[1] A tod generally equalled 28 lb.
CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY (1780-1842), American divine and
philanthropist, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on the 7th of April
1780. His maternal grandfather was William Ellery, a signer of the
Declaration of Independence; his mother, Lucy Ellery, was a remarkable
woman; and his father, William Channing, was a prominent lawyer in
Newport. Channing had as a child a refined delicacy of feature and
temperament, and seemed to have inherited from his father simple and
elegant tastes, sweetness of temper, and warmth of affection, and from
his mother that strong moral discernment and straightforward rectitude
of purpose and action which formed so striking a feature of his
character. From his earliest years he delighted in the beauty of the
scenery of Newport, and always highly estimated its influence upon his
spiritual character. His father was a strict Calvinist, and Dr Samuel
Hopkins, one of the leaders of the old school Calvinists, was a frequent
guest in his father's house. He was, even as a child, he himself says,
"quite a theologian, and would chop logic with his elders according to
the fashion of that controversial time." He prepared for college in New
London under the care of his uncle, the Rev. Henry Channing, and in
1794, about a year after the death of his father, entered Harvard
College. Before leaving New London he came under religious influences to
which he traced the beginning of his spiritual life. In his college
vacations he taught at Lancaster, Massachusetts, and in term time he
stinted himself in food that he might need less exercise and so save
time for study,--an experiment which undermined his health, producing
acute dyspepsia. From his college course he thought that he got little
good, and said "when I was in college, only three books that I read were
of any moment to me: ... Ferguson on _Civil Society_, ... Hutcheson's
_Moral Philosophy_, and Price's _Dissertations_. Price saved me from
Locke's philosophy."
After graduating in 1798, he lived at Richmond, Virginia, as tutor in
the family of David Meade Randolph, United States marshal for Virginia.
Here he renewed his ascetic habits and spent much time in theological
study, his mind being greatly disturbed in regard to Trinitarian
teachings in general and especially prayer to Jesus. He returned to
Newport in 1800 "a thin and pallid invalid," spent a year and a half
there, and in 1802 went to Cambridge as regent (or general proctor) in
Harvard; in the autumn of 1802 he began to preach, having been approved
by the Cambridge Association. On the 1st of June 1803, having refused
the more advantageous pastorate of Brattle Street church, he was
ordained pastor of the Federal Street Congregational church in Boston.
At this time it seems certain that his theological views were not fixed,
and in 1808, when he preached a sermon at the ordination of the Rev.
John Codman (1782-1847), he still applied the title "Divine Master" to
Jesus Christ, and used such expressions as "shed for souls" of the blood
of Jesus, and "the Son of God himself left the abodes of glory and
expired a victim of the cross." But his sermon preached in 1819 at
Baltimore at the ordination of the Rev. Jared Sparks was in effect a
powerful attack on Trinitarianism, and was followed in 1819 by an
article in _The Christian Disciple_, "Objections to Unitarian
Christianity Considered," and in 1820 by another, "The Moral Argument
against Calvinism"--an excellent evidence of the moral (rather than the
intellectual) character of Unitarian protest. In 1814 he had married a
rich cousin, Ruth Gibbs, but refused to make use of the income from her
property on the ground that clergymen were so commonly accused of
marrying for money.
He was now entering on his public career. Even in 1810, in a Fast Day
sermon, he warned his congregation of Bonaparte's ambition; two years
later he deplored "this country taking part with the oppressor against
that nation which has alone arrested his proud career of victory"; in
1814 he preached a thanksgiving sermon for the overthrow of Napoleon;
and in 1816 he preached a sermon on war which led to the organization of
the Massachusetts Peace Society. His sermon on "Religion, a Social
Principle," helped to procure the omission from the state constitution
of the third article of Part I., which made compulsory a tax for the
support of religious worship. In 1821 he delivered the Dudleian lecture
on the "Evidences of Revealed Religion" at Harvard, of whose corporation
he had been a member since 1813; he had received its degree of S.T.D. in
1820. In August 1821 he undertook a journey to Europe, in the course of
which he met in England many distinguished men of letters, especially
Wordsworth and Coleridge. Both of these poets greatly influenced him
personally and by their writings, and he prophesied that the Lake poets
would be one of the greatest forces in a forming spiritual reform.
Coleridge wrote of him, "He has the love of wisdom and the wisdom of
love."
On his return to America in August 1823, Dr Channing resumed his duties
as pastor, but with a more decided attention than before to literature
and public affairs, especially after receiving as colleague, in 1824,
the Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett. In 1830, because of his wife's bad health,
Channing went to the West Indies. Negro slavery, as he saw it there, and
as he had seen it in Richmond, more than thirty years before, so
strongly impressed him that he began to write his book _Slavery_ (1835).
