(M. Br.)
Chapman, his first biographer is careful to let us know, “was a person of most reverend aspect, religious and temperate, qualities rarely meeting in a poet”; he had also certain other merits at least as necessary to the exercise of that profession. He had a singular force and solidity of thought, an admirable ardour of ambitious devotion to the service of poetry, a deep and burning sense at once of the duty implied and of the dignity inherent in his office; a vigour, opulence, and loftiness of phrase, remarkable even in that age of spiritual strength, wealth and exaltation of thought and style; a robust eloquence, touched not unfrequently with flashes of fancy, and kindled at times into heat of imagination. The main fault of his style is one more commonly found in the prose than in the verse of his time,— a quaint and florid obscurity, rigid with elaborate rhetoric and tortuous with labyrinthine illustration; not dark only to the rapid reader through closeness and subtlety of thought, like Donne, whose miscalled obscurity is so often “all glorious within,” but thick and slab as a witch’s gruel with forced and barbarous eccentricities of articulation. As his language in the higher forms of comedy is always pure and clear, and sometimes exquisite in the simplicity of its earnest and natural grace, the stiffness and density of his more ambitious style may perhaps be attributed to some pernicious theory or conceit of the dignity proper to a moral and philosophic poet. Nevertheless, many of the gnomic passages in his tragedies and allegoric poems are of singular weight and beauty; the best of these, indeed, would not discredit the fame of the very greatest poets for sublimity of equal thought and expression: witness the lines chosen by Shelley as the motto for a poem, and fit to have been chosen as the motto for his life.
The romantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur of Chapman’sHomerremains attested by the praise of Keats, of Coleridge and of Lamb; it is written at a pitch of strenuous and laborious exaltation, which never flags or breaks down, but never flies with the ease and smoothness of an eagle native to Homeric air. From his occasional poems an expert and careful hand might easily gather a noble anthology of excerpts, chiefly gnomic or meditative, allegoric or descriptive. The most notable examples of his tragic work are comprised in the series of plays taken, and adapted sometimes with singular licence, from the records of such part of French history as lies between the reign of Francis I. and the reign of Henry IV., ranging in date of subject from the trial and death of Admiral Chabot to the treason and execution of Marshal Biron. The two plays bearing as epigraph the name of that famous soldier and conspirator are a storehouse of lofty thought and splendid verse, with scarcely a flash or sparkle of dramatic action. The one play of Chapman’s whose popularity on the stage survived the Restoration isBussy d’Ambois(d’Amboise),—a tragedy not lacking in violence of action or emotion, and abounding even more in sweet and sublime interludes than in crabbed and bombastic passages. His rarest jewels of thought and verse detachable from the context lie embedded in the tragedy ofCaesar and Pompey, whence the finest of them were first extracted by the unerring and unequalled critical genius of Charles Lamb. In most of his tragedies the lofty and labouring spirit of Chapman may be said rather to shine fitfully through parts than steadily to pervade the whole; they show nobly altogether as they stand, but even better by help of excerpts and selections. But the excellence of his best comedies can only be appreciated by a student who reads them fairly and fearlessly through, and, having made some small deductions on the score of occasional pedantry and occasional indecency, finds inAll Fools,Monsieur d’Olive,The Gentleman Usher, andThe Widow’s Tearsa wealth and vigour of humorous invention, a tender and earnest grace of romantic poetry, which may atone alike for these passing blemishes and for the lack of such clear-cut perfection of character and such dramatic progression of interest as we find only in the yet higher poets of the English heroic age.
So much it may suffice to say of Chapman as an original poet, one who held of no man and acknowledged no master, but from the birth of Marlowe well-nigh to the death of Jonson held on his own hard and haughty way of austere and sublime ambition, not without kindly and graceful inclination of his high grey head to salute such younger and still nobler compeers as Jonson and Fletcher. With Shakespeare we should never have guessed that he had come at all in contact, had not the keen intelligence of William Minto divined or rather discerned him to be the rival poet referred to in Shakespeare’s sonnets with a grave note of passionate satire, hitherto as enigmatic as almost all questions connected with those divine and dangerous poems. This conjecture Professor Minto fortified by such apt collocation and confrontation of passages that we may now reasonably accept it as an ascertained and memorable fact.
The objections which a just and adequate judgment may bring against Chapman’s master-work, his translation of Homer, may be summed up in three epithets: it is romantic, laborious, Elizabethan. The qualities implied by these epithets are the reverse of those which should distinguish a translator of Homer; but setting this apart, and considering the poems as in the main original works, the superstructure of a romantic poet on the submerged foundations of Greek verse, no praise can be too warm or high for the power, the freshness, the indefatigable strength and inextinguishable fire which animate this exalted work, and secure for all time that shall take cognizance of English poetry an honoured place in its highest annals for the memory of Chapman.
(A. C. S.)
