endeavoured to
persuade any one of their genuineness, though he had hopes of the
patronage of Sir Robert Walpole, he left Bristol for London, and made
vehement efforts with his pen to bespeak regard, but failed; grew
desperate, and committed suicide at the early age of 18 (1752-1770).

CHAUCER, GEOFFREY, the great early English poet, and father of
English poetry, the son of a vintner and taverner, born probably in
London, where he lived almost all his days; when a lad, served as page in
the royal household; won the favour and patronage of the king, Edward
III. and his son, John of Gaunt, who pensioned him; served in an
expedition to France; was made prisoner, but ransomed by the king; was
often employed on royal embassies, in particular to Italy; held
responsible posts at home; was thus a man of the world as well as a man
of letters; he comes first before us as a poet in 1369; his poetic powers
developed gradually, and his best and ripest work, which occupied him at
intervals from 1373 to 1400, is his "CANTERBURY TALES" (q. v.),
characterised by Stopford Brooke as "the best example of English
story-telling we possess"; besides which he wrote, among other
compositions, "The Life of St. Cecilia," "Troilus and Cressida," the
"House of Fame," and the "Legend of Good Women"; his influence on English
literature has been compared to that of Dante on Italian, and his
literary life has been divided into three periods--the French, the
Italian, and the English, according as the spirit of it was derived from
a foreign or a native source (1340-1400).

CHAUMETTE, PIERRE GASPARD, a violent member of the extreme party in
the French Revolution, could "recognise the suspect from the very face of
them"; provoked the disgust of even Robespierre, and was arrested amid
jeers and guillotined (1763-1794).

CHAUTAUQUA, a summer resort on a lake of the name in the W. of New
York State, centre of a novel institution, which prescribes a four years'
course of private readings, and grants diplomas to those who anywhere
achieve it.

CHAUVINISM, a name among the French for what is known as Jingoism
among the English, i. e. an extravagant zeal for the glory of one's
country or party, from one _Chauvin_, who made threatening displays of
his devotion to Napoleon after his fall in 1815.

CHEDDAR, a village in Somersetshire, on the Mendip Hills, famous for
its cheese.

CHEKE, SIR JOHN, a zealous Greek scholar, born at Cambridge, and
fir