In this he insists that "not what is profitable, but what is right" is
"the first question to be proposed by a rational being"; that slavery
ought to be discussed "with a deep feeling of responsibility, and so
done as not to put in jeopardy the peace of the slave-holding states";
that "man cannot be justly held and used as property"; that the tendency
of slavery is morally, intellectually, and domestically, bad; that
emancipation, however, should not be forced on slave-holders by
governmental interference, but by an enlightened public conscience in
the South (and in the North), if for no other reason, because "slavery
should be succeeded by a friendly relation between master and slave; and
to produce this the latter must see in the former his benefactor and
deliverer." He declined to identify himself with the Abolitionists,
whose motto was "Immediate Emancipation" and whose passionate agitation
he thought unsuited to the work they were attempting. The moderation and
temperance of his presentation of the anti-slavery cause naturally
resulted in some misunderstanding and misstatement of his position, such
as is to be found in Mrs Chapman's _Appendix_ to the _Autobiography of
Harriet Martineau_, where Channing is represented as actually using his
influence on behalf of slavery. In 1837 he published _Thoughts on the
Evils of a Spirit of Conquest, and on Slavery: A Letter on the
Annexation of Texas to the United States_, addressed to Henry Clay, and
arguing that the Texan revolt from Mexican rule was largely the work of
land-speculators, and of those who resolved "to throw Texas open to
slave-holders and slaves"; that the results of annexation must be war
with Mexico, embroiling the United States with England and other
European powers, and at home the extension and perpetuation of slavery,
not alone in Texas but in other territories which the United States,
once started at conquest, would force into the Union. But he still
objected to political agitation by the Abolitionists, preferring
"unremitting appeals to the reason and conscience," and, even after the
prominent part he took in the meeting in Faneuil Hall, called to protest
against the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, he wrote to _The Liberator_,
counselling the Abolitionists to "disavow this resort to force by Mr
Lovejoy." Channing's pamphlet _Emancipation_ (1840) dealt with the
success of emancipation in the West Indies, as related in Joseph John
Gurney's _Familiar Letters to Henry Clay of Kentucky, describing a
Winter in the West Indies_ (1840), and added his own advice "that we
should each of us bear our conscientious testimony against slavery," and
that the Free States "abstain as rigidly from the use of political power
against Slavery in the States where it is established, as from
exercising it against Slavery in foreign communities," and should free
themselves "from any obligation to use the powers of the national or
state governments in any manner whatever for the support of slavery." In
1842 he published _The Duty of the Free States_, or _Remarks Suggested
by the Case of the Creole_, a careful analysis of the letter of
complaint from the American to the British government, and a defence of
the position taken by the British government. On the 1st of August 1842
he delivered at Lenox, Massachusetts, an address celebrating the
anniversary of emancipation in the British West Indies. Two months
later, on the 2nd of October 1842, he died at Bennington, Vermont.
Physically Channing was short and slight; his eyes were unnaturally
large; his voice wonderfully clear, and like his face, filled with
devotional spirit. He was not a great pastor, and lacked social tact, so
that there were not many people who became his near friends; but by the
few who knew him well, he was almost worshipped. As a preacher Channing
was often criticised for his failure to deal with the practical everyday
duties of life. But his sermons are remarkable for their rare simplicity
and gracefulness of style as well as for the thought that they express.
The first open defence of Unitarians was not based on doctrinal
differences but on the peculiar nature of the attack on them made in
June 1815 by the conservatives in the columns of _The Panoplist_, where
it was stated that Unitarians were "operating only in secret, ... guilty
of hypocritical concealment of their sentiments." His chief objection to
the doctrine of the Trinity (as stated in his sermon at the ordination
of the Rev. Jared Sparks) was that it was no longer used
philosophically, as showing God's relation to the triple nature of man,
but that it had lapsed into mere Tritheism. To the name "Unitarian"
Channing objected strongly, thinking "unity" as abstract a word as
"trinity" and as little expressing the close fatherly relation of God to
man. It is to be noted that he strongly objected to the growth of
"Unitarian orthodoxy" and its increasing narrowness. His views as to the
divinity of Jesus were based on phrases in the Gospels which to his mind
established Christ's admission of inferiority to God the Father,--for
example, "Knoweth no man, neither the Son, but the Father"; at the same
time he regarded Christ as "the sinless and spotless son of God,
distinguished from all men by that infinite peculiarity--freedom from
moral evil." He believed in the pre-existence of Jesus, and that it
differed from the pre-existence of other souls in that Jesus was
actually conscious of such pre-existence, and he reckoned him one with
God the Father in the sense of spiritual union (and not metaphysical
mystery) in the same way that Jesus bade his disciples "Be ye one, even
as I am one." Bunsen called him "the prophet in the United States for
the presence of God in mankind." Channing believed in historic
Christianity and in the story of the resurrection, "a fact which comes
to me with a certainty I find in few ancient histories." He also
believed in the miracles of the Gospels, but held that the Scriptures
were not inspired, but merely records of inspiration, and so saw the
possibility of error in the construction put upon miracles by the
ignorant disciples. But in only a few instances did he refuse full
credence of the plain gospel narrative of miracles. He held, however,
that the miracles were facts and not "evidences" of Christianity, and he
considered that belief in them followed and did not lead up to belief in
Christianity. His character was absolutely averse from controversy of
any sort, and in controversies into which he was forced he was free from
any theological odium and continually displayed the greatest breadth and
catholicity of view. The differences in New England churches he
considered were largely verbal, and he said that "would Trinitarians
tell us what they mean, their system would generally be found little
else than a mystical form of the Unitarian doctrine."