Chapman’s works include:—Σκιά νυκτός:The Shadow of Night: Containing two Poeticall Hymnes... (1594), the second of which deals with Sir Francis Vere’s campaign in the Netherlands;Ovid’s Banquet of Sence. A Coronet for his Mistresse Philosophie; and His Amorous Zodiacke with a translation of a Latine coppie, written by a Fryer, Anno Dom. 1400(1595, 2nd ed. 1639), a collection of poems frequently quoted from inEngland’s Parnassus(1600); “De Guiana, carmen epicum,” a poem prefixed to Lawrence Keymis’sA Relation of the second voyage to Guiana(1596);Hero and Leander. Begun by Christopher Marloe; and finished by George Chapman(1598);The Blinde begger of Alexandria, most pleasantly discoursing his variable humours ...(acted 1596, printed 1598), a popular comedy;A Pleasant Comedy entituled An Humerous dayes Myrth(identified by Mr Fleay with the “Comodey of Umero” noted by Henslowe on the 11th of May 1597; printed 1599);Al Fooles, A Comedy(paid for by Henslowe on the 2nd of July 1599, its original name being “The World runs on wheels”; printed 1605);The Gentleman Usher(c. 1601, pr. 1606), a comedy;Monsieur d’Olive(1604, pr. 1606), one of his most amusing and successful comedies;Eastward Hoe(1605), written in conjunction with Ben Jonson and John Marston, an excellent comedy of city life;Bussy d’Ambois,1ATragedie(1604, pr. 1607, 1608, 1616, 1641, &c.), the scene of which is laid in the court of Henry III.;The Revenge of Bussy d’Ambois. A Tragedie(pr. 1613, but probably written much earlier);The Conspiracie, And Tragedie of Charles Duke of Byron. Marshall of France, ... in two plays(1607 and 1608; pr. 1608 and 1625);May-Day, A witty Comedie(pr. 1611; but probably acted as early as 1601);The widdowes Teares. A Comedie(pr. 1612; produced perhaps as early as 1605);Caesar and Pompey: A Roman Tragedy, declaring their warres. Out of whose events is evicted this Proposition. Only a just man is a freeman(pr. 1631), written, says Chapman in the dedication, “long since,” but never staged.The Tragedy of Alphonsus Emperour of Germany(see the edition by Dr Karl Elye; Leipzig, 1867) andRevenge for Honour(1654)2both bear Chapman’s name on the title-page, but his authorship has been disputed. InThe Ball(lic. 1632; pr. 1639), a comedy, andThe Tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France(lic. 1635; pr. 1639) he collaborated with James Shirley.The memorable Masque of the two Honourable Houses or Inns of Court; the Middle Temple and Lyncoln’s Inne, was performed at court in 1613 in honour of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth.The Whole Works of Homer: Prince of Poets. In his Iliads and Odysseys ...appeared in 1616, and about 1624 he addedThe Crowne of all Homers works Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise. His Hymns and Epigrams.But the whole works had been already published by instalments.Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homerhad appeared in 1598,Achilles Shieldin the same year, books i.-xii. about 1609; in 1611The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets...; and in 1614Twenty-four Bookes of Homer’s Odisseswere entered at Stationers’ Hall. In 1609 he addressed to Prince HenryEnthymiae Raptus; or the Teares of Peace, and on the death of his patron he contributedAn Epicede, or Funerall Song(1612). A paraphrase ofPetrarchs Seven Penitentiall Psalms(1612), a poem in honour of the marriage of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and Frances, the divorced countess of Essex, indiscreetly entitledAndromeda Liberata... (1614), a translation ofThe Georgicks of Hesiod(1618),Pro Vere Autumni Lachrymae(1622), in honour of Sir Horatio Vere,A justification of a Strange Action of Nero ... also ... the fifth Satyre of Juvenall(1629), andEugenia... (1614), an elegy on Sir William Russell, complete the list of his separately published works.Chapman’sHomerwas edited in 1857 by the Rev. Richard Hooper; and a reprint of his dramatic works appeared in 1873. The standard edition of Chapman is theWorks, edited by R.H. Shepherd (1874-1875), the third volume of which contains an “Essay on the Poetical and Dramatic works of George Chapman,” by Mr Swinburne, printed separately in 1875. The selection of his plays (1895) for the Mermaid Series is edited by Mr W.L. Phelps. For the sources of the plays see Emil Koeppel, “Anellen Studien zu den Dramen George Chapman’s, Philip Massinger’s und John Ford’s” inQuellen und Forschungen zur Sprach und Kulturgeschichte(vol. 82, Strassburg, 1897). The suggestion of W. Minto (seeCharacteristics of the English Poets, 1885) that Chapman was the “rival poet” of Shakespeare’s sonnets is amplified in Mr A. Acheson’sShakespeare and the Rival Poet(1903). Much satire in Chapman’s introduction is there applied to Shakespeare. For other criticisms of his translation of Homer see Matthew Arnold,Lectures on translating Homer(1861), and Dr A. Lohff,George Chapman’s Ilias-Übersetzung(Berlin, 1903).
Chapman’s works include:—Σκιά νυκτός:The Shadow of Night: Containing two Poeticall Hymnes... (1594), the second of which deals with Sir Francis Vere’s campaign in the Netherlands;Ovid’s Banquet of Sence. A Coronet for his Mistresse Philosophie; and His Amorous Zodiacke with a translation of a Latine coppie, written by a Fryer, Anno Dom. 1400(1595, 2nd ed. 1639), a collection of poems frequently quoted from inEngland’s Parnassus(1600); “De Guiana, carmen epicum,” a poem prefixed to Lawrence Keymis’sA Relation of the second voyage to Guiana(1596);Hero and Leander. Begun by Christopher Marloe; and finished by George Chapman(1598);The Blinde begger of Alexandria, most pleasantly discoursing his variable humours ...(acted 1596, printed 1598), a popular comedy;A Pleasant Comedy entituled An Humerous dayes Myrth(identified by Mr Fleay with the “Comodey of Umero” noted by Henslowe on the 11th of May 1597; printed 1599);Al Fooles, A Comedy(paid for by Henslowe on the 2nd of July 1599, its original name being “The World runs on wheels”; printed 1605);The Gentleman Usher(c. 1601, pr. 1606), a comedy;Monsieur d’Olive(1604, pr. 1606), one of his most amusing and successful comedies;Eastward Hoe(1605), written in conjunction with Ben Jonson and John Marston, an excellent comedy of city life;Bussy d’Ambois,1ATragedie(1604, pr. 1607, 1608, 1616, 1641, &c.), the scene of which is laid in the court of Henry III.;The Revenge of Bussy d’Ambois. A Tragedie(pr. 1613, but probably written much earlier);The Conspiracie, And Tragedie of Charles Duke of Byron. Marshall of France, ... in two plays(1607 and 1608; pr. 1608 and 1625);May-Day, A witty Comedie(pr. 1611; but probably acted as early as 1601);The widdowes Teares. A Comedie(pr. 1612; produced perhaps as early as 1605);Caesar and Pompey: A Roman Tragedy, declaring their warres. Out of whose events is evicted this Proposition. Only a just man is a freeman(pr. 1631), written, says Chapman in the dedication, “long since,” but never staged.
The Tragedy of Alphonsus Emperour of Germany(see the edition by Dr Karl Elye; Leipzig, 1867) andRevenge for Honour(1654)2both bear Chapman’s name on the title-page, but his authorship has been disputed. InThe Ball(lic. 1632; pr. 1639), a comedy, andThe Tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France(lic. 1635; pr. 1639) he collaborated with James Shirley.The memorable Masque of the two Honourable Houses or Inns of Court; the Middle Temple and Lyncoln’s Inne, was performed at court in 1613 in honour of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth.
