Chapter C: O. H. Cl. Br. I. S (4)
CHERNIGOV, a town of Russia, capital of the above government, on the right bank of the Desna, nearly half a mile from the river, 141 m. by rail N.E. of Kiev on a branch line. Pop. (1897) 27,006. It is an archiepiscopal see and possesses a cathedral of the 11th century. In 907 the city is mentioned in the treaty of Oleg as next in importance to Kiev, and in the 11th century it became the capital of the principality of Syeversk and an important commercial city. The Mongol invasion put an end to its prosperity in 1239. Lithuania annexed it in the 14th century, but it was soon seized by Poland, which held it until the 17th century. In 1686 it was definitely annexed to Russia.
CHEROKEE (native _Tsalagi_, "cave people"), a tribe of North American Indians of Iroquoian stock. Next to the Navaho they are the largest tribe in the United States and live mostly in Oklahoma (formerly Indian territory). Before their removal they possessed a large tract of country now distributed among the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and the west of Florida. Their chief divisions were then settled around the head-waters of the Savannah and Tennessee rivers, and were distinguished as the Elati Tsalagi or Lower Cherokees, i.e. those in the plains, and Atali Tsalagi or Upper Cherokees, i.e. those on the mountains. They were further divided into seven exogamous clans. Fernando de Soto travelled through their country in 1540, and during the next three centuries they were important factors in the history of the south. They attached themselves to the English in the disputes and contests which arose between the European colonizers, formally recognized the English king in 1730, and in 1755 ceded a part of their territory and permitted the erection of English forts. Unfortunately this amity was interrupted not long after; but peace was again restored in 1761. When the revolutionary war broke out they sided with the royalist party. This led to their subjugation by the new republic, and they had to surrender that part of their lands which lay to the south of the Savannah and east of the Chattahoochee. Peace was made in 1781, and in 1785 they recognized the supremacy of the United States and were confirmed in their possessions. In 1820 they adopted a civilized form of government, and in 1827, as a "Nation," a formal constitution. The gradual advance of white immigration soon led to disputes with the settlers, who desired their removal, and exodus after exodus took place; a small part of the tribe agreed (1835) to remove to another district, but the main body remained. An appeal was made by them to the United States government; but President Andrew Jackson refused to interfere. A force of 2000 men, under the command of General Winfield Scott, was sent in 1838, and the Cherokees were compelled to emigrate to their present position. After the settlement various disagreements between the eastern and western Cherokees continued for some time, but in 1839 a union was effected. In the Civil War they all at first sided with the South; but before long a strong party joined the North, and this led to a disastrous internecine struggle. On the close of the contest they were confirmed in the possession of their territory, but were forced to give a portion of their lands to their emancipated slaves. Their later history is mainly a story of hopeless struggle to maintain their tribal independence against the white man. In 1892 they sold their western territory known as the "Cherokee outlet." Until 1906, when tribal government virtually ceased, the "nation" had an elected chief, a senate and house of representatives. Many of them have become Christians, schools have been established and there is a tribal press. Those in Oklahoma still number some 26,000, though most are of mixed blood. A group, known as the Eastern Band, some 1400 strong, are on a reservation in North Carolina. Their language consists of two dialects--a third, that of the "Lower" branch, having been lost. The syllabic alphabet invented in 1821 by George Guess (Sequoyah) is the character employed.
See also _Handbook of American Indians_(Washington, 1907); T.V.
Parker, _Cherokee Indians_ (N.Y., 1909); and INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN.
CHEROOT, or SHEROOT (from the Tamil word "shuruttu," a roll), a cigar made from tobacco grown in southern India and the Philippine Islands. It was once esteemed very highly for its delicate flavour. A cheroot differs from other cigars in having both ends cut square, instead of one being pointed, and one end considerably larger than the other.
CHERRAPUNJI, a village in the Khasi hills district of Assam. It is notable as having the heaviest known rainfall in the world. In 1861 it registered a total of 905 in., and its annual average is 458 in. This excessive rainfall is caused by the fact that Cherrapunji stands on the edge of the plateau overlooking the plains of Bengal, where it catches the full force of the monsoon as it rises from the sea. There is a good coal-seam in the vicinity.
CHERRY. As a cultivated fruit-tree the cherry is generally supposed to be of Asiatic origin, whence, according to Pliny, it was brought to Italy by Lucullus after his defeat of Mithradates, king of Pontus, 68 B.C. As with most plants which have been long and extensively cultivated, it is a matter of difficulty, if not an impossibility, to identify the parent stock of the numerous cultivated varieties of cherry; but they are generally referred to two species: _Prunus Cerasus_, the wild or dwarf cherry, the origin of the morello, duke and Kentish cherries, and _P. Avium_, the gean, the origin of the geans, hearts and bigarreaus. Both species grow wild through Europe and western Asia to the Himalayas, but the dwarf cherry has the more restricted range of the two in Britain, as it does not occur in Scotland and is rare in Ireland. The cherries form a section _Cerasus_ of the genus _Prunus_; and they have sometimes been separated as a distinct genus from the plums proper; both have a stone-fruit or drupe, but the drupe of the cherry differs from that of the plum in not having a waxy bloom; further, the leaves of the plum are rolled (_convolute_) in the bud, while those of the cherry are folded (conduplicate).
The cherries are trees of moderate size and shrubs, having smooth, serrate leaves and white flowers. They are natives of the temperate regions of both hemispheres; and the cultivated varieties ripen their fruit in Norway as far as 63 deg. N. The geans are generally distinguished from the common cherry by the greater size of the trees, and the deeper colour and comparative insipidity of the flesh in the ripe fruit, which adheres firmly to the "nut" or stone; but among the very numerous cultivated varieties specific distinctions shade away so that the fruit cannot be ranged under these two heads. The leading varieties are recognized as bigarreaus, dukes, morellos and geans. Several varieties are cultivated as ornamental trees and on account of their flowers.
