmes, and incantations,
397.That ride huge spirits, and outragious passions:
398.Musicke, and moode, she loues, but loue she hates,
399.(As curious Ladies do, their publique cates)
400.This traine, with meteors, comets, lightenings,
401.The dreadfull presence of our Empresse sings:
402.Which grant for euer (ô eternall Night)
403.Till vertue flourish in the light of light.
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