The Whole Works of Homer: Prince of Poets. In his Iliads and Odysseys ...appeared in 1616, and about 1624 he addedThe Crowne of all Homers works Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise. His Hymns and Epigrams.But the whole works had been already published by instalments.Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homerhad appeared in 1598,Achilles Shieldin the same year, books i.-xii. about 1609; in 1611The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets...; and in 1614Twenty-four Bookes of Homer’s Odisseswere entered at Stationers’ Hall. In 1609 he addressed to Prince HenryEnthymiae Raptus; or the Teares of Peace, and on the death of his patron he contributedAn Epicede, or Funerall Song(1612). A paraphrase ofPetrarchs Seven Penitentiall Psalms(1612), a poem in honour of the marriage of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and Frances, the divorced countess of Essex, indiscreetly entitledAndromeda Liberata... (1614), a translation ofThe Georgicks of Hesiod(1618),Pro Vere Autumni Lachrymae(1622), in honour of Sir Horatio Vere,A justification of a Strange Action of Nero ... also ... the fifth Satyre of Juvenall(1629), andEugenia... (1614), an elegy on Sir William Russell, complete the list of his separately published works.
Chapman’sHomerwas edited in 1857 by the Rev. Richard Hooper; and a reprint of his dramatic works appeared in 1873. The standard edition of Chapman is theWorks, edited by R.H. Shepherd (1874-1875), the third volume of which contains an “Essay on the Poetical and Dramatic works of George Chapman,” by Mr Swinburne, printed separately in 1875. The selection of his plays (1895) for the Mermaid Series is edited by Mr W.L. Phelps. For the sources of the plays see Emil Koeppel, “Anellen Studien zu den Dramen George Chapman’s, Philip Massinger’s und John Ford’s” inQuellen und Forschungen zur Sprach und Kulturgeschichte(vol. 82, Strassburg, 1897). The suggestion of W. Minto (seeCharacteristics of the English Poets, 1885) that Chapman was the “rival poet” of Shakespeare’s sonnets is amplified in Mr A. Acheson’sShakespeare and the Rival Poet(1903). Much satire in Chapman’s introduction is there applied to Shakespeare. For other criticisms of his translation of Homer see Matthew Arnold,Lectures on translating Homer(1861), and Dr A. Lohff,George Chapman’s Ilias-Übersetzung(Berlin, 1903).
(M. Br.)
1Chapman’s source in this piece remains undetermined. It cannot be theHistoria sui temporisof Jacques de Thorn, for the 4th volume of his work, which relates the story, was not published until 1609 (see Koeppel, p. 14).2This play appears to have been issued in 1653 with the titleThe Parracide, or Revenge for Honouras the work of Henry Glathorne.
1Chapman’s source in this piece remains undetermined. It cannot be theHistoria sui temporisof Jacques de Thorn, for the 4th volume of his work, which relates the story, was not published until 1609 (see Koeppel, p. 14).
2This play appears to have been issued in 1653 with the titleThe Parracide, or Revenge for Honouras the work of Henry Glathorne.
CHAPMAN(from O. Eng.céap, and Mid. Eng.cheap, to barter, cf. “Cheapside” in London, and Ger.Kaufmann), one who buys or sells, a trader or dealer, especially an itinerant pedlar. The word “chap,” now a slang term, meant originally a customer.
CHAPONE, HESTER(1727-1801), English essayist, daughter of Thomas Mulso, a country gentleman, was born at Twywell, Northamptonshire, on the 27th of October 1727. She was a precocious child, and at the age of nine wrote a romance entitledThe Loves of Amoret and Melissa. Hecky Mulso, as she was familiarly called, developed a beautiful voice, which earned her the name of “the linnet.” While on a visit to Canterbury she made the acquaintance of the learned Mrs Elizabeth Carter, and soon became one of the admirers of the novelist Samuel Richardson. She was one of the little court of women who gathered at North End, Fulham; and in Miss Susannah Highmore’s sketch of the novelist readingSir Charles Grandisonto his friends Miss Mulso is the central figure. She corresponded with Richardson on “filial obedience” in letters as long as his own, signing herself his “ever obliged and affectionate child.” She admired, however, with discrimination, and in the words of her biographer (Posthumous Works, 1807, p. 9) “her letters show with what dignity, tempered with proper humility, she could maintain her own well-grounded opinion.” In 1760 Miss Mulso, with her father’s reluctant consent, married the attorney, John Chapone, who had been befriended by Richardson. Her husband died within a year of her marriage. Mrs Chapone remained in London visiting various friends. She had already made small contributions to various periodicals when she published, in 1772, her best known work,Letters on the Improvement of the Mind.This book brought her numerous requests from distinguished persons to undertake the education of their children. She died on the 25th of December 1801.
SeeThe Posthumous Works of Mrs Chapone, containing her correspondence with Mr Richardson; a series of letters to Mrs Elizabeth Carter ... together with an account of her life and character drawn up by her own family(1807).
SeeThe Posthumous Works of Mrs Chapone, containing her correspondence with Mr Richardson; a series of letters to Mrs Elizabeth Carter ... together with an account of her life and character drawn up by her own family(1807).
CHAPPE, CLAUDE(1763-1805), French engineer, was born at Brûlon (Sarthe) in 1763. He was the inventor of an optical telegraph which was widely used in France until it was superseded by the electric telegraph. His device consisted of an upright post, on the top of which was fastened a transverse bar, while at the ends of the latter two smaller arms moved on pivots. The position of these bars represented words or letters; and by means of machines placed at intervals such that each was distinctly visible from the next, messages could be conveyed through 50 leagues in a quarter of an hour. The machine was adopted by the Legislative Assembly in 1792, and in the following year Chappe was appointedingénieur-télégraphe; but the originality of his invention was so much questioned that he was seized with melancholia and (it is said) committed suicide at Paris in 1805.
His elder brother, Ignace Urbain Jean Chappe (1760-1829), took part in the invention of the telegraph, and with a younger brother, Pierre François, from 1805 to 1823 was administrator of the telegraphs, a post which was also held by two other brothers, René and Abraham, from 1823 to 1830. Ignace was the author of aHistoire de la télégraphie(1824). An uncle, Jean Chappe d’Auteroche (1728-1769), was an astronomer who observed two transits of Venus, one in Siberia in 1761, and the other in 1769 in California, where he died.
CHAPPELL, WILLIAM(1809-1888), English writer on music, a member of the London musical firm of Chappell & Co., was born on the 20th of November 1809, eldest son of Samuel Chappell (d. 1834), who founded the business. William Chappell is particularly noteworthy for his starting the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1840, and his publication of the standard workPopular Music of the Olden Time(1855-1859)—an expansion of a collection of “national English airs” made by him in 1838-1840. The modern revival of interest in English folk-songs owes much to this work, which has since been re-edited by Professor H.E. Wooldridge (1893). W. Chappell died on the 20th of August 1888. His brother, Thomas Patey Chappell (d. 1902), meanwhile had largely extended the publishing business, and had started (1859) the Monday and Saturday Popular Concerts at St James’s Hall, which were successfully managed by a younger brother, S. Arthur Chappell, till they came to an end towards the close of the century.