The cherry is a well-flavoured sub-acid fruit, and is much esteemed for dessert. Some of the varieties are particularly selected for pies, tarts, &c., and others for the preparation of preserves, and for making cherry brandy. The fruit is also very extensively employed in the preparation of the liqueurs known as kirschwasser, ratafia and maraschino. Kirschwasser is made chiefly on the upper Rhine from the wild black gean, and in the manufacture the entire fruit-flesh and kernels are pulped up and allowed to ferment. By distillation of the fermented pulp the liqueur is obtained in a pure, colourless condition. Ratafia is similarly manufactured, also by preference from a gean. Maraschino, a highly valued liqueur, the best of which is produced at Zara in Dalmatia, differs from these in being distilled from a cherry called marasca, the pulp of which is mixed with honey, honey or sugar being added to the distillate for sweetening. It is also said that the flavour is heightened by the use of the leaves of the perfumed cherry, _Prunus Mahaleb_, a native of central and southern Europe.
The wood of the cherry tree is valued by cabinetmakers, and that of the gean tree is largely used in the manufacture of tobacco pipes. The American wild cherry, _Prunus serotina_, is much sought after, its wood being compact, fine-grained, not liable to warp, and susceptible of receiving a brilliant polish. The kernels of the perfumed cherry, _P. Mahaleb_, are used in confectionery and for scent. A gum exudes from the stem of cherry trees similar in its properties to gum arabic.
The cherry is increased by budding on the wild gean, obtained by sowing the stones of the small black or red wild cherries. To secure very dwarf trees the _Prunus Mahaleb_ has been used for the May duke, Kentish, morello and analogous sorts, but it is not adapted for strong-growing varieties like the bigarreaus. The stocks are budded, or, more rarely, grafted, at the usual seasons. The cherry prefers a free, loamy soil, with a well-drained subsoil. Stiff soils and dry gravelly subsoils are both unsuitable, though the trees require a large amount of moisture, particularly the large-leaved sorts, such as the bigarreaus. For standard trees, the bigarreau section should be planted 30 ft. apart, or more, in rich soil, and the May duke, morello and similar varieties 20 or 25 ft. apart; while, as trained trees against walls and espaliers, from 20 to 24 ft. should be allowed for the former, and from 15 to 20 ft. for the latter. In forming the stems of a standard tree the temporary side-shoots should not be allowed to attain too great a length, and should not be more than two years old when they are cut close to the stem. The first three shoots retained to form the head should be shortened to about 15 in., and two shoots from each encouraged, one at the end, and the other 3 or 4 in. lower down. When these have become established, very little pruning will be required, and that chiefly to keep the principal branches as nearly equal in strength as possible for the first few years. Espalier trees should have the branches about a foot apart, starting from the stem with an upward curve, and then being trained horizontally. In summer pruning the shoots on the upper branches must be shortened at least a week before those on the lower ones. After a year or two clusters of fruit buds will be developed on spurs along the branches, and those spurs will continue productive for an indefinite period. For wall trees any form of training may be adopted; but as the fruit is always finest on young spurs, fan-training is probably the most advantageous. A succession of young shoots should be laid in every year. The morello, which is of twiggy growth and bears on the young wood, must be trained in the fan form, and care should be taken to avoid the very common error of crowding its branches.
_Forcing_.--The cherry will not endure a high temperature nor close atmosphere. A heat of 45 deg. at night will be sufficient at starting, this being gradually increased during the first few weeks to 55 deg., but lowered again when the blossom buds are about to open. After stoning the temperature may be again gradually raised to 60 deg., and may go up to 70 deg. by day, or 75 deg. by sun heat, and 60 deg. at night. The best forcing cherries are the May duke and the royal duke, the duke cherries being of more compact growth than the bigarreau tribe and generally setting better; nevertheless a few of the larger kinds, such as bigarreau Napoleon, black tartarian and St Margaret's, should be forced for variety. The trees may be either planted out in tolerably rich soil, or grown in large pots of good turfy friable calcareous loam mixed with rotten dung. If the plants are small, they may be put into 12-in. pots in the first instance, and after a year shifted into 15-in. pots early in autumn, and plunged in some loose or even very slightly fermenting material. The soil of the pots should be protected from snow-showers and cold rains. Occasionally trees have been taken up in autumn with balls, potted and forced in the following spring; but those which have been established a year in the pots are to be preferred. Such only as are well furnished with blossom-buds should be selected. The trees should be removed to the forcing house in the beginning of December, if fruit be required very early in the season. During the first and second weeks it may be kept nearly close; but, as vegetation advances, air becomes absolutely necessary during the day, and even at night when the weather will permit. If forcing is commenced about the middle or third week of December, the fruit ought to be ripe by about the end of March. After the fruit is gathered, the trees should be duly supplied with water at the root, and the foliage kept well syringed till the wood is mature. (See also FRUIT AND FLOWER FARMING.)
CHERRYVALE, a city of Montgomery county, Kansas, U.S.A., about 140 m. S.S.E. of Kansas City. Pop. (1890) 2104; (1900) 3472, including 180 negroes; (1905, state census) 5089; (1910) 4304. It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the main line and a branch (of which it is a terminus) of the St Louis & San Francisco railways. It is in a farming district and in the Kansas natural-gas and oil-field, and has large zinc smelters, an oil refinery, and various manufactures, including vitrified brick, flour, glass, cement and ploughs. Cherryvale was laid out in 1871 by the Kansas City, Lawrence & South Kansas Railway Company (later absorbed by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe). The main part of the town was destroyed by fire in 1873, but was soon rebuilt, and in 1880 Cherryvale became a city of the third and afterwards of the second class. Natural gas, which is used as a factory fuel and for street and domestic lighting, was found here in 1889, and oil several years later.