His opposition to Calvinism was so great that even in 1812 he declared
"existence a curse" if Calvinism be true. Possibly his boldest and most
elaborate defence of Unitarianism was his sermon on _Unitarianism most
favourable to Piety_, preached in 1826, criticizing as it did the
doctrine of atonement by the sacrifice of an "infinite substitute"; and
the Election Sermon of 1830 was his greatest plea for spiritual and
intellectual freedom.
Channing's reputation as an author was probably based largely on his
publication in _The Christian Examiner_ of _Remarks on the Character and
Writings of John Milton_ (1826), _Remarks on the Life and Character of
Napoleon Bonaparte_ (1827-1828), and an _Essay on the Character and
Writings of Fenelon_ (1829). An _Essay on Self-Culture_ (1838) was an
address introducing the Franklin Lectures delivered in Boston September
1838. Channing was an intimate friend of Horace Mann, and his views on
the education of children are stated, by no less an authority than
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, to have anticipated those of Froebel. His
_Complete Works_ have appeared in various editions (5 vols., Boston,
1841; 2 vols., London, 1865; 1 vol., New York, 1875).
Among members of his family may be mentioned his two nephews William
Henry (1810-1884), son of his brother Francis Dana, and William Ellery,
commonly known as Ellery (1818-1901), son of his brother Walter, a
Boston physician (1786-1876). The former, whose daughter married Sir
Edwin Arnold, the English poet, became a Unitarian pastor, for some
time in America, and also in England, where he died; he was deeply
interested in Christian Socialism, and was a constant writer,
translating Jouffroy's _Ethics_ (1840), and assisting in editing the
_Memoirs of Margaret Fuller_ (1852); and he wrote the biography of his
uncle (see O.B. Frothingham's _Memoir_, 1886). Ellery Channing married
Margaret Fuller's sister (1842), and besides critical essays and poems
published an intimate sketch of Thoreau in 1873.
See the _Memoir_ by William Henry Channing (3 vols., London, 1848;
republished in one volume, New York, 1880); Elizabeth Palmer Peabody,
_Reminiscences of the Rev. William Ellery Channing, D.D_. (Boston,
1880), intimate but inexact; John White Chadwick, _William Ellery
Channing, Minister of Religion_ (Boston, 1903); and William M. Salter,
"Channing as a Social Reformer" (_Unitarian Review_, March 1888).
(R. We.)
CHANSONS DE GESTE, the name given to the epic chronicles which take so
prominent a place in the literature of France from the 11th to the 15th
century. Gaston Paris defined a chanson de geste as a song the subject
of which is a series of historical facts or _gesta_. These facts form
the centre around which are grouped sets of poems, called cycles, and
hence the two terms have in modern criticism become synonymous for the
epic family to which the hero of the particular group or cycle belongs.
The earliest chansons de geste were founded on the fusion of the
Teutonic spirit, under a Roman form, into the new Christian and French
civilization. It seems probable that as early as the 9th century epic
poems began to be chanted by the itinerant minstrels who are known as
jongleurs. It is conjectured that in a base Latin fragment of the 10th
century we possess a translation of a poem on the siege of Girona.