CHAPRA,orChupra, a town of British India, the administrative headquarters of Saran district in Bengal, near the left bank of the river Gogra, just above its confluence with the Ganges; with a railway station on the Bengal & North-Western line towards Oudh. Pop. (1901) 45,901, showing a decrease of 21% in the decade. There are a government high school, a German Lutheran mission, and a public library endowed by a former maharaja of Hatwa. Chapra is the centre of trade in indigo and saltpetre, and conducts a large business by water as well as by rail.
CHAPTAL, JEAN ANTOINE CLAUDE,Comte de Chante-loup(1756-1832), French chemist and statesman, was born at Nogaret, Lozère, on the 4th of June 1756. The son of an apothecary, he studied chemistry at Montpellier, obtaining his doctor’s diploma in 1777, when he repaired to Paris. In 1781 the States of Languedoc founded a chair of chemistry for him at the school of medicine in Montpellier, where he taught the doctrines of Lavoisier. The capital he acquired by the death of a wealthy uncle he employed in the establishment of chemicalworks for the manufacture of the mineral acids, alum, white-lead, soda and other substances. His labours in the cause of applied science were at length recognized by the French government, which presented him with letters of nobility, and the cordon of the order of Saint Michel. During the Revolution a publication by Chaptal, entitledDialogue entre un Montagnard et un Girondin, caused him to be arrested; but being speedily set at liberty through the intermission of his friends, he undertook, in 1793, the management of the saltpetre works at Grenelle. In the following year he went to Montpellier, where he remained till 1797, when he returned to Paris. After thecoup d’étatof the 18th of Brumaire (November 9, 1799) he was made a councillor of state by the First Consul, and succeeded Lucien Bonaparte as minister of the interior, in which capacity he established a chemical manufactory near Paris, a school of arts, and a society of industries; he also reorganized the hospitals, introduced the metrical system of weights and measures, and otherwise greatly encouraged the arts and sciences. A misunderstanding between him and Napoleon (who conferred upon him the title of comte de Chanteloup) occasioned Chaptal’s retirement from office in 1804; but before the end of that year he was again received into favour by the emperor, who bestowed on him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and made him treasurer to the conservative senate. On Napoleon’s return from Elba, Chaptal was made director-general of commerce and manufactures and a minister of state. He was obliged after the downfall of the emperor to withdraw into private life; and his name was removed from the list of the peers of France until 1819. In 1816, however, he was nominated a member of the Academy of Sciences by Louis XVIII. Chaptal was especially a popularizer of science, attempting to apply to industry and agriculture the discoveries of chemistry. In this way he contributed largely to the development of modern industry. He died at Paris on the 30th of July 1832.
His literary works exhibit both vigour and perspicuity of style; he wrote, in addition to various articles, especially in theAnnales de chimie, Élémens de chimie(3 vols., 1790; new ed., 1796-1803);Traité du salpètre et des goudrons(1796);Tableau des principaux sels terreux(1798);Essai sur le perfectionnement des arts chimiques en France(1800);Art de faire, de gouverner, et de perfectionner les vins(1 vol., 1801; new ed., 1819);Traité théorique et pratique sur la culture de la vigne, &c., (2 vols., 1801; new ed., 1811);Essai sur le blanchiment(1801);La Chimie appliquée aux arts(4 vols., 1806);Art de la teinture du coton en rouge(1807);Art du teinturier et du dégraisseur(1800);De l’industrie française(2 vols., 1819);Chimie appliquée a l’agriculture(2 vols., 1823; new ed., 1829).
His literary works exhibit both vigour and perspicuity of style; he wrote, in addition to various articles, especially in theAnnales de chimie, Élémens de chimie(3 vols., 1790; new ed., 1796-1803);Traité du salpètre et des goudrons(1796);Tableau des principaux sels terreux(1798);Essai sur le perfectionnement des arts chimiques en France(1800);Art de faire, de gouverner, et de perfectionner les vins(1 vol., 1801; new ed., 1819);Traité théorique et pratique sur la culture de la vigne, &c., (2 vols., 1801; new ed., 1811);Essai sur le blanchiment(1801);La Chimie appliquée aux arts(4 vols., 1806);Art de la teinture du coton en rouge(1807);Art du teinturier et du dégraisseur(1800);De l’industrie française(2 vols., 1819);Chimie appliquée a l’agriculture(2 vols., 1823; new ed., 1829).
CHAPTER(a shortened form ofchapiter, a word still used in architecture for a capital; derived from O. Fr.chapitre, Lat.capitellum, diminutive ofcaput, head), a principal division or section of a book, and so applied to acts of parliament, as forming “chapters” or divisions of the legislation of a session of parliament. The name “chapter” is given to the permanent body of the canons of a cathedral or collegiate church, presided over, in the English Church, by the dean, and in the Roman communion by the provost or the dean, and also to the body of the members of a religious order. This may be a “conventual” chapter of the monks of a particular monastery, “provincial” of the members of the order in a province, or “general” of the whole order. This ecclesiastical use of the word arose from the custom of reading a chapter of Scripture, or a head (capitulum) of theregula, to the assembled canons or monks. The transference from the reading to the assembly itself, and to the members constituting it, was easy, through such phrases asconvenire ad capitulum. The title “chapter” is similarly used of the assembled body of knights of a military or other order. (See alsoCanon;Cathedral;Dean).
CHAPTER-HOUSE(Lat.capitolium, Ital.capitolo, Fr.chapitre, Ger.Kapitelhaus), the chamber in which the chapter or heads of the monastic bodies (seeAbbeyandCathedral) assembled to transact business. They are of various forms; some are oblong apartments, as Canterbury, Exeter, Chester, Gloucester, &c.; some octagonal, as Salisbury, Westminster, Wells, Lincoln, York, &c. That at Lincoln has ten sides, and that at Worcester is circular; most are vaulted internally and polygonal externally, and some, as Salisbury, Wells, Lincoln, Worcester, &c., depend on a single slight vaulting shaft for the support of the massive vaulting. They are often provided with a vestibule, as at Westminster, Lincoln, Salisbury and are almost exclusively English.
CHAPU,formerly an important maritime town of China, in the province of Cheh-kiang, 50 m. N.W. of Chên-hai, situated in one of the richest and best cultivated districts in the country. It is the port of Hang-chow, with which it has good canal communication, and it was formerly the only Chinese port trading with Japan. The town has a circuit of about 5 m. exclusive of the suburbs that lie along the beach; and the Tatar quarter is separated from the rest by a wall. It was captured and much injured by the British force in 1842, but was abandoned immediately after the engagement. The sea around it has now silted up, though in the middle of the 19th century it was accessible to the light-draught ships of the British fleet.
