Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1063

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he had to be borne from his carriage to the salon; yet, as long as strength sufficiently remained, he continued his daily visit to her whose goodness and amiability never wearied towards her illustrious friend. He lived long enough to see the advent of the republic he predicted, and long enough to see it diverge into a wrong and fatal course; for he died 10th July, 1848. Besides the works we have referred to, he published a pamphlet on elective monarchy in 1831: Natchez; "Historical Studies, or Fall of the Roman Empire;" essay on English Literature; a prose translation of Paradise Lost; "The Congress of Verona;" "Life of the Abbé de Rancé," &c. &c.—J. F. C.

CHATEAUBRIANT, Françoise de Foix, Comtesse de, mistress of Francis I., was born about 1495, and died in 1537. Françoise, who was cousin to Gaston de Foix, nephew of Louis XI I., appeared at the court in the time of Anne of Brittany, and accepted the hand of the count of Chateaubriant. Her great beauty and accomplishments made her a favourite with Francis I., but she afterwards found a successful rival in Mlle. de Heily.

CHATEAUBRUN, Jean Baptiste Vivien de, was born at Angoulême in 1686; died in 1775. In 1714 his tragedy of "Mahomet II." appeared, and was favourably received. In 1754, forty years after, was acted his "Troyennes," a drama, which, as far as it can be called inspired at all, was inspired by the genius of Euripides. The cause of this long silence was, that Chateaubrun was maitre d'hotel ordinaire of the duc d'Orleans, and sous-precepteur of his son; and he thought it inconsistent with the implied duties of his station to appear as a dramatic author. Chateaubrun, although no great dramatist, did as well as Racine for Mademoiselles Clairon and Jussieu, who appeared as Cassandra and Andromache in his tragedy. "Philoctetes" and "Astyanax" were Chateaubrun's next ventures. He had composed two other tragedies—"Ajax" and "Antigone"—and left them, without any apprehension of the manuscripts being stolen, in an open drawer. He searched for them in vain, and at last asked his servant about them. "Have you seen," said the master, "two very large paper books?" "Yes," replied the servant; "they had been lying there a long time, and I took them 'pour envelopper ces côtellettes de veau, que vous aimez tant.'" The poet survived what his biographers call the "disgrace" more than twenty years. He became a member of the academy in 1753. In a discourse delivered at the academy, Buffon gave him the highest praise for integrity and the entire absence of selfishness in all his dealings. He died poor, but his will exhibited unusual confidence, which was not misplaced, in the generosity of his pupil, the duc d'Orleans. He left annuities to two nieces, and also provided in the same way for two domestic servants, requesting the duc—to whom, however, he gave no funds for the purpose—to pay them. They were paid.—J. A., D.

CHATEAUROUX, Marie-Anne, Duchesse de, one of the mistresses of Louis XV., died in 1744. She married in 1734 the marquis de la Tournelle, and was left a widow at twenty-three. She then became, what three of her sisters had been before her, mistress of Louis, by whom she was created duchess of Chateauroux, with a pension of eighty thousand livres. It was she who induced the king to take the field in 1744, thinking to compound for her guilt by contributing to her country's glory. Two volumes of her letters were published in 1806.—R. M., A.

CHATEL. See Chastel.

CHATEL, François du: this painter, renowned as the favourite pupil of David Teniers, was born at Brussels in 1625. He followed the manner of his preceptor, and did him infinite credit. He also dealt in guardrooms and village festivals, hobnobbing peasants and inebriated burghers, but he occasionally handled higher subjects with success. He painted groups of family portraits, conversation pieces, and assembles of persons of rank. His design was correct, his colouring pure, and his execution very delicate, neat, and spirited. His best production is a large painting nearly twenty feet long at Ghent, representing Philip IV. of Spain receiving the oath of fidelity from the states of Brabant and Flanders in 1666. It is stated that the number of figures in this work amounts to one thousand, but the disposition is so excellent, that the effect is singularly unconfused. His pictures are frequently ascribed to Teniers, and also to Gonzales Coques, He died in 1679.—W. T.