Gaston Paris dates from this lost epic the open expression of what he
calls "the epic fermentation" of France. But the earliest existing
chanson de geste is also by far the noblest and most famous, the
_Chanson de Roland_; the conjectural date of the composition of this
poem has been placed between the years 1066 and 1095. That the author,
as has been supposed, was one of the conquerors of England, it is
perhaps rash to assert, but undoubtedly the poem was composed before the
First Crusade, and the writer lived at or near the sanctuary of Mont
Saint-Michel. The _Chanson de Roland_ stands at the head of modern
French literature, and its solidity and grandeur give a dignity to the
whole class of poetry of which it is the earliest and by far the noblest
example. But it is in the crowd of looser and later poems, less fully
characterized, less steeped in the individuality of their authors, that
we can best study the form of the typical chanson de geste. These epics
sprang from the soil of France; they were national and historical; their
anonymous writers composed them spontaneously, to a common model, with
little regard to the artificial niceties of style. The earlier examples,
which succeed the _Roland_, are unlike that great work in having no
plan, no system of composition. They are improvisations which wander on
at their own pace, whither accident may carry them. This mass of
medieval literature is monotonous, primitive and superficial. As Leon
Gautier has said, in the rudimentary psychology of the chansons de
geste, man is either entirely good or entirely bad. There are no fine
shades, no observation of character. The language in which these poems
are composed is extremely simple, without elaboration, without ornament.
Everything is sacrificed to the telling of a story by a narrator of
little skill, who helps himself along by means of a picturesque, but
almost childish fancy, and a primitive sentiment of rhythm. Two great
merits, however, all the best of these poems possess, force and
lucidity; and they celebrate, what they did much to create, that
unselfish elevation of temper which we call the spirit of chivalry.
Perhaps the most important cycle of chansons de geste was that which was
collected around the name of Charlemagne, and was known as the _Geste du
roi_. A group of this cycle dealt with the history of the mother of the
emperor, and with Charlemagne himself down to the coming of Roland. To
this group belong _Bertha Greatfoot_ and _Aspremont_, both of the 12th
century, and a variety of chansons dealing with the childhood of
Charlemagne and of Ogier the Dane. A second group deals with the
struggle of Charlemagne with his rebellious vassals. This is what has
been defined as the Feudal Epic; it includes _Girars de Viane_ and
_Ogier the Dane_, both of the 13th century, or the end of the 12th. A
third group follows Charlemagne and his peers to the East. It is in the
principal of these poems, _The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem_, that
Alexandrine verse first makes its appearance in French literature. This
must belong to the beginning of the 12th century. A fourth group,
antecedent to the Spanish war, is of the end of the 12th century and the
beginning of the 13th; it includes _Aiquin_, _Fierabras_ and _Otinel_.
The fifth class discusses the war in Spain, and it is to this that
_Roland_ belongs; there are different minor epics dealing with the
events of Roncevaux, and independent chansons of _Gui de Bourgogne_,
_Gaidon_ and _Anseis de Carthage_. The _Geste du Roi_ comprises a sixth
and last group, proceeding with events up to the death of Charlemagne;
this contains _Huon de Bordeaux_ and a vast number of poems of minor
originality and importance.
Another cycle is that of Duke William Shortnose, _La Geste de
Guillaume_. This includes the very early and interesting _Departure of
the Aimeri Children_, _Aliscans_ and _Rainoart_. It is thought that this
cycle, which used to be called the _Geste de Garin de Monglane_, is less
artificial than the others; it deals with the heroes of the South who
remained faithful in their vassalage to the throne. The poems belonging
to this cycle are extremely numerous, and some of them are among the
earliest which survive. These chansons find their direct opposites in
those which form the great cycle of _La Geste de Doon de Mayence_,
sometimes called "la faulse geste," because it deals with the feats of
the traitors, of the rebellious family of Ganelon. This is the geste of
the Northmen, always hostile to the Carlovingian dynasty. It comprises
some of the most famous of the chansons, in particular _Parise la
duchesse_ and _The Four Sons of Aymon_. Several of its sections are the
production of a known poet, Raimbert of Paris. From this triple division
of the main body of the chansons de geste into _La Geste du Roi_, _La
Geste de Guillaume_ and _La Geste de Doon_, are excluded certain poems
of minor importance,--some provincial, such as _Amis and Amiles_ and
_Garin_, some dealing with the Crusades, such as _Antioche_, and some
which are not connected with any existing cycle, such as _Ciperis de
Vignevaux_; most of this last category, however, are works of the
decadence.
The analysis which is here sketched is founded on the latest theories of
Leon Gautier, who has given the labour of a lifetime to the
investigation of this subject. The wealth of material is baffling to the
ordinary student; of the medieval chansons de geste many hundreds of
thousands of lines have been preserved. The habit of composing became in
the 14th century, as has been said, no longer an art but a monomania.