CHAR(Salvelinus), a fish of the family Salmonidae, represented in Europe, Asia and North America. The best known and most widely distributed species, the one represented in British and Irish lakes, isS. alpinus, a graceful and delicious fish, covered with very minute scales and usually dark olive, bluish or purplish black above, with or without round orange or red spots, pinkish white or yellowish pink to scarlet or claret red below. When the char go to sea, they assume a more silvery coloration, similar to that of the salmon and sea trout; the red spots become very indistinct and the lower parts are almost white. The very young are also silvery on the sides and white below, and bear 11 to 15 bars, or parr-marks, on the side. This fish varies much according to localities; and the difference in colour, together with a few points of doubtful constancy, have given rise to the establishment of a great number of untenable so-called species, as many as seven having been ascribed to the British and Irish fauna, viz.S. alpinus, nivalis, killinensis, willoughbyi, perisii, coliiandgrayi, the last from Lough Melvin, Ireland, being the most distinct.S. alpinusvaries much in size according to the waters it inhabits, remaining dwarfed in some English lakes, and growing to 2 ft. or more in other localities. In other parts of Europe, also, various local forms have been distinguished, such as the “omble chevalier” of the lakes of Switzerland and Savoy (S. umbla), the “Säbling” of the lakes of South Germany and Austria (S. salvelinus), the “kullmund” of Norway (S. carbonarius), &c., while the North AmericanS. parkei, alipes, stagnalis, arcturus, areolus, oquassaandmarstonimay also be regarded as varieties. Taken in this wide sense,S. alpinushas a very extensive distribution. In central Europe, in the British islands and in the greater part of Scandinavia it is confined to mountain lakes, but farther to the north, in both the Old World and the New, it lives in the sea and ascends rivers to spawn. In Lapland, Iceland, Greenland and other parts of the arctic regions, it ranks among the commonest fishes. The extreme northern point at which char have been obtained is 82° 34′ N. (Victoria lake and Floeberg Beach, Arctic America). It reaches an altitude of 2600 ft. in the Alps and 6000 ft. in the Carpathians.
The American brook char,S. fontinalis, is a close ally ofS. alpinus, differing from it in having fewer and shorter gill-rakers, a rather stouter body, the back more or less barred or marbled with dark olive or black, and the dorsal and caudal fins mottled or barred with black. Many local varieties of colour have been distinguished. Sea-run individuals are often nearly plain bright silvery. It is a small species, growing to about 18 in. abundant in all clear, cold streams of North America, east of the Mississippi, northward to Labrador. The fish has been introduced into other parts of the United States, and also into Europe.
Another member of the same section of Salmonidae is the Great Lake char of North America,S. namaycush, one of the largest salmonids, said to attain a weight of 100 ℔ The body is very elongate and covered with extremely small scales. The colour varies from grey to black, with numerous round pale spots, which may be tinged with reddish; the dorsal and caudal fins reticulate with darker. This fish inhabits the Great Lakes regions and neighbouring parts of North America.
CHAR-À-BANC(Fr. for “benched carriage”), a large form of wagonette-like vehicle for passengers, but with benched seatsarranged in rows, looking forward, commonly used for large parties, whether as public conveyances or for excursions.
CHARACTER(Gr.χαρακτήρfromχαράττειν, to scratch), a distinctive mark (spelt “caracter” up to the 16th century, with other variants); so applied to symbols of notation or letters of the alphabet; more figuratively, the distinguishing traits of anything, and particularly the moral and mental qualities of an individual human being, the sum of those qualities which distinguish him as a personality. From the latter usage “a character” becomes almost identical with “reputation”; and in the sense of “giving a servant a character,” the word involves a written testimonial. For the law relating to servants’ characters seeMaster and Servant. A further development is the use of “character” to mean an “odd or eccentric person”; or of a “character actor,” to mean an actor who plays a highly-coloured strange part. The word is also used as the name of a form of literature, consisting of short descriptions of types of character. Well-known examples of such “characters” are those of Theophrastus and La Bruyère, and in English, of Joseph Hall (1574-1656) and Sir Thomas Overbury.
CHARADE,a kind of riddle, probably invented in France during the 18th century, in which a word of two or more syllables is divined by guessing and combining into one word (the answer) the different syllables, each of which is described, as an independent word, by the giver of the charade. Charades may be either in prose or verse. Of poetic charades those by W. Mackworth Praed are well known and excellent examples, while the following specimens in prose may suffice as illustrations. “Myfirst, with the most rooted antipathy to a Frenchman, prides himself, whenever they meet, upon sticking close to his jacket; mysecondhas many virtues, nor is its least that it gives its name to my first; mywholemay I never catch!” “Myfirstis company; mysecondshuns company; mythirdcollects company; and mywholeamuses company.” The solutions areTar-tarandCo-nun-drum. The most popular form of this amusement is the acted charade, in which the meaning of the different syllables is acted out on the stage, the audience being left to guess each syllable and thus, combining the meaning of all the syllables, the whole word. A brilliant example of the acted charade is described in Thackeray’sVanity Fair.
CHARCOAL,the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing the volatile constituents of animal and vegetable substances; wood gives origin to wood-charcoal; sugar to sugar-charcoal; bone to bone-charcoal (which, however, mainly consists of calcium phosphate); while coal gives “coke” and “gas-carbon.” The first part of the word charcoal is of obscure origin. The independent use of “char,” meaning to scorch, to reduce to carbon, is comparatively recent, and must have been taken from “charcoal,” which is quite early. TheNew English Dictionarygives as the earliest instance of “char” a quotation dated 1679. Similarly the word “chark” or “chak,” meaning the same as “char,” is also late, and is probably due to a wrong division of the word “charcoal,” or, as it was often spelled in the 16th and 17th centuries, “charkole” and “charke-coal.” No suggestions for an origin of “char” are satisfactory. It may be a use of the word “chare,” which appears in “char-woman,” the American “chore”; in all these words it means “turn,” a turn of work, a job, and “charcoal” would have to mean “turned coal,”i.e.wood changed or turned to coal, a somewhat forced derivation, for which there is no authority. Another suggestion is that it is connected with “chirk” or “chark,” an old word meaning “to make a grating noise.”
