Vulgaria; also four volumes of a smaller size, which he lettered Penny Witticisms, Penny Merriments, Penny Compliments and Penny Godlinesses. The early chapbooks were the direct descendants of the black-letter tracts of Wynkyn de Worde. It was in France that the printing-press first began to supply reading for the common people. At the end of the 15th century there was a large popular literature of farces, tales in verse and prose, satires, almanacs, &c., stitched together so as to contain a few leaves, and circulated by itinerant booksellers, known as colporteurs. Most early English chapbooks are adaptations or translations of these French originals, and were introduced into England early in the 16th century. The chapbooks of the 17th century present us with valuable illustrations of the manners of the time; one of the best known is that containing the story of Dick Whittington. Others which had a great vogue are Jack the Giant Killer, Little Red Riding Hood, and Mother Shipton. Those of the 18th century are far inferior in every way, both as regards the literature and the printing; and unfortunately it is these which form the bulk of what is now known to us in collections as chapbooks. They have never exercised any great influence in England nor received much attention, owing no doubt to their poor literary character. In France, on the other hand, their French equivalents have been the object of close and systematic study, and L’Histoire des livres populaires ou de la littérature du colportage by Charles Nisard (1854) goes deeply into the subject. Amongst English books may be mentioned Notices of Fugitive Tracts and Chapbooks, by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps (1849); Chapbooks of the 18th Century, by John Ashton (1882), and some reprints by the Villon Society in 1885. The word “chapbook” has not been noticed earlier than 1824, when Dibdin, the celebrated bibliographer, described a work as being “a chapbook, printed in rather a neat black-letter.”
CHAPE (from the Fr. chape, a hood, cope or sheath), a cover or metal plate, such as the cap upon the needle in the compass, also the transverse guard of a sword which protects the hand. From the original meaning comes the use of the word as a support or catch to attach one thing to another, as the hook on a belt to which the sword is fastened. The word is also used for the tip of a fox’s brush.
CHAPEL, a place of religious worship,[1] a name properly applied to that of a Christian religious body, but sometimes to any small temple of pagan worship (Lat. sacellum). The word is derived through the O. Fr. chapele, modern chapelle, from the Late Lat. capelle or cappella, diminutive of cappa, a cape, particularly that of a monk. This word was transferred to any sanctuary containing relics, in the early history of the Frankish Church, because the cloak of St Martin, cappa brevior Sancti Martini, one of the most sacred relics of the Frankish kings, was carried in a sanctuary or shrine wherever the king went; and oaths were taken on it (see Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. Capella). Such a sanctuary was served by a priest, who was hence called capellanus, from which is derived the English “chaplain” (q.v.). The strict application of the word to a sanctuary containing relics was extended to embrace any place of worship other than a church, and it was synonymous, therefore, with “oratory” (oratorium), especially one attached to a palace or to a private dwelling-house. The celebrated Sainte Chapelle in Paris, attached to what is now the Palais de Justice, well illustrates the early and proper meaning of the word. It was built (consecration, 1248) by St Louis of France to contain the relic of the Crown of Thorns, ransomed by the king from the Venetians, who held it in pawn from the Latin emperor of the East, John of Brienne, lately dead. The chapel served as the sanctuary of the relic lodged in the upper chapel, and the whole building was attached as the place of worship to the king’s palace. This, the primary meaning, survives in the chapels usually placed in the aisles of cathedrals and large churches. They were originally built either to contain relics of a particular saint to whom they were dedicated, or the tomb of a particular family.
In the Church of England the word is applied to a private place of worship, attached either to the palaces of the sovereign, “chapels royal,” or to the residence of a private person, to a college, school, prison, workhouse, &c. Further, the word has particular legal applications, though in each case the building might be and often is styled a church. These are places of worship supplementary to a parish church, and may be either “chapels of ease,” to ease or relieve the mother-church and serve those parishioners who may live far away, “parochial chapels,” the “churches” of ancient divisions of a very large and widely scattered parish, or “district chapels,” those of a district of a parish divided under the various church building acts. A “free chapel” is one founded by the king and by his authority, and visited by him and not by the bishop. A “proprietary chapel” is one that belongs to a private person. They are anomalies to the English ecclesiastical law, have no parish rights, and can be converted to other than religious purposes, but a clergyman may be licensed to perform duty in such a place of worship. In the early and middle part of the 19th century such proprietary chapels were common, but they have practically ceased to exist. “Chapel” was early and still is in England the general name of places of worship other than those of the established Church, but the application of “church” to all places of worship without distinction of sect is becoming more and more common. The word “chapel” was in this restricted sense first applied to places of worship belonging to the Roman Church in England, and was thus restricted to those attached to foreign embassies, or to those of the consorts of Charles I. and II. and James II., who were members of that church. The word is still frequently the general term for Roman Catholic churches in Great Britain and always so in Ireland. The use of “chapel” as a common term for all Nonconformist places of worship was general through most of the 19th century, so that “church and chapel” was the usual phrase to mark the distinction between members of the established Church and those of Nonconformist bodies. Here the widened use of “church” noticed above has been especially marked. Most of the recent buildings for worship erected by Nonconformist bodies will be found to be styled Wesleyan, Congregational, &c., churches. It would appear that while the word “chapel” was not infrequent in the early history of Nonconformity, “meeting-house” was the more usual term.
From the architectural point of view the addition of chapels to a cathedral or large church assumes some historical importance in consequence of the changes it involved in the plan. It was the introduction of the apsidal chapels in the churches of France which eventually led to the chevet or cluster of eastern chapels in many of the great cathedrals, and also sometimes to the extension of the transept so as to include additional apsidal chapels on the east side. In France, and to a certain extent in Italy, the multiplication of chapels led to their being placed on the north and south side of the aisles, and in some cases, as at Albi in France, to the suppression of the aisles and the instalment of the chapels in their place. The chapels of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge are sometimes of large dimensions and architecturally of great importance, that of Christ Church being actually the cathedral of Oxford; among others may be mentioned the chapel of Merton College, and the new chapel of Exeter College, both in Oxford, and the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, which is roofed over with perhaps the finest fan-vault in England. (See Vault, Plate II., fig. 19.)
CHAPELAIN, JEAN (1595–1674), French poet and man of letters, the son of a notary, was born in Paris on the 4th of December 1595. His father destined him for his own profession; but his mother, who had known Ronsard, had determined otherwise. At an early age Chapelain began to qualify himself for literature, learning, under Nicolas Bourbon, Greek and Latin, and teaching himself Italian and Spanish. Having finished his studies, he was engaged for a while in teaching Spanish to a young nobleman. He was then appointed tutor to the two sons of a M. de la Trousse, grand provost of France. Attached for the next seventeen years to the family of this gentleman, the administration of whose fortune was wholly in his hands, he
- ↑ The only other English sense is that of a printer’s workshop, or the body of compositors in it, who are presided over by a “father of the chapel.”