Needless to add that a very large proportion of the surviving poems have
never yet been published. All the best of the early chansons de geste
are written in ten-syllable verse, divided into stanzas or _laisses_ of
different length, united by a single assonance. Rhyme came in with the
13th century, and had the effect in languid bards of weakening the
narrative; the sing-song of it led at last to the abandonment of verse
in favour of plain historical prose. The general character of the
chansons de geste, especially of those of the 12th century, is hard,
coarse, inflexible, like the march of rough men stiffened by coats of
mail. There is no art and little grace, but a magnificent display of
force. These poems enshrine the self-sufficiency of a young and powerful
people; they are full of Gallic pride, they breathe the spirit of an
indomitable warlike energy. All their figures belong to the same social
order of things, and all illustrate the same fighting aristocracy. The
moving principle is that of chivalry, and what is presented is,
invariably, the spectacle of the processional life of a medieval
soldier. The age described is a disturbed one; the feudal anarchy of
Europe is united, for a moment, in defending western civilization
against the inroads of Asia, against "the yellow peril." But it is a
time of transition in Europe also, and Charlemagne, the immortal but
enfeebled emperor, whose beard is whiter than lilies, represents an old
order of things against which the rude barons of the North are
perpetually in successful revolt. The loud cry of the dying Ronald, as
E. Quinet said, rings through the whole poetical literature of medieval
France; it is the voice of the individuality of the great vassal, who,
in the decay of the empire, stands alone with himself and with his
sword.
AUTHORITIES,--Leon Gautier, _Les Epopees francaises_ (4 vols.,
1878-1894); Gaston Paris, _La Litterature francaise au moyen age_
(1890); Paul Meyer, _Recherches sur l'epopee francaise_ (1867); G.
Paris, _Histoire poetique de Charlemagne_ (1865); A. Longnon, _Les
Quatre Fits Aimon_, &c. (1879). (E. G.)
CHANT (derived through the Fr. from the Lat. _cantare_, to sing; an old
form is "chaunt"), a song or melody, particularly one sung according to
the rules of church service-books. For an account of the chant or
_cantus firmus_ of the Roman Church see PLAIN-SONG. In the English
church "chants" are the tunes set to the unmetrical verses of the psalms
and canticles. The chant consisted of an "intonation" followed by a
reciting note of indefinite length; a "mediation" closed the first part
of the verse, leading to a second reciting note; a "termination" closed
the second part of the verse. In the English chant the "intonation"
disappeared. Chants are "single," if written for one verse only,
"double," if for two. "Quadruple" chants for four verses have also been
written.
CHANTABUN, or CHANTABURI, the principal town of the Siamese province of
the same name, on the E. side of the Gulf of Siam, in 102 deg. 6' E., 12
deg. 38' N. Pop. about 5000. The town lies about 12 m. from the sea on a
river which is navigable for boats and inside the bar of which there is
good anchorage for light-draft vessels. The trade is chiefly in rubies
and sapphires from the mines of the Krat and Pailin districts, and in
pepper, of which about 500 tons are exported annually. Cardamoms and
rosewood are also exported. In 1905 Chantabun was made the headquarters
of a high commissioner with jurisdiction extending over the coast
districts from the Nam Wen on the East to Cape Liant on the West, which
were thus united to form a provincial division (_Monton_). In 1893
Chantabun was occupied by a French force of four hundred men, a step
taken by France as a guarantee for the execution by Siam of undertakings
entered into by the treaty of that year. The occupation, which was
merely military and did not affect the civil government, lasted until
January 1905, when, in accordance with the provisions of the
Franco-Siamese treaty of 1904, the garrison of occupation was withdrawn.
Chantabun has been since the 17th century, and still is, a stronghold of
the Roman Catholic missionaries, and the Christian element amongst the
population is greater here than anywhere else in Siam.
CHANTADA, a town of north-western Spain, in the province of Lugo, on the
left bank of the Rio de Chantada, a small right-hand tributary of the
river Mino, and on the main road from Orerse, 18 m. S. by W., to Lugo,
28 m. N. by E. Pop. (1900) 15,003. Chantada is the chief town of the
fertile region between the Mino and the heights of El Faro, which mark
the western border of the province. Despite the lack of railway
communication, it has a thriving trade in grain, flax, hemp, and dairy
produce.
CHANTAGE (a Fr. word from _chanter_, to sing, slang for a criminal
making an avowal under examination), a demand for money backed by the
threat of scandalous revelations, the French equivalent of "blackmail."