Wood-charcoal.—In districts where there is an abundance of wood, as in the forests of France, Austria and Sweden, the operation of charcoal-burning is of the crudest description. The method, which dates back to a very remote period, generally consists in piling billets of wood on their ends so as to form a conical pile, openings being left at the bottom to admit air, with a central shaft to serve as a flue. The whole is covered with turf of moistened soil. The firing is begun at the bottom of the flue, and gradually spreads outwards and upwards. The success of the operation—both as to the intrinsic value of the product and its amount—depends upon the rate of the combustion. Under average conditions, 100 parts of wood yield about 60 parts by volume, or 25 parts by weight, of charcoal. The modern process of carbonizing wood—either in small pieces or as sawdust—in cast iron retorts is extensively practised where wood is scarce, and also by reason of the recovery of valuable by-products (wood spirit, pyroligneous acid, wood-tar), which the process permits. The question of the temperature of the carbonization is important; according to J. Percy, wood becomes brown at 220° C., a deep brown-black after some time at 280°, and an easily powdered mass at 310°. Charcoal made at 300° is brown, soft and friable, and readily inflames at 380°; made at higher temperatures it is hard and brittle, and does not fire until heated to about 700°. One of the most important applications of wood-charcoal is as a constituent of gunpowder (q.v.). It is also used in metallurgical operations as a reducing agent, but its application has been diminished by the introduction of coke, anthracite smalls, &c. A limited quantity is made up into the form of drawing crayons; but the greatest amount is used as a fuel.
The porosity of wood-charcoal explains why it floats on the surface of water, although it is actually denser, its specific gravity being about 1.5. The porosity also explains the property of absorbing gases and vapours; at ordinary temperatures ammonia and cyanogen are most readily taken up; and Sir James Dewar has utilized this property for the preparation of high vacua at low temperatures. This character is commercially applied in the use of wood-charcoal as a disinfectant. The fetid gases produced by the putrefaction and waste of organic matter enter into the pores of the charcoal, and there meet with the oxygen previously absorbed from the atmosphere; oxidation ensues, and the noxious effluvia are decomposed. Generally, however, the action is a purely mechanical one, the gases being only absorbed. Its pharmacological action depends on the same property; it absorbs the gases of the stomach and intestines (hence its use in cases of flatulence), and also liquids and solids. Wood-charcoal has also the power of removing colouring matters from solutions, but this property is possessed in a much higher degree by animal-charcoal.
Animal-charcoalorbone blackis the carbonaceous residue obtained by the dry distillation of bones; it contains only about 10% of carbon, the remainder being calcium and magnesium phosphates (80%) and other inorganic material originally present in the bones. It is generally manufactured from the residues obtained in the glue (q.v.) and gelatin (q.v.) industries. Its decolorizing power was applied in 1812 by Derosne to the clarification of the syrups obtained in sugar-refining; but its use in this direction has now greatly diminished, owing to the introduction of more active and easily managed reagents. It is still used to some extent in laboratory practice. The decolorizing power is not permanent, becoming lost after using for some time; it may be revived, however, by washing and reheating.
Lampblackorsootis the familiar product of the incomplete combustion of oils, pitch, resins, tallow, &c. It is generally prepared by burning pitch residues (seeCoal-tar) and condensing the product. Thus obtained it is always oily, and, before using as a pigment, it must be purified by ignition in closed crucibles (seeCarbon).
CHARCOT, JEAN MARTIN(1825-1893), French physician, was born in Paris on the 29th of November 1825. In 1853 he graduated as M.D. of Paris University, and three years later was appointed physician of the Central Hospital Bureau. In 1860 he became professor of pathological anatomy in the medical faculty of Paris, and in 1862 began that famous connexion with the Salpêtrière which lasted to the end of his life. He was elected to the Academy of Medicine in 1873, and ten years afterwards became a member of the Institute. His death occurred suddenly on the 16th of August 1893 at Morvan, where he had gone for a holiday. Charcot, who was a good linguist and well acquainted with the literature of his own as well as of other countries, excelled as a clinical observer and a pathologist. His work at the Salpêtrière exerted a great influence on the development of the science of neurology, and his classicalLeçons sur les maladies dusystème nerveux, the first series of which was published in 1873, represents an enormous advance in the knowledge and discrimination of nervous diseases. He also devoted much attention to the study of obscure morbid conditions like hysteria, especially in relation to hypnotism (q.v.); indeed, it is in connexion with his investigation into the phenomena and results of the latter that his name is popularly known. In addition to his labours on neurological and even physiological problems he made many contributions to other branches of medicine, his published works dealing, among other topics, with liver and kidney diseases, gout and pulmonary phthisis. As a teacher he was remarkably successful, and always commanded an enthusiastic band of followers.
CHARD, JOHN ROUSE MERRIOTT(1847-1897), British soldier, was born at Boxhill, near Plymouth, on the 21st of December 1847, and in 1868 entered the Royal Engineers. In 1878 Lieutenant Chard was ordered to South Africa to take part in the Zulu War, and was stationed at the small post of Rorke’s Drift to protect the bridges across the Buffalo river, and some sick men and stores. Here, with Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead (1856-1891) and eighty men of the 2nd 24th Foot, he heard, on the 22nd of January 1879, of the disaster of Isandhlwana from some fugitives who had escaped the slaughter. Believing that the victorious Zulus would attempt to cross into Natal, they prepared, hastily, to hold the Drift until help should come. They barricaded and loopholed the old church and hospital, and improvised defences from wagons, mealie sacks and bags of Indian corn. Early in the afternoon they were attacked by more than 3000 Zulus, who, after hours of desperate hand-to-hand fighting, carried the outer defences, an inner low wall of biscuit boxes, and the hospital, room by room. The garrison then retired to the stone kraal, and repulsed attack after attack through the night. The next morning relieving forces appeared, and the enemy retired. The spirited defence of Rorke’s Drift saved Natal from a Zulu invasion, and Chard’s and Bromhead’s gallantry was rewarded with the V.C. and immediate promotion to the rank of captain and brevet-major. On Chard’s return to England he became a popular hero. From 1893-1896 he commanded the Royal Engineers at Singapore, and was made a colonel in 1897. He died the same year at Hatch-Beauchamp, near Taunton, on the 1st of November.
CHARD,a market town and municipal borough in the Southern parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 142½ m. W. by S. of London by the London & South Western railway. Pop. (1901) 4437. It stands on high ground within 1 m. of the Devonshire border. Its cruciform parish church of St Mary the Virgin is Perpendicular of the 15th century. A fine east window is preserved. The manufactures include linen, lace, woollens, brassware and ironware. Chard is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 444 acres.