CHERRY VALLEY, a village of Otsego county, New York, U.S.A., in a township of the same name, 68 m. N.W. of Albany. Pop. (1890) 685; (1900) 772; (1905) 746; (1910) 792; of the township (1910) 1706. It is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway. Cherry Valley is in the centre of a rich farming and dairying region, has a chair factory, and is a summer resort with sulphur and lithia springs. It was the scene of a terrible massacre during the War of Independence. The village was attacked on the 11th of November 1778 by Walter Butler (d. 1781) and Joseph Brant with a force of 800 Indians and Tories, who killed about 50 men, women and children, sacked and burned most of the houses, and carried off more than 70 prisoners, who were subjected to the greatest cruelties and privations, many of them dying or being tomahawked before the Canadian settlements were reached. Cherry Valley was incorporated in 1812.
CHERSIPHRON, a Cretan architect, the traditional builder (with his son Metagenes) of the great Ionic temple of Artemis at Ephesus set up by the Greeks in the 6th century. Some remains of this temple were found by J.T. Wood and brought to the British Museum. In connexion with the pillars, which are adorned with archaic reliefs, a fragmentary inscription has been found, recording that they were presented by King Croesus, as indeed Herodotus informs us. This temple was burned on the day on which Alexander the Great was born.
CHERSO, an island in the Adriatic Sea, off the east coast of Istria, from which it is separated by the channel of Farasina. Pop. (1900) 8274. It is situated in the Gulf of Quarnero, and is connected with the island of Lussin, lying on the S.W. by a turn bridge over the small channel of Ossero, and with the island of Veglia, lying on the E. by the Canale di Mezzo. These three are the principal islands of the Quarnero group, and form together the administrative district of Lussin in the Austrian crownland of Istria. Cherso is an elongated island about 40 m. long, 1-1/4 to 7 m. wide, and has an area of 150 sq. m. It is traversed by a range of mountains, which attain in the peak of Syss an altitude of 2090 ft. and form natural terraces, planted with vines and olive trees, specially in the middle and southern parts of the island. The northern part is covered with bushes of laurel and mastic, but there are scarcely any large trees. There is a scarcity of springs, and the houses are generally furnished with cisterns for rain water. In the centre of the island is an interesting lake called the Vrana or Crow's Lake, situated at an altitude of 40 ft. above, the level of the sea, 3-3/4 m. long, 1 m. wide and 184 ft. deep. This lake is in all probability fed by subterranean sources, The chief town of the island is Cherso, situated on the west coast. It possesses a good harbour and is provided with a shipwright's wharf.
CHERSONESE, CHERSONESUS, or CHERRONESUS (Gr. [Greek: chersos], dry, and [Greek: nesos], island), a word equivalent to "peninsula." In ancient geography the Chersonesus Thracica, Chersonesus Taurica or Scythica, and Chersonesus Cimbrica correspond to the peninsulas of the Dardanelles, the Crimea and Jutland; and the Golden Chersonese is usually identified with the peninsula of Malacca. The Tauric Chersonese was further distinguished as the Great, in contrast to the Heracleotic or Little Chersonese at its S.W. corner, where Sevastopol now stands.
The _Tauric Chersonese_[1] (from 2nd century A.D. called Cherson) was a Dorian colony of Heraclea in Bithynia, founded in the 5th century B.C. in the Crimea about 2 m. S. of the modern Sevastopol. After defending itself against the kingdom of Bosporus (q.v.), and the native Scythians and Tauri, and even extending its power over the west coast of the peninsula, it was compelled to call in the aid of Mithradates VI. and his general Diophantus, c. 110 B.C., and submitted to the Pontic dynasty. On regaining a nominal independence, it came more or less under the Roman suzerainty. In the latter part of the 1st century A.D., and again in the succeeding century, it received a Roman garrison and suffered much interference in its internal affairs. In the time of Constantine, in return for assistance against the Bosporans and the native tribes, it regained its autonomy and received special privileges. It must, however, have been subject to the Byzantine authorities, as inscriptions testify to restorations of its walls by Byzantine officials. Under Theophilus the central government sent out a governor to take the place of the elected magistrate. Even so it seems to have preserved a measure of self-government and may be said to have been the last of the Greek city states. Its ruin was brought about by the commercial rivalry of the Genoese, who forbade the Greeks to trade there and diverted its commerce to Caffa and Sudak. Previous to this it had been the main emporium of Byzantine commerce upon the N. coast of the Euxine. Through it went the communications of the empire with the Petchenegs and other native tribes, and more especially with the Russians. The commerce of Cherson is guaranteed in the early treaties between the Greeks and Russians, and it was in Cherson, according to Ps. Nestor's chronicle, that Vladimir was baptized in 988 after he had captured the city. The constitution of the city was at first democratic under Damiorgi, a senate and a general assembly. Latterly it appears to have become aristocratic, and most of the power was concentrated in the hands of the first archon or Proteuon, who in time was superseded by the strategus sent out from Byzantium. Its most interesting political document is the form of oath sworn to by all the citizens in the 3rd century B.C.
