CHESTERFIELD, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, 4TH EARL OF (1694-1773).—­Statesman and letter-writer, was the eldest s. of the 3rd Earl.  After being at Trinity Coll., Camb., he sat in the House of Commons until his accession to the peerage in 1726.  He filled many high offices, including those of Ambassador to Holland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Sec. of State.  He was distinguished for his wit, conversational powers, and grace of manner.  His place in literature is fixed by his well-known Letters addressed to his natural son, Philip Dormer Stanhope.  Though brilliant, and full of shrewdness and knowledge of the world, they reflect the low tone of morals prevalent in the age when they were written.  He was the recipient of Johnson’s famous letter as to his “patronage.”

CHETTLE, HENRY (1565-1607?).—­Dramatist.  Very little is known of him.  He ed.  R. Greene’s Groat’s-worth of Wit (1592), is believed to have written 13 and collaborated in 35 plays.  He also wrote two satires, Kind Harts Dreame (1593), and Pierre Plainnes Prentship (1595).  He was imprisoned for debt 1599.

Among his own plays, which have considerable merit, is Hoffmann, which has been reprinted, and he had a hand in Patient Grissill (1603) (which may have influenced Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor), The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, and Jane Shore.

CHILD, FRANCIS J. (1825-1896).—­English scholar, b. at Boston, Mass., was a prof. at Harvard, one of the foremost students of early English, and especially of ancient ballads in America.  He ed. the American ed. of English Poets in 130 vols., and English and Scottish Ballads.  He was also a profound student of Chaucer, and pub. Observations on the Language of Chaucer, and Observations on the Language of Gower’s Confessio Amantis.

CHILD, MRS. LYDIA MARIA (FRANCIS) (1802-1880).—­Was the author of many once popular tales, Hobomok, The Rebels, Philothes, etc.

CHILLINGWORTH, WILLIAM (1602-1644).—­Theologian and controversialist, b. and ed. at Oxf., was godson of Archbishop Laud.  Falling into theological doubts he subsequently became a convert to Roman Catholicism, and studied at the Jesuit Coll. at Douay, 1630.  In the following year he returned to Oxf., and after further consideration of the points at issue, he rejoined the Church of England, 1634.  This exposed him to violent attacks on the part of the Romanists, in reply to which he pub. in 1637 his famous polemic, The Religion of the Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation, characterised by clear style and logical reasoning.  For a time he refused ecclesiastical preferment, but ultimately his scruples were overcome, and he became Prebendary and Chancellor of Salisbury.  C. is regarded as one of the ablest controversialists of the Anglican Church.