Chard (Cerdre,Cherdre,Cherde) was commercial in origin, being a trade centre near the Roman road to the west. There are two Roman villas in the parish. There was a British camp at Neroche in the neighbourhood. The bishop of Bath held Chard in 1086, and his successor granted in 1234 the first charter which made Chard a free borough, each burgage paying a rent of 12d. Trade in hides was forbidden to non-burgesses. This charter was confirmed in 1253, 1280 and 1285. Chard is said to have been incorporated by Elizabeth, as the corporation seal dates from 1570, but no Elizabethan charter can be found. It was incorporated by grant of Charles I. in 1642, and Charles II. gave a charter in 1683. Chard was a mesne borough, the first overlord being Bishop Joceline, whose successors held it (with a brief interval from 1545 to 1552) until 1801, when it was sold to Earl Poulett. Parliamentary representation began in 1312, and was lost in 1328. A market on Monday and fair on the 25th of July were granted in 1253, and confirmed in 1642 and 1683, when two more fair days were added (November 2 and May 3), the market being changed to Tuesday. The market day is now Monday, fairs being held on the first Wednesday in May, August and November, for corn and cattle only, their medieval importance as centres of the cloth trade having departed.
CHARDIN, JEAN SIMÉON(1699-1779), Frenchgenrepainter, was born in Paris, and studied under Pierre Jacques Cazes (1676-1754), the historical painter, and Noël Nicolas Coypel. He became famous for his still-life pictures and domestic interiors, which are well represented at the Louvre, and for figure-painting, as in hisLe Bénédicité(1740).
CHARDIN, SIR JOHN(1643-1713), French traveller, was born at Paris in 1643. His father, a wealthy jeweller, gave him an excellent education, and trained him in his own art; but instead of settling down in the ordinary routine of the craft, he set out in company with a Lyons merchant named Raisin in 1665 for Persia and India, partly on business and partly to gratify his own inclination. After a highly successful journey, during which he had received the patronage of Shah Abbas II. of Persia, he returned to France in 1670, and there published in the following yearRécit du Couronnement du roi de Perse Soliman III. Finding, however, that his Protestant profession cut him off from all hope of honours or advancement in his native country, he set out again for Persia in August 1671. This second journey was much more adventurous than the first, as instead of going directly to his destination, he passed by Smyrna, Constantinople, the Crimea, Caucasia, Mingrelia and Georgia, and did not reach Ispahan till June 1673. After four years spent in researches throughout Persia, he again visited India, and returned to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope in 1677. The persecution of Protestants in France led him, in 1681, to settle in London, where he was appointed jeweller to the court, and received from Charles II. the honour of knighthood. In 1683 he was sent to Holland as representative of the English East India Company; and in 1686 he published the first part of his great narrative—The Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East Indies, &c.(London). Sir John died in London in 1713, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his monument bears the inscriptionNomen sibi fecit eundo.
It was not till 1711 that the complete account of Chardin’s travels appeared, under the title ofJournal du voyage du chevalier Chardin, at Amsterdam. The Persian portion is to be found in vol. ii. of Harris’sCollection, and extracts are reprinted by Pinkerton in vol. ix. The best complete reprint is by Langlès (Paris, 1811). Sir John Chardin’s narrative has received the highest praise from the most competent authorities for its fulness, comprehensiveness and fidelity; and it furnished Montesquieu, Rousseau, Gibbon and Helvétius with most important material.
It was not till 1711 that the complete account of Chardin’s travels appeared, under the title ofJournal du voyage du chevalier Chardin, at Amsterdam. The Persian portion is to be found in vol. ii. of Harris’sCollection, and extracts are reprinted by Pinkerton in vol. ix. The best complete reprint is by Langlès (Paris, 1811). Sir John Chardin’s narrative has received the highest praise from the most competent authorities for its fulness, comprehensiveness and fidelity; and it furnished Montesquieu, Rousseau, Gibbon and Helvétius with most important material.
CHARENTE,an inland department of south-western France, comprehending the ancient province of Angoumois, and inconsiderable portions of Saintonge, Poitou, Marche, Limousin and Périgord. It is bounded N. by the departments of Deux-Sèvres and Vienne, E. by those of Vienne and Dordogne, S. by Dordogne and W. by Charente-Inférieure. Area 2305 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 351,733. The department, though it contains no high altitudes, is for the most part of a hilly nature. The highest points, many of which exceed 1000 ft., are found in the Confolentais, the granite region of the extreme north-east, known also as the Terres Froides. In the Terres Chaudes, under which name the remainder of the department is included, the levels vary in general between 300 and 650 ft., except in the western plains—the Pays-Bas and Champagne—where they range from 40 to 300 ft. A large part of Charente is thickly wooded, the principal forests lying in its northern districts. The department, as its name indicates, belongs mainly to the basin of the river Charente (area of basin 3860 sq. m.; length of river 225 m.), the chief affluents of which, within its borders, are the Tardoire, the Touvre and the Né. The Confolentais is watered by the Vienne, a tributary of the Loire, while the arrondissement of Barbexieux in the south-west belongs almost wholly to the basin of the Gironde.
The climate is temperate but moist, the rainfall being highest in the north-east. Agriculturally, Charente is prosperous. More than half its surface is arable land, on the greater part of which cereals are grown. The potato is an important crop. The vine is predominant in the region of Champagne, the wine produced being chiefly distilled into the famous brandy to which the town of Cognac gives its name. The best pasture is foundin the Confolentais, where horned cattle are largely reared. The chief fruits are chestnuts, walnuts and cider-apples. The poultry raised in the neighbourhood of Barbezieux is highly esteemed. Charente has numerous stone quarries, and there are peat workings and beds of clay which supply brick and tile-works and earthenware manufactories. Among the other industries, paper-making, which has its chief centre at Angoulême, is foremost. The most important metallurgical establishment is the large foundry of naval guns at Ruelle. Flour-mills and leather-works are numerous. There are also many minor industries subsidiary to paper-making and brandy-distilling, and Angoulême manufactures gunpowder and confectionery. Coal, salt and timber are prominent imports. Exports include paper, brandy, stone and agricultural products. The department is served chiefly by the Orlêans and Ouest-État railways, and the Charente is navigable below Angoulême. Charente is divided into the five arrondissements of Angoulême, Cognac, Ruffec, Barbezieux and Confolens (29 cantons, 426 communes). It belongs to the region of the XII. army corps, to the province of the archbishop of Bordeaux, and to the académie (educational division) of Poitiers. Its court of appeal is at Bordeaux.