The remains of the city occupy a space about two-thirds of a mile long by half a mile broad. They are enclosed by a Byzantine wall. Foundations and considerable remains of a Greek wall going back to the 4th century B.C. have been found beneath this in the eastern or original part of the site. Many Byzantine churches, both cruciform and basilican, have been excavated. The latter survived here into the 13th century when they had long been extinct in other Greek-speaking lands. The churches were adorned with frescoes, wall and floor mosaics, some well preserved, and marble carvings similar to work found at Ravenna. The fact that the site has not been inhabited since the 14th century makes it important for our knowledge of Byzantine life. The city was used by the Romans as a place of banishment: St Clement of Rome was exiled hither and first preached the Gospel; another exile was Justinian II., who is said to have destroyed the city in revenge. We have a considerable series of coins from the 3rd century B.C. to about A.D. 200, and also some of Byzantine date.
See B. Koehne, _Beitrage zur Geschichte von Cherronesus in Taurien_
(St Petersburg, 1848); art. "Chersonesos" (20) by C.G. Brandis in
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencydopadie_, vol. iii. 221; A. A. Bobrinskoj,
_Chersonesus Taurica_ (St Petersburg, 1905) (Russian); V. V. Latyshev,
_Inscrr. Orae Septentr. Ponti Euxini_, vols. i. and iv. Reports of
excavations appear in the _Compte rendu_ of the Imperial
Archaeological Commission of St Petersburg from 1888 and in its
_Bulletin_. See E. H. Minns, _Scythians and Greeks_ (Cambridge, 1907).
(E. H. M.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] In Pliny "Heraclea Chersonesus," probably owing to a confusion with
the name of the mother city.
CHERTSEY, a market town in the Chertsey parliamentary division of Surrey, England, 22 m. W.S.W. from London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 12,762. It is pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Thames, which is crossed by a bridge of seven arches, built of Purbeck stone in 1785. The parish church, rebuilt in 1808, contains a tablet to Charles James Fox, who resided at St Anne's Hill in the vicinity, and another to Lawrence Tomson, a translator of the New Testament in the 17th century. Hardly any remains are left of a great Benedictine abbey, whose buildings at one time included an area of 4 acres. They fell into almost complete decay in the 17th century, and a "fair house" was erected out of the ruins by Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington. The ground-plan can be traced; the fish-ponds are complete; and carved stones, coffins and encaustic tiles of a peculiar manufacture are frequently exhumed. Among the abbots the most famous was John de Rutherwyk, who was appointed in 1307, and continued, till his death in 1346, to carry on a great system of alteration and extension, which almost made the abbey a new building. The house in which the poet Cowley spent the last years of his life remains, and the chamber in which he died is preserved unaltered. The town is the centre of a large residential district. Its principal trade is in produce for the London markets.
The first religious settlement in Surrey, a Benedictine abbey, was founded in 666 at Chertsey (_Cerotesei, Certesey_), the manor of which belonged to the abbot until 1539, since when it has been a possession of the crown. In the reign of Edward the Confessor Chertsey was a large village and was made the head of Godley hundred. The increase of copyhold under Abbot John de Rutherwyk led to discontent, the tenants in 1381 rising and burning the rolls. Chertsey owed its importance primarily to the abbey, but partly to its geographical position. Ferries over the Redewynd were subjects of royal grant in 1340 and 1399; the abbot built a new bridge over the Bourne in 1333, and wholly maintained the bridge over the Thames when it replaced the 14th century ferry. In 1410 the king gave permission to build a bridge over the Redewynd. As the centre of an agricultural district the markets of Chertsey were important and are still held. Three days' fairs were granted to the abbots in 1129 for the feast of St Peter ad Vincula by Henry III. for Holy Rood day; in 1282 for Ascension day; and a market on Mondays was obtained in 1282. In 1590 there were many poor, for whose relief Elizabeth gave a fair for a day in Lent and a market on Thursdays. These fairs still survive.
See Lucy Wheeler, _Chertsey Abbey_ (London, 1905); _Victoria County
History, Surrey_.
CHERUBIM, the Hebrew plural of "cherub" (_kerub_), imaginary winged animal figures of a sacred character, referred to in the description of Solomon's temple (1 Kings vi. 23-35, vii. 29, viii. 6, 7), and also in that of the ark of the tabernacle (Ex. xxv. 18-22, xxvi. 1, 31, xxxvii. 7-9). The cherub-images, where such occur, represent to the imagination the supernatural bearers of Yahweh's throne or chariot, or the guardians of His abode; the cherub-carvings at least symbolize His presence, and communicate some degree of His sanctity. In Gen. iii. 24 the cherubim are the guards of Paradise; Ezek. xxviii. 14, 16 cannot be mentioned here, the text being corrupt. We also find (1 Sam. iv. 4; 2 Sam. vi. 2) as a divine title "that sitteth upon the cherubim"; here it is doubted whether the cherubim are the material ones in the temple, or those which faith assumes and the artist tries to represent--the supernatural steeds upon which Yahweh issues forth to interfere in human affairs. In a poetic theophany (Ps. xviii. 10) we find "upon a cherub" parallel to "upon the wings of the wind" (cp. Isa. xix. 1; Ps. civ. 3). One naturally infers from this that the "cherub" was sometimes viewed as a bird. For the clouds, mythologically, are birds. "The Algonkins say that birds always make the winds, that they create the waterspouts, and that the clouds are the spreading and agitation of their wings." "The Sioux say that the thunder is the sound of the cloud-bird flapping his wings." If so, Ps. xviii. 10 is a solitary trace of the archaic view of the cherub. The bird, however, was probably a mythic, extra-natural bird. At any rate the cherub was suggested by and represents the storm-cloud, just as the sword in Gen. iii. 24 corresponds to the lightning. In Ezek. i. the four visionary creatures are expressly connected with a storm-wind, and a bright cloud (ver. 4). Elsewhere (xli. 18) the cherub has two faces (a man's and a bird's), but in i. 10 and x. 14 each cherub has four faces, a view tastefully simplified in the Johannine Apocalypse (Rev. iv. 7).
