CAXTON, WILLIAM (1422-1491).—­Printer and translator, b. in the Weald of Kent, was apprenticed to a London mercer.  On his master’s death in 1441 he went to Bruges, and lived there and in various other places in the Low Countries for over 30 years, engaged apparently as head of an association of English merchants trading in foreign parts, and in negotiating commercial treaties between England and the Dukes of Burgundy.  His first literary labour was a translation of a French romance, which he entitled The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, and which he finished in 1471.  About this time he learned the art of printing, and, after being in the service of Margaret Duchess of Burgundy, an English princess, returned to his native country and set up at Westminster in 1476 his printing press, the first in England.  His Recuyell and The Game and Playe of Chesse had already been printed—­the first books in English—­on the Continent.  Here was produced the first book printed in England, The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers (1477).  C. obtained Royal favour, printed from 80 to 100 separate works—­many of them translations of his own—­and d. almost with pen in hand in 1491.  His style is clear and idiomatic.

CENTLIVRE, MRS. SUSANNA (1667-1723).—­Dramatist and actress, was the dau. of a gentleman of the name of either Rawkins or Freeman, who appears to have belonged either to Lincolnshire or Ireland, or was perhaps connected with both, and who suffered at the hands of the Stuarts.  She m. at 16, lost her husband in a year, then m. an officer, who fell in a duel in 18 months, and finally, in 1706, m. Joseph C., cook to Queen Anne, with whom she lived happily for the rest of her days.  She wrote 18 or 19 plays, well constructed and amusing, among which may be mentioned The Perjured Husband (1700), The Busybody (1709), The Warder (1714), and A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).  She was a strong Whig, and sometimes made her plays the medium of expressing her political opinions.

CHALKHILL, JOHN (fl. 1600).—­Poet, mentioned by Izaak Walton as having written a pastoral poem, Thealma and Clearchus.  As nothing else is known of him it has been held by some that the name was a nom-de-plume of W. himself.  It has been shown, however, that a gentleman of the name existed during the reign of Elizabeth.  W. says he was a friend of Spenser, and that his life was “useful, quiet, and virtuous.”

CHALMERS, GEORGE (1742-1825).—­Antiquary, b. at Fochabers, Elginshire, emigrated to America and practised law in Baltimore; but on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War returned to Britain, and settled in London as a clerk in the Board of Trade.  He pub. in 1780 a History of the United Colonies, and wrote lives of Sir David Lyndsay, De Foe, and Mary Queen of Scots.  His great work, however, is his Caledonia, of which 3 vols. had been pub. at his death.  It was to have been a complete coll. of the topography and antiquities of Scotland; and, as it stands, is a monument of industry and research, though not always trustworthy in disputed points.  Besides those mentioned, C. was the author of many other works on political, historical, and literary subjects, and had projected several which he was unable to carry out.