His life for almost a couple of decades afterwards is a blank, though it has been conjectured on evidences drawn from _The Shadow of Night_ and _Alphonsus Emperor of Germany_, respectively, that he served in one of Sir F. Vere's campaigns in the Netherlands, and that he travelled in Germany. _The Shadow of Night_, consisting of two "poeticall hymnes" appeared in 1594, and is his first extant work. It was followed in 1595 by _Ovid's Banquet of Sence_, _The Amorous Zodiac_, and other poems. These early compositions, while containing fine passages, are obscure and crabbed in style.[v-1] In 1598 appeared Marlowe's fragmentary _Hero and Leander_ with Chapman's continuation. By this year he had established his position as a playwright, for Meres in his _Palladis Tamia_ praises him both as a writer of tragedy and of comedy. We know from Henslowe's _Diary_ that his earliest extant comedy _The Blinde Begger of Alexandria_ was produced on February 12, 1596, and that for the next two or three years he was working busily for this enterprising manager. _An Humerous dayes Myrth_ (pr. 1599), and _All Fooles_ (pr. 1605) under the earlier title of _The World Runs on Wheels_,[vi-1] were composed during this period. Meanwhile he had begun the work with which his name is most closely linked, his translation of Homer. The first instalment, entitled _Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homere, Prince of Poets_, was published in 1598, and was dedicated to the Earl of Essex. After the Earl's execution Chapman found a yet more powerful patron, for, as we learn from the letters printed recently in _The Athenæum_ (cf. _Bibliography_, sec. III), he was appointed about 1604 "sewer (i. e. cupbearer) in ordinary," to Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. The Prince encouraged him to proceed with his translation, and about 1609 appeared the first twelve books of the _Iliad_ (including the seven formerly published) with a fine "Epistle Dedicatory," to "the high-born Prince of men, Henry." In 1611 the version of the _Iliad_ was completed, and that of the _Odyssey_ was, at Prince Henry's desire, now taken in hand. But the untimely death of the Prince, on November 6th, 1612, dashed all Chapman's hopes of receiving the anticipated reward of his labours. According to a petition which he addressed to the Privy Council, the Prince had promised him on the conclusion of his translation £300, and "uppon his deathbed a good pension during my life." Not only were both of these withheld, but he was deprived of his post of "sewer" by Prince Charles. Nevertheless he completed the version of the _Odyssey_ in 1614, and in 1616 he published a folio volume entitled _The Whole Works of Homer_. The translation, in spite of its inaccuracies and its "conceits," is, by virtue of its sustained dignity and vigour, one of the noblest monuments of Elizabethan genius.