Angoulême (the capital), Cognac, Confolens, Jarnac and La Rochefoucauld (q.v.) are the more noteworthy places in the department. Barbezieux and Ruffec, capitals of arrondissements and agricultural centres, are otherwise of little importance. The department abounds in churches of Romanesque architecture, of which those of Bassac, St Amant-de-Boixe (portions of which are Gothic in style), Plassac and Gensac-la-Pallue may be mentioned. There are remains of a Gothic abbey church at La Couronne, and Roman remains at St Cybardeaux, Brossac and Chassenon (where there are ruins of the Gallo-Roman town of Cassinomagus).
CHARENTE-INFÉRIEURE,a maritime department of south-western France, comprehending the old provinces of Saintonge and Aunis, and a small portion of Poitou, and including the islands of Ré, Oléron, Aix and Madame. Area, 2791 sq.m. Pop. (1906) 453,793. It is bounded N. by Vendée, N.E. by Deux-Sèvres, E. by Charente, S.E. by Dordogne, S.W. by Gironde and the estuary of the Gironde, and W. by the Bay of Biscay. Plains and low hills occupy the interior; the coast is flat and marshy, as are the islands (Ré, Aix, Oléron) which lie opposite to it. The department takes its name from the river Charente, which traverses it during the last 61 m. of its course and drains the central region. Its chief tributaries are on the right the Boutonne, on the left the Seugne. The climate is temperate and, except along the coast, healthy. There are several sheltered bays on the coast, and several good harbours, the chief of which are La Rochelle, Rochefort and Tonnay-Charente, the two latter some distance up the Charente. Royan on the north shore of the Gironde is an important watering-place much frequented for its bathing.
The majority of the inhabitants of Charente-Inférieure live by agriculture. The chief products of the arable land are wheat, oats, maize, barley and the potato. Horse and cattle-raising is carried on and dairying is prosperous. A considerable quantity of wine, most of which is distilled into brandy, is produced. The department has a few peat-workings, and produces freestone, lime and cement; the salt-marshes of the coast are important sources of mineral wealth. Glass, pottery, bricks and earthenware are prominent industrial products. Ship-building, brandy-distilling, iron-founding and machine construction are also carried on. Oysters and mussels are bred in the neighbourhood of La Rochelle and Marennes, and there are numerous fishing ports along the coast.
The railways traversing the department belong to the Ouest-État system, except one section of the Paris-Bordeaux line belonging to the Orléans Company. The facilities of the department for internal communication are greatly increased by the number of navigable streams which water it. The Charente, the Sèvre Niortaise, the Boutonne, the Seudre and the Gironde furnish 142 m. of navigable waterway, to which must be added the 56 m. covered by the canals of the coast. There are 6 arrondissements (40 cantons, 481 communes), cognominal with the towns of La Rochelle, Rochefort, Marennes, Saintes, Jonzac and St Jean d’Angély—La Rochelle being the chief town of the department. The department forms the diocese of La Rochelle, and is attached to the 18th military region, and in educational matters to the académie of Poitiers. Its court of appeal is at Poitiers.
La Rochelle, St Jean d’Angély, Rochefort and Saintes (q.v.) are the principal towns. Surgères and Aulnay possess fine specimens of the numerous Romanesque churches. Pons has a graceful château of the 15th and 16th centuries, beside which there rises a fine keep of the 12th century.
CHARENTON-LE-PONT,a town of northern France in the department of Seine, situated on the right bank of the Marne, at its confluence with the Seine, 1 m. S.E. of the fortifications of Paris, of which it is a suburb. Pop. (1906) 18,034. It derives the distinctive part of its name from the stone bridge of ten arches which crosses the Marne and unites the town with Alfortville, well known for its veterinary school founded in 1766. It has always been regarded as a point of great importance for the defence of the capital, and has frequently been the scene of sanguinary conflicts. The fort of Charenton on the left bank of the Marne is one of the older forts of the Paris defence. In the 16th and 17th centuries Charenton was the scene of the ecclesiastical councils of the Protestant party, which had its principal church in the town. At St Maurice adjoining Charenton is the famous Hospice de Charenton, a lunatic asylum, the foundation of which dates from 1641. Till the time of the Revolution it was used as a general hospital, and even as a prison, but from 1802 onwards it was specially appropriated to the treatment of lunacy. St Maurice has two other national establishments, one for the victims of accidents in Paris (asile national Vacassy), the other for convalescent working-men (asile national de Vincennes). Charenton has a port on the Canal de St Maurice, beside the Marne, and carries on boat-building and the manufacture of tiles and porcelain.
CHARES,Athenian general, is first heard of in 366B.C.as assisting the Phliasians, who had been attacked by Argos and Sicyon. In 361 he visited Corcyra, where he helped the oligarchs to expel the democrats, a policy which led to the subsequent defection of the island from Athens. In 357, Chares was appointed to the command in the Social War, together with Chabrias, after whose death before Chios he was associated with Iphicrates and Timotheus (for the naval battle in the Hellespont, seeTimotheus). Chares, having successfully thrown the blame for the defeat on his colleagues, was left sole commander, but receiving no supplies from Athens, took upon himself to join the revolted satrap Artabazus. A complaint from the Persian king, who threatened to send three hundred ships to the assistance of the confederates, led to the conclusion of peace (355) between Athens and her revolted allies, and the recall of Chares. In 349, he was sent to the assistance of Olynthus (q.v.) against Philip II. of Macedon, but returned without having effected anything; in the following year, when he reached Olynthus, he found it already in the hands of Philip. In 340 he was appointed to the command of a force sent to aid Byzantium against Philip, but the inhabitants, remembering his former plunderings and extortions, refused to receive him. In 338 he was defeated by Philip at Amphissa, and was one of the commanders at the disastrous battle of Chaeroneia. Lysicles, one of his colleagues, was condemned to death, while Chares does not seem to have been even accused. After the conquest of Thebes by Alexander (335), Chares is said to have been one of the Athenian orators and generals whose surrender was demanded. Two years later he was living at Sigeum, for Arrian (Anabasisi. 12) states that he went from there to pay his respects to Alexander. In 332 he entered the service of Darius and took over the command of a Persian force in Mytilene, but capitulated on the approach of a Macedonian fleet on condition of being allowed to retire unmolested. He is last heard of at Taenarum, and is supposed to have died at Sigeum. Although boastful and vain-glorious, Chares was not lacking in personal courage, and was among the best Athenian generalsof his time. At the best, however, he was “hardly more than an ordinary leader of mercenaries” (A. Holm). He openly boasted of his profligacy, was exceedingly avaricious, and his bad faith became proverbial.