It is best, however, to separate Ezekiel from other writers, since he belongs to what may be called a great mythological revival. Probably his cherubim are a modification of older ones, which may well have been of a more sober type. His own accounts, as we have seen, vary. Probably the cherub has passed through several phases. There was a mythic bird-cherub, and then perhaps a winged animal-form, analogous to the winged figures of bulls and lions with human faces which guarded Babylonian and Assyrian temples and palaces. Another analogy is furnished by the winged genii represented as fertilizing the sacred tree--the date-palm (Tylor); here the body is human, though the face is sometimes that of an eagle. It is perhaps even more noteworthy that figures thought to be cherubs have been found at Zenjirli, within the ancient North Syrian kingdom of Ya'di (see Jeremias, _Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients_, pp. 350 f.); we may combine this with the fact that one of the great gods of this kingdom was called Rakab'el or Rekub'el (also perhaps Rakab or Rekub). A Sabaean (S. Arabian) name Karab'el also exists. The kerubim might perhaps be symbolic representatives of the god Rakab'el or Rekub'el, probably equivalent to Hadad, whose sacred animal was the bull. That the figures symbolic of Rakab or Hadad were compounded or amalgamated by the Israelites with those symbolic of Nergal (the lion-god) and Ninib (the eagle-god), is not surprising.
See further "Cherubim," in _Ency. Bib._ and _Hast. D.B._; Cheyne,
_Genesis_; Tylor, _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ xii. 383 ff.; Zimmern, _Die
Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_, pp. 529 f., 631 f.; Dibelius,
_Die Lade Jahves_ (1906), pp. 72-86. (T.K.C.)
CHERUBINI, MARIA LUIGI CARLO ZENOBIO SALVATORE (1760-1842), Italian musical composer, was born at Florence on the 14th of September 1760, and died on the 15th of March 1842 in Paris. His father was accompanist (_Maestro al Cembalo_) at the Pergola theatre. Cherubini himself, in the preface of his autograph catalogue of his own works, states, "I began to learn music at six and composition at nine, the former from my father, the latter from Bartolomeo and Alessandro Felici, and, after their death, from Bizzarri and J Castrucci." By the time he was sixteen he had composed a great deal of church music, and in 1777 he went to Bologna, where for four years he studied under Sarti. This deservedly famous master well earned the gratitude which afterwards impelled Cherubini to place one of his double choruses by the side of his own _Et Vitam Venturi_ as the crown of his _Treatise on Counterpoint and Fugue_, though the juxtaposition is disastrous for Sarti. But besides grounding Cherubini in the church music for which he had early shown so special a bent, Sarti also trained him in dramatic composition; sometimes, like the great masters of painting, entrusting his pupil with minor parts of his own works. From 1780 onwards for the next fourteen years dramatic music occupied Cherubini almost entirely. His first complete opera, _Quinto Fabio_, was produced in 1780, and was followed in 1782 by _Armida, Adriano in Siria_, and other works. Between 1782 and 1784 the successful production of five operas in four different towns must have secured Cherubini a dignified position amongst his Italian contemporaries; and in 1784 he was invited to London to produce two works for the Italian opera there, one of which, _La Finta Frincipessa_, was favourably received, while the other, _Giulio Sabino_, was, according to a contemporary witness, "murdered" by the critics.
In 1786 he left London for Paris, which became his home after a visit to Turin in 1787-1788 on the occasion of the production there of his _Ifigenia in Aulide_. With Cherubini, as with some other composers first trained in a school where the singer reigned supreme, the influence of the French dramatic sensibility prpved decisive, and his first French opera, _Demophon_ (1788), though not a popular success, already marks a departure from the Italian style, which Cherubini still cultivated in the pieces he introduced into the works of Anfossi, Paisiello and Cimarosa, produced by him as director of the Italian opera in Paris (established in 1789). As in Paris Gluck realized his highest ambitions, and even Rossini awoke to a final effort of something like dramatic life in _Guillaume Tell_, so in Paris Cherubini became a great composer. If his melodic invention had been as warm as Gluck's, his immensely superior technique in every branch of the art would have made him one of the greatest composers that ever lived. But his personal character shows in quaint exaggeration the same asceticism that in less sour and more negative form deprives even his finest music of the glow of that lofty inspiration that fears nothing.
With _Lodoiska_ (1791) the series of Cherubim's masterpieces begins, and by the production of _Medee_ (1797) his reputation was firmly established. The success of this sombre classical tragedy, which shows Cherubini's genius in its full power, is an honour to the Paris public. If Cherubini had known how to combine his high ideals with an urbane tolerance of the opinions of persons of inferior taste, the severity of his music would not have prevented his attaining the height of prosperity. But Napoleon Bonaparte irritated him by an enthusiasm for the kind of Italian music against which his whole career, from the time he became Sarti's pupil, was a protest. When Cherubini said to Napoleon, "Citoyen General, I perceive that you love only that music which does not prevent you thinking of your politics," he may perhaps have been as firmly convinced of his own conciliatory manner as he was when many years afterwards he "spared the feelings" of a musical candidate by "delicately" telling him that he had "a beautiful voice and great musical intelligence, but was too ugly for a public singer." Napoleon seems to have disliked opposition in music as in other matters, and the academic offices held by Cherubini under him were for many years far below his deserts. But though Napoleon saw no reason to conceal his dislike of Cherubini, his appointment of Lesueur in 1804 as his chapelmaster must not be taken as an evidence of his hostility. Lesueur was not a great genius, but, although recommended for the post by the retiring chapelmaster, Paesiello (one of Napoleon's Italian favourites), he was a very meritorious and earnest Frenchman whom the appointment saved from starvation. Cherubini's creative genius was never more brilliant than at this period, as the wonderful two-act ballet, _Anacreon_, shows; but his temper and spirits were not improved by a series of disappointments which culminated in the collapse of his prospects of congenial success at Vienna, where he went in 1805 in compliance with an invitation to compose an opera for the Imperial theatre. Here he produced, under the title of _Der Wassertrager_, the great work which, on its first production on the 7th of January 1801 (26 _Nivose, An_8) as _Les Deux Journees_, had thrilled Paris with the accents of a humanity restored to health and peace. It was by this time an established favourite in Austria. On the 25th of February Cherubini produced _Faniska_, but the war between Austria and France had broken out immediately after his arrival, and public interest in artistic matters was checked by the bombardment and capitulation of Vienna. Though the meeting between Cherubini and the victorious Napoleon was not very friendly, he was called upon to direct the music at Napoleon's soirees at Schonbrunn. But this had not been his object in coming to Vienna, and he soon returned to a retired and gloomy life in Paris.
