INTRODUCTION.
HE Editor of the present volumes has the
great gratification of being the first to restore to light a
noble work which has been lying dormant for nearly two
centuries and a half. Chapman's Odyssey, originally
published in folio, 1614-16, either from the limited
number of the impression, or the more than ordinary
ravages of time, has become so rare as to be
inaccessible to the general reader, and comparatively
unknown to the more curious student of old English
literature. Though issued in a separate form, it is now
seldom found except in conjunction with the Iliad; and
the price of the united volume, besides its scarcity, places
it beyond the reach of all but a few whose libraries are
stored with the more precious treasures of our language.
Of the Iliad, portions and the whole, we have seen there
were at least four impressions published during the
author's life-time, besides Dr. Cooke Taylor's 2 vols.
8vo. 1843, and yet it is by no means a common book,
and perfect and clean copies of Chapman's own editions
are desirable volumes. Of the Odyssey, however, the
present is the only edition besides that superintended by
the author himself. Great care has, therefore, been taken
in rendering the text as accurate as possible, by reading it
with the original Greek, amending the extremely faulty
punctuation, judiciously, it is hoped, modernizing the
orthography, and adding a few notes illustrative of
Chapman's language. The reader has, therefore, now an
opportunity of examining for himself the value of this fine
old book.
Coleridge, in his letter to Wordsworth (cited in our
Preface to the Iliad), thought Chapman's version of the
Odyssey finer than his Iliad; but then it must be
remembered he also generally preferred the Odyssey in
the original. "He told ...
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