CHANTARELLE, an edible fungus, known botanically as _Cantharellus
cibarius_, found in woods in summer. It is golden yellow, somewhat
inversely conical in shape and about 2 in. broad and high. The cap is
flattened above with a central depression and a thick lobed irregular
margin. Running down into the stem from the cap are a number of shallow
thick gills. The substance of the fungus is dry and opaque with a
peculiar smell suggesting ripe apricots or plums. The flesh is whitish
tinged with yellow. The chantarelle is sold in the markets on the
continent of Europe, where it forms a regular article of food, but seems
little known in Britain though often plentiful in the New Forest and
elsewhere. Before being cooked they should be allowed to dry, and then
thrown into boiling water. They may then be stewed in butter or oil, or
cut up small and stewed with meat. No fungus requires more careful
preparation.
See M.C. Cooke, _British Edible Fungi_, (1891), pp. 104-105.
CHANTAVOINE, HENRI (1850- ), French man of letters, was born at
Montpellier on the 6th of August 1850, and was educated at the Ecole
Normale Superieure. After teaching in the provinces he moved, in 1876,
to the Lycee Charlemagne in Paris, and subsequently became professor of
rhetoric at the Lycee Henri IV. and _maitre de conferences_ at the Ecole
Normale at Sevres. He was associated with the _Nouvelle Revue_ from its
foundation in 1879, and he joined the _Journal des debats_ in 1884. His
poems include _Poemes sinceres_ (1877), _Satires contemporaines_ (1881),
_Ad memoriam_ (1884), _Au fil des jours_ (1889).
CHANTILLY, a town of northern France, in the department of Oise, 25 m.
N. of Paris on the Northern railway to St Quentin. Pop. (1906) 4632. It
is finely situated to the north of the forest of Chantilly and on the
left bank of the river Nonette, and is one of the favourite Parisian
resorts. Its name was long associated with the manufacture, which has
now to a great extent decayed, of lace and blonde; it is still more
celebrated for its chateau and its park (laid out originally by A. Le
Notre in the second half of the 17th century), and as the scene of the
great annual races of the French Jockey Club. The chateau consists of
the palace built from 1876 to 1885 and of an older portion adjoining it
known as the chatelet. The old castle must have been in existence in the
13th century, and in the reign of Charles VI. the lordship belonged to
Pierre d'Orgemont, chancellor of France. In 1484 it passed to the house
of Montmorency, and in 1632 from that family to the house of Conde.
Louis II., prince de Conde, surnamed the Great, was specially attached
to the place, and did a great deal to enhance its beauty and splendour.
Here he enjoyed the society of La Bruyere, Racine, Moliere, La Fontaine,
Boileau, and other great men of his time; and here his steward Vatel
killed himself in despair, because of a hitch in the preparations for
the reception of Louis XIV. The stables close to the racecourse were
built from 1719 to 1735 by Louis-Henri, duke of Bourbon. Of the two
splendid mansions existing at that period known as the grand chateau and
the chatelet, the former was destroyed about the time of the Revolution,
but the latter, built for Anne de Montmorency by Jean Bullant, still
remains as one of the finest specimens of Renaissance architecture in
France. The chateau d'Enghien, facing the entrance to the grand chateau,
was built in 1770 as a guest-house. On the death in 1830 of the duke of
Bourbon, the last representative of the house of Conde, the estate
passed into the hands of Henri, duc d'Aumale, fourth son of Louis
Philippe. In 1852 the house of Orleans was declared incapable of
possessing property in France, and Chantilly was accordingly sold by
auction. Purchased by the English bankers, Coutts & Co., it passed back
into the hands of the duc d'Aumale, in 1872. By him a magnificent
palace, including a fine chapel in the Renaissance style, was erected on
the foundations of the ancient grand chateau and in the style of the
chatelet. It is quadrilateral in shape, consisting of four unequal sides
flanked by towers and built round a courtyard. The whole group of
buildings as well as the pleasure-ground behind them, known as the
Parterre de la Voliere, is surrounded by fosses supplied with water from
the Nonette. On the terrace in front of the chateau there is a bronze
statue of the constable Anne de Montmorency. The duc d'Aumale installed
in the chatelet a valuable library, specially rich in incunabula and
16th century editions of classic authors, and a collection of the
paintings of the great masters, besides many other objects of art. By a
public act in 1886 he gave the park and chateau with its superb
collections to the Institute of France in trust for the nation,
reserving to himself only a life interest; and when he died in 1897 the
Institute acquired full possession.