His stay at Vienna is memorable for his intercourse with Beethoven, who had a profound admiration for him which he could neither realize nor reciprocate. It is too much to expect that the mighty genius of Beethoven, which broke through all rules in vindication of the principles underlying them, would be comprehensible to a mind like Cherubini's, in which, while the creative faculties were finely developed, the critical faculty was atrophied and its place supplied by a mere disciplinary code inadequate even as a basis for the analysis of his own works. On the other hand, it would be impossible to exaggerate the influence _Les Deux Journees_ had on the lighter parts of Beethoven's _Fidelio_. Cherubini's librettist was also the author of the libretto from which _Fidelio_ was adapted, and Cherubini's score was a constant object of Beethoven's study, not only before the production of the first version of _Fidelio_, as _Leonore_, but also throughout Beethoven's life. Cherubini's record of his impressions of Beethoven as a man is contained in the single phrase, "Il etait toujours brusque," which at least shows a fine freedom from self-consciousness on the part of the man whose only remark on being told of the death of Brod, the famous oboist, was, "Ah, he hadn't much tone" ("Ah, petit son"). Of the overture to _Leonore_ Cherubini only remarked that he could not tell what key it was in, and of Beethoven's later style he observed, "It makes me sneeze." Beethoven's brusqueness, notorious as it was, did not prevent him from assuring Cherubini that he considered him the greatest composer of the age and that he loved him and honoured him. In 1806 Haydn had just sent out his pathetic "visiting card" announcing that he was past work; Weber was still sowing wild oats, and Schubert was only nine years old. We need not, then, be surprised at Beethoven's judgment. And though we must regret that Cherubini's disposition prevented him from understanding Beethoven, it would be by no means true to say that he was uninfluenced at least by the sheer grandeur of the scale which Beethoven had by that time established as the permanent standard for musical art. Grandeur of proportion was, in fact, eminently characteristic of both composers, and the colossal structure of such a movement as the duet _Perfides ennemis_ in _Medee_ is almost inconceivable without the example of Beethoven's C minor trio, op. 1, No. 3, published two years before it; while the cavatina _Eterno iddio_ in _Faniska_ is not only worthy of Beethoven but surprisingly like him in style.
After Cherubini's disappointing visit to Vienna he divided his time between teaching at the conservatoire and cutting up playing-cards into figures and landscapes, which he framed and placed round the walls of his study. Not until 1809 was he aroused from this morbid indolence. He was staying in retirement at the country seat of the prince de Chimay, and his friends begged him to write some music for the consecration of a church there. After persistent refusals he suddenly surprised them with a mass in F for three-part chorus and orchestra. With this work the period of his great church music may be said to begin; although it was by no means the end of his career as an opera writer, which, in fact, lasted as late as his seventy-third year. This third period is also marked by some not unimportant instrumental compositions. An early event in the annals of the Philharmonic Society was his invitation to London in 1815 to produce a symphony, an overture and a vocal piece. The symphony (in D) was afterwards arranged with a new slow movement as the string quartet in C (1829), a fact which, taken in connexion with the large scale of the work, illustrates Cherubini's deficient sense of style in chamber music. Nevertheless all the six string quartets written between 1814 and 1837 are interesting works performed with success at the present day, though the last three, discovered in 1880, are less satisfactory than the earlier ones. The requiem in C minor (1817) caused Beethoven to declare that if he himself ever wrote a requiem Cherubini's would be his model.
At the eleventh hour Cherubini received recognition from Napoleon, who, during the Hundred Days, made him chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Then, with the restoration of the Bourbons, the very fact that Cherubini had not been _persona grata_ with Napoleon brought him honour and emoluments. He was appointed, jointly with Lesueur, as composer and conductor to the Chapel Royal, and in 1822 he obtained the permanent directorship of the conservatoire. This brought him into contact, for the most part unfriendly, with all the most talented musicians of the younger generation. It is improbable that Berlioz would have been an easy subject for the wisest and kindest of spiritual guides; but no influence, repellent or attractive, could have been more disastrous for that passionate, quick-witted and yet eminently puzzle-headed mixture of Philistine and genius, than the crabbed old martinet whose regulations forbade the students access to Gluck's scores in the library, and whose only theory of art (as distinguished from his practice) is accurately formulated in the following passage from Berlioz's _Grande Traite de l'instrumentation et d'orchestration_: "It was no use for the modern composer to say, 'But do just listen! See how smoothly this is introduced, how well motived, how deftly connected with the context, and how splendid it sounds!' He was answered, 'That is not the point. This modulation is forbidden; therefore it must not be made.'" The lack of really educative teaching, and the actual injustice for which Cherubini's disciplinary methods were answerable, did much to weaken Berlioz's at best ill-balanced artistic sense, and it is highly probable that, but for the kindliness and comparative wisdom of his composition master, Lesueur, he would have broken down from sheer lack of any influence which could command the respect of an excitable youth starving in the pursuit of a fine art against the violent opposition of his family. Only when Mendelssohn, at the age of seventeen, visited Paris in 1825, did Cherubini startle every one by praising a young composer to his face.