CHATELAIN. See Chastelain.

CHATELAIN, John Baptist: this artist was born in England of French parents in 1710. He designed and engraved with extraordinary cleverness. Unfortunately he was so dissolute and depraved as to render this cleverness almost altogether nugatory. He engraved after his own drawings or after Poussin. He died in London in 1744.—W. T.

CHATELET. See Duchatelet.

CHATHAM, William Pitt, Earl of, younger son of Robert Pitt of Boconnock in Cornwall, was born November 15th, 1708. His grandfather had been governor of Madras, and his mother was sister to the earl of Grandison. William Pitt was educated at Eton and Oxford; and upon quitting the university travelled in France and Italy, for the purpose of alleviating the gout—a disease which seized him in his youth, and haunted him through life with frequent and cruel agonies. Returning to England, he selected the army as his profession, and obtained a cornetcy in the Blues. In 1735 he entered parliament as member for Old Sarum, and in consequence of his opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, then at the head of the government, was deprived of his commission. He received, however, the appointment of groom of the bedchamber to Frederic, prince of Wales, and continued to assail the ministry with unyielding vigour. The commanding genius of Pitt soon gained for him high parliamentary authority. He was the orator of orators, at a time when the agitated passions of the country, having no sufficient vent in the press, concentrated themselves upon individual men; and when the house of commons was, in consequence, a more frequent theatre for those gladiatorial combats in which eloquence is mastery. Pitt was not only a consummate actor, both by natural endowment and careful culture—perfect in tone, glance, and movement—but was also sufficiently subject to the inspiration of the hour to give freshness and glowing warmth to his artistic skill. Walpole says, that though no man knew so well how to say what he pleased, no man ever knew so little what he was going to say. He thus possessed a twofold power, blending the mechanical skill of the cultured artist, with the passion of the speaker whose heart vibrates with the emotion of the moment. He is described as greatest among British orators in causing men to fear his power, and the epithet "terrific" is applied to those declamations he poured forth in which passion and sarcasm contended for the mastery. In his speeches, arguments lived and moved as if warm with life. As they marched on to their purposed end, he flung about lively anecdotes and sarcasms, jests and denunciations, disarming or frightening opponents on every side. He thus conquered by anticipation all that his worst foe could say; and never cared to have the last word. He gained his victory before his antagonist rose to speak. It is said of Michel Angelo, that by his skill he could give dignity to a hump on the back of a dwarf; and Pitt possessed, as an orator, a kindred power of giving a certain majesty to the commonest glance, circumstance, or word. With such wonderful endowments, in an age of corruption when parliamentary votes were regularly bought and sold by the minister of the day, Pitt was able to command any price he might choose to name. He refused, however, either to soil his hands with a bribe, or even to take advantage of customary official perquisites. He loved his country, and sought power for no selfish end. He loved England, Macaulay writes with truth, "as an Athenian loved the city of the violet crown; as a Roman loved the city of the seven hills;" and his policy sought to deliver his native land from the disgrace into which she had been dragged by incapable intriguers. Among the first of great modern statesmen he appealed for support not simply to ruling aristocratic families, but to the people at large; and in their pride and love, his countrymen delighted to call him "the Great Commoner." Most significant in relation to this point, was the answer of George II. when Pitt pleaded for mercy on behalf of Admiral Byng:—"The house of commons. Sire, seems inclined to mercy," pleaded Pitt. "Sir," replied the king, "you have taught me to look for the sense of my people in other places than the house of commons;" and when Pitt resigned office in 1761, in language seldom heard in those days, he declared himself "accountable to the people, who had called him to power." A list of the great statesman's faults and failings could readily be drawn up. The skill of the actor degenerated at times into an affectation which darkened his best virtues; towards his colleagues he often behaved more like an eastern satrap than a British minister; distracted by the pain of constitutional gout, his conduct is occasionally scarcely referable to any distinct principle whatever; but when the list of his imperfections is completed, William Pitt, earl of Chatham, still