CHANTREY, SIR FRANCIS LEGATT (1782-1841), English sculptor, was born on
the 7th of April 1782 at Norton near Sheffield, where his father, a
carpenter, cultivated a small farm. His father died when he was eight
years of age; and his mother having married again, his profession was
left to be chosen by his friends. In his sixteenth year he was on the
point of being apprenticed to a grocer in Sheffield, when, having seen
some wood-carving in a shop-window, he requested to be made a carver
instead, and was accordingly placed with a Mr Ramsey, wood-carver in
Sheffield. In this situation he became acquainted with Raphael Smith, a
distinguished draftsman in crayon, who gave him lessons in painting; and
Chantrey, eager to commence his course as an artist, procured the
cancelling of his indentures, and went to try his fortune in Dublin and
Edinburgh, and finally (1802) in London. Here he first obtained
employment as an assistant wood-carver, but at the same time devoted
himself to portrait-painting, bust-sculpture, and modelling in clay. He
exhibited pictures at the Academy for some years from 1804, but from
1807 onwards devoted himself mainly to sculpture. The sculptor Nollekens
showed particular zeal in recognizing his merits. In 1807 he married his
cousin, Miss Wale, who had some property of her own. His first
imaginative work in sculpture was the model of the head of Satan, which
was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1808. He afterwards executed for
Greenwich hospital four colossal busts of the admirals Duncan, Howe,
Vincent and Nelson; and so rapidly did his reputation spread that the
next bust which he executed, that of Horne Tooke, procured him
commissions to the extent of L12,000. From this period he was almost
uninterruptedly engaged in professional labour. In 1819 he visited
Italy, and became acquainted with the most distinguished sculptors of
Florence and Rome. He was chosen an associate (1815) and afterwards a
member (1818) of the Royal Academy, received the degree of M.A. from
Cambridge, and that of D.C.L. from Oxford, and in 1835 was knighted. He
died after an illness of only two hours' duration on the 25th of
November 1841, having for some years suffered from disease of the heart,
and was buried in a tomb constructed by himself in the church of his
native village.
The works of Chantrey are extremely numerous. The principal are the
statues of Washington in the State-house at Boston, U.S.A.; of George
III. in the Guildhall, London; of George IV. at Brighton; of Pitt in
Hanover Square, London; of James Watt in Westminster Abbey and in
Glasgow; of Roscoe and Canning in Liverpool; of Dalton in Manchester; of
Lord President Blair and Lord Melville in Edinburgh, &c. Of his
equestrian statues the most famous are those of Sir Thomas Munro in
Calcutta, and the duke of Wellington in front of the London Exchange.
But the finest of Chantrey's works are his busts, and his delineations
of children. The figures of two children asleep in each other's arms,
which form a monumental design in Lichfield cathedral, have always been
lauded for beauty, simplicity and grace. So is also the statue of the
girlish Lady Louisa Russell, represented as standing on tiptoe and
fondling a dove in her bosom. Both these works appear, in design, to
have owed something to Stothard; for Chantrey knew his own scantiness of
ideal invention or composition, and on system sought aid from others for
such attempts. In busts, his leading excellence is facility--a ready
unconstrained air of life, a prompt vivacity of ordinary expression.
Allan Cunningham and Weekes were his chief assistants, and were indeed
the active executants of many works that pass under Chantrey's name.
Chantrey was a man of warm and genial temperament, and is said to have
borne noticeable though commonplace resemblance to the usual portraits
of Shakespeare.
_Chantrey Bequest._--By the will dated the 31st of December 1840,
Chantrey (who had no children) left his whole residuary personal estate
after the decease or on the second marriage of his widow (less certain
specified annuities and bequests) in trust for the president and
trustees of the Royal Academy (or in the event of the dissolution of the
Royal Academy, to such society as might take its place), the income to
be devoted to the encouragement of British fine art in painting and
sculpture only, by "the purchase of works of fine art of the highest
merit ... that can be obtained." The funds might be allowed to
accumulate for not more than five years; works by British or foreign
artists, dead or living, might be acquired, so long as such works were
entirely executed within the shores of Great Britain, the artists having
been in residence there during such execution and completion. The prices
to be paid were to be "liberal," and no sympathy for an artist or his
family was to influence the selection or the purchase of works, which
were to be acquired solely on the ground of intrinsic merit. No
commission or orders might be given: the works must be finished before
purchase. Conditions were made as to the exhibition of the works, in the
confident expectation that as the intention of the testator was to form
and establish a "public collection of British Fine Art in Painting and
Sculpture," the government or the country would provide a suitable
gallery for their display; and an annual sum of L300 and L50 was to be
paid to the president of the Royal Academy and the secretary
respectively, for the discharge of their duties in carrying out the
provisions of the will.
Lady Chantrey died in 1875, and two years later the fund became
available for the purchase of paintings and sculptures. The capital sum
available amounted to L105,000 in 3% Consols, which (since reduced to
2-1/2%) produces an available annual income varying from L2500 to L2100.