In 1833 Cherubini produced his last work for the stage, _Ali Baba_, adapted (with new and noisy features which excited Mendelssohn's astonished disgust) from a manuscript opera, _Koukourgi_, written forty years earlier. It is thus, perhaps, not a fair illustration of the vigour of his old age; but the requiem in D minor (for male voices), written in 1836, is one of his greatest works, and, though not actually his last composition, is a worthy close to the long career of an artist of high ideals who, while neither by birth nor temperament a Frenchman, must yet be counted with a still greater foreigner, Gluck, as the glory of French classical music. In this he has no parallel except his friend and contemporary, Mehul, to whom he dedicated _Medee_, and who dedicated to him the beautiful Ossianic one-act opera _Uthal_. The direct results of his teaching at the conservatoire were the steady, though not as yet unhealthy, decline of French opera into a lighter style, under the amiable and modest Boieldieu and the irresponsible and witty Auber; for, as we have seen, Cherubini was quite incapable of making his ideals intelligible by any means more personal than his music; and the crude grammatical rules which he mistook for the eternal principles of his own and of all music had not the smallest use as a safeguard against vulgarity and pretentiousness.
Lest the passage above quoted from Berlioz should be suspected of bias or irrelevance, we cite a few phrases from Cherubini's _Treatise on Counterpoint and Fugue_, of which, though the letter-press is by his favourite pupil, Halevy, the musical examples and doctrine are beyond suspicion his own. Concerning the 16th-century idiom, incorrectly but generally known as the "changing note" (an idiom which to any musical scholar is as natural as "attraction of the relative" is to a Greek scholar), Cherubini remarks, "No tradition gives us any reason why the classics thus faultily deviated from the rule." Again, he discusses the use of "suspensions" in a series of chords which without them would contain consecutive fifths, and after making all the observations necessary for the rational conclusion that the question whether the fifths are successfully disguised or not depends upon the beauty and force of the suspensions, he merely remarks that "The opinion of the classics appears to me erroneous, notwithstanding that custom has sanctioned it, for, on the principle that the discord is a mere suspension of the chord, it should not affect the nature of the chord. But since the classics have pronounced judgment we must of course submit." In the whole treatise not one example is given from Palestrina or any other master who handled as a living language what are now the forms of contrapuntal discipline. As a dead language Cherubini brought counterpoint up to date by abandoning the church modes; but in true severity of principle, as in educational stimulus, his treatise shows a deplorable falling off from the standard set a hundred years before in Fux's _Gradus ad Panassum_ with its delightful dialogues between master and pupil and its continual appeal to artistic experience. Whatever may have been Cherubini's success in imparting facility and certainty to his light-hearted pupils who established 19th-century French opera as a refuge from the terrors of serious art, there can be no doubt that his career as a teacher did more harm than good. In it the punishment drill of an incompetent schoolmaster was invested with the authority of a great composer, and by it the false antithesis between the "classical" and the "romantic" was erected into a barrier which many critics still find an insuperable obstacle to the understanding of the classical spirit. And yet as a composer Cherubini was no pseudo-classic but a really great artist, whose purity of style, except at rare moments, just failed to express the ideals he never lost sight of, because in his love of those ideals there was top much fear.
His principal works are summarized by Fetis as thirty-two operas,
twenty-nine church compositions, four cantatas and several
instrumental pieces, besides the treatise on counterpoint and fugue.
Good modern full scores of the two Requiems and of _Les Deux
Journees_(the latter unfortunately without the dialogue, which,
however, is accessible in its fairly good German translation in the
_Reclam Bibliolhek_), and also of ten opera overtures, are current in
the Peters edition. Vocal scores of some of the other operas are not
difficult to get. The great _Credo_ is in the Peters edition, but is
becoming scarce. The string quartets are in Payne's _Miniature
Scores._It is very desirable that the operas, from _Demophon_ onwards,
should be republished in full score.
See also E. Bellasis, _Cherubini_ (1874); and an article with personal
reminiscences by the composer Ferdinand Hiller, in _Macmillan's
Magazine_(1875). A complete catalogue of his compositions (1773-1841)
was edited by Bottee du Toulmon. (D. F. T.)
