The Blind Beggar of Alexandria is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by George Chapman.
The work was published after its initial run: it was entered into the Stationers' Register on 15 August 1598 and appeared in print later that year, in a quarto issued by the bookseller William Jones.
In that disguise and others – Leon the usurer, and the "mad-brain" aristocrat Count Hermes – Cleanthes manipulates people and events to turn in his favor (and for the sheer egotistical fun of it).
[5] Even in a relatively light and slight project like Blind Beggar, a hint of Chapman's classical learning and inclination shows through.
The pretend-beggar Irus is named after the bragging beggar who foolishly challenges Odysseus to a fight in the final book of The Odyssey.