Galleries in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington were at
first adopted as the depository of the works acquired, until in 1898 the
Royal Academy arranged with the treasury, on behalf of the government,
for the transference of the collection to the National Gallery of
British Art, which had been erected by Sir Henry Tate at Millbank. It
was agreed that the "Tate Gallery" should be its future home, and that
"no power of selection or elimination is claimed on behalf of the
trustees and director of the National Gallery" (Treasury Letter,
18054-98, 7th December 1898) in respect of the pictures and sculptures
which were then to be handed over and which should, from time to time,
be sent to augment the collection. Inasmuch as it was felt that the
provision that all works must be complete to be eligible for purchase
militated against the most advantageous disposition of the fund in
respect of sculpture, in the case of wax models or plaster casts before
being converted into marble or bronze, it was sought in the action of
_Sir F. Leighton_ v. _Hughes_ (tried by Mr Justice North, judgment May
7th, 1888, and in the court of appeal, before the master of the rolls,
Lord Justice Cotton, and Lord Justice Fry, judgment June 4th, 1889--the
master of the rolls dissenting) to allow of sculptors being commissioned
to complete in bronze or marble a work executed in wax or plaster, such
"completion" being more or less a mechanical process. The attempt,
however, was abortive.
A growing discontent with the interpretation put by the Royal Academy
upon the terms of the will as shown in the works acquired began to find
expression more than usually forcible and lively in the press during the
year 1903, and a debate raised in the House of Lords by the earl of
Lytton led to the appointment of a select committee of the House of
Lords, which sat from June to August 1904. The committee consisted of
the earls of Carlisle, Lytton, and Crewe, and Lords Windsor,
Ribblesdale, Newton, and Killanin, and the witnesses represented the
Royal Academy and representative art institutions and art critics. The
report (ordered to be printed on the 8th of August 1904) made certain
recommendations with a view to the prevention of certain former errors
of administration held to have been sustained, but dismissed other
charges against the Academy. In reply thereto a memorandum was issued by
the Royal Academy (February 1905, ordered to be printed on the 7th of
August 1905--Paper 166) disagreeing with certain recommendations, but
allowing others, either intact or in a modified form.
Up to 1905 inclusive 203 works had been bought--all except two from
living painters--at a cost of nearly L68,000. Of these, 175 were in
oil-colours, 12 in water-colours, and 16 sculptures (10 in bronze and 6
marble).
See _The Administration of the Chantrey Bequest_, by D.S. MacColl
(l6mo, London, 1904), a highly controversial publication by the
leading assailant of the Royal Academy: _Chantrey and His Bequest_, by
Arthur Fish, a complete illustrated record of the purchases, &c.
(London, 1904); _The Royal Academy, its Uses and Abuses_, by H.J.
Laidlay (London, 1898), controversial; _Report from the Select
Committee of the House of Lords on the Chantrey Trust; together with
the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence and Appendix_
(Wyman & Sons, 1904), and _Index_ (separate publication, 1904).
CHANT ROYAL, one of the fixed forms of verse invented by the ingenuity
of the poets of medieval France. It is composed of five strophes,
identical in arrangement, of eleven verses each, and of an envoi of five
verses. All the strophes are written on the five rhymes exhibited in the
first strophe, the entire poem, therefore, consisting of sixty lines in
the course of which five rhymes are repeated. It has been conjectured
that the chant royal is an extended ballade, or rather a ballade
conceived upon a larger scale; but which form preceded the other appears
to be uncertain. On this point Henri de Croi, who wrote about these
forms of verse in his _Art et science de rhetorique_ (1493), throws no
light. He dwells, however, on the great dignity of what he calls the
"Champt Royal," and says that those who defy with success the ardour of
its rules deserve crowns and garlands for their pains. Etienne Pasquier
(1529-1615) points out the fact that the Chant Royal, by its length and
the rigidity of its structure, is better fitted than the ballade for
solemn and pompous themes. In Old French, the most admired chants royal
are those of Clement Marot; his _Chant royal chrestien_, with its
refrain
"Sante au corps, et Paradis a l'ame,"
was celebrated. Theodore de Banville defines the chant royal as
essentially belonging to ages of faith, when its subjects could be
either the exploits of a hero of royal race or the processional
splendours of religion. La Fontaine was the latest of the French poets
to attempt the chant royal, until it was resuscitated in modern times.
This species of poem was unknown in English medieval literature and was
only introduced into Great Britain in the last quarter of the 19th
century. The earliest chant royal in English was that published by
Edmund Gosse in 1877; it is here given to exemplify the structure and
rhyme-arrangement of the form:--