CHERUEL, PIERRE ADOLPHE (1800-1891), French historian, was born at Rouen on the 17th of January 1809. He was educated at the Ecole Normale Superieure, and became a fellow (_agrege_) in 1830. His early studies were devoted to his native town. His _Histoire de Rouen sous la domination anglaise au XVe siecle_(1840) and _Histoire de Rouen pendant l'epoque comunale, 1150-1382_(Rouen, 1843-1844), are meritorious productions for a time when the archives were neither inventoried nor classified, and contain useful documents previously unpublished. His theses for the degree of doctor, _De l'administration de Louis XIV d'apres les Memoires inedits d'Olivier d'Ormesson_ and _De Maria Stuarta et Henrico III_. (1849), led him to the study of general history. The former was expanded afterwards under the title _Histoire de l'administration monarchique en France depuis l'avenement de Philippe-Auguste jusqu'a la mort de Louis XIV_(1855), and in 1855 he also published his _Dictionnaire historique des institutions, moeurs et coutumes de la France_, of which many editions have appeared. These works may still be consulted for the 17th century, the period upon which Cheruel concentrated all his scientific activity. He edited successively the _Journal d'Olivier Lefevre d'Ormesson_(1860-1862), interesting for the history of the parlement of Paris during the minority of Louis XIV.; _Lettres du cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministere_ (6 vols., 1870-1891), continued by the vicomte G. d'Avenel; and _Memoires du duc de Saint-Simon_, published for the first time according to the original MSS. (2 editions, 1856-1858 and 1878-1881). To Saint-Simon also he devoted two critical studies, which are acute but not definitive: _Saint-Simon considere comme historien de Louis XIV_ (1865) and _Notice sur la vie et sur les memoires du duc de Saint-Simon_(1876). The latter may be considered as an introduction to the famous _Memoires_. Among his later writings may be mentioned the _Histoire de la France pendant la minorite de Louis XIV_ (4 vols., 1880) and _Histoire de la France sous le ministere de Mazarin_ (3 vols., 1882-1883). These two works are valuable for abundance of facts, precision of details, and clear and intelligent arrangement, but are characterized by a slightly frigid style. In their compilation Cheruel used a fair number of unpublished documents. To the student of the second half of the 17th century in France the works of Cheruel are a mine of information. He died in Paris on the 1st of May 1891.
CHERUSCI, an ancient German tribe occupying the basin of the Weser to the north of the Chatti. Together with the other tribes of western Germany they submitted to the Romans in 11-9 B.C., but in A.D. 9 Arminius, one of their princes, rose in revolt, and defeated and slew the Roman general Quintilius Varus with his whole army. Germanicus Caesar made several unsuccessful attempts to bring them into subjection again. By the end of the 1st century the prestige of the Cherusci had declined through unsuccessful warfare with the Chatti. Their territory was eventually occupied by the Saxons.
Tacitus, _Annals_, i.2, 11, 12, 13; _Germania_, 36; Strabo, p. 291 f.;
E. Devrient, in _Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Alter_. (1900), p. 517.
CHESELDEN, WILLIAM (1688-1752), English surgeon, was born at Somerby, Leicestershire, on the 19th of October 1688. He studied anatomy in London under William Cowper (1666-1709), and in 1713 published his _Anatomy of the Human Body_, which achieved great popularity and went through thirteen editions. In 1718 he was appointed an assistant surgeon at St Thomas's hospital (London), becoming full surgeon in the following year, and he was also chosen one of the surgeons to St George's hospital on its foundation in 1733. He retired from St Thomas's in 1738, and died at Bath on the 10th of April 1752. Cheselden is famous for his "lateral operation for the stone," which he first performed in 1727. He also effected a great advance in ophthalmic surgery by his operation of iridectomy, described in 1728, for the treatment of certain forms of blindness by the production of an "artificial pupil." He attended Sir Isaac Newton in his last illness, and was an intimate friend of Alexander Pope and of Sir Hans Sloane.
CHESHAM, a market town in the Aylesbury parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, 26 m. W.N.W. of London by the Metropolitan railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7245. It is pleasantly situated in the narrow valley of the river Chess, closely flanked by low wooded hills. The church of St Mary is cruciform and mainly Perpendicular. Some ancient frescoes and numerous monuments are preserved. All sorts of small dairy utensils, chairs, malt-shovels, &c., are made of beech, the growth of which forms a feature of the surrounding country. Shoemaking is also carried on. In Waterside hamlet, adjoining the town, are flour-mills, duck farms, and some of the extensive watercress beds for which the Chess is noted, as it is also for its trout-fishing.
CHESHIRE, a north-western county of England, bounded N. by Lancashire, N.E. by Yorkshire and Derbyshire, S.E. by Staffordshire, S. by Shropshire, W. by Denbighshire and Flint, and N.W. by the Irish Sea. Its area is 1027.8 sq. m. The coast-line is formed by the estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey, which are separated by the low rectangular peninsula of Wirral. The estuary of the Dee is dry at low tide on the Cheshire shore, but that of the Mersey bears upon its banks the ports of Liverpool (in Lancashire) and Birkenhead (on the Wirral shore). The Dee forms a great part of the county boundary with Denbighshire and Flint, and the Mersey the boundary along the whole of the northern side. The principal river within the county is the Weaver, which crosses it with a north-westerly course, and, being joined by the Dane at Northwich, discharges into the estuary of the Mersey south of Runcorn. The surface of Cheshire is mostly low and gently undulating or flat; but the broken line of the Peckforton hills, seldom exceeding 600 ft. in height, runs north and south flanking the valley of the Weaver on the west. A low narrow gap in these hills is traversed by the small river Gowy, which rises to the east but has the greater part of its course to the west of them. Commanding this gap on the west, the Norman castle of Beeston stands on an isolated eminence. The northern part of the hills coincides approximately with the district still called Delamere Forest, formerly a chase of the earls of Chester, and finally disforested in 1812. In certain sequestered parts the forest has not wholly lost its ancient character. On the east Cheshire includes the western face of the broad belt of high land which embraces the Peak district of Derbyshire; these hills rise sharply to the east of Congleton, Macclesfield and Hyde, reaching a height of about 1800 ft. within Cheshire. Distributed over the county, but principally in the eastern half, are many small lakes or meres, such as Combermere, Tatton, Rostherne, Tabley, Doddington, Marbury and Mere, and it was a common practice among the gentry of the county to build their mansions on the banks of these waters. The meres form one of the most picturesque features of the county.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Châtelet" to "Chicago"Chapter C: O. H. Cl. Br. I. S (4)
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