Note 708 — PART THE THIRD. (continued 4)
Reading edition
Chapman's version is thus described by Warton: he "frequently retrenches or impoverishes what he could not feel and express," and yet is "not always without strength and spirit." By Anton, in his Philosophical Satires, published in 1616, he is characterised as
"Greeke-thund'ring Chapman, beaten to the age, With a deepe furie and a sudden rage."
The testimony of Bishop Percy is flattering. "Had Chapman," he observes, "translated the Iliad in blank verse, it had been one of our chief classic performances."