Chapter C: G. H., initialism HAMILTON

The Exiles of Italy, Edinb., 1837. The Curate of Linwood, 1845. Margaret Waldegrave, Edinb., 1846. Amy Harrington, or a Sister’s Love, 1848. Constance Lindsay, or the Progress of Error, Edinb., 1849.

CHAM, _pseud._ [DE NOÉ, second son of the Comte de Noé, “pair de France”].

A Parisian draughtsman and author, of great celebrity for the comicality of his Characters, chiefly in the “Charivari,” “l’Illustration,” &c.

CHARFY (Guiniad) _pseud._ [GEORGE SMEETON, printer of St. Martin’s Lane, who, with his wife, was burned to death].

The Fisherman, or the Art of Angling made easy [1800?] A Compilation, of no value.

J. R. S.

CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, _prenonym_ [PHELAN, afterwards TONNA].

Under her Christian names this lady wrote upwards of fifty books for children, tales, etc. 1825-62.

CHATTERTON (Thomas) _literary forger_.

When very young, his sister says, a manufacturer promised to make
Mrs. Chatterton’s children a present of some earthenware; on
asking the boy what device he would have painted upon his--“Paint
me (said Chatterton) an angel, with wings, and a trumpet, to
trumpet my name over the world.”--_Life by Dr. Gregory_, 1803.

The Execution of Sir C. Bawdin [a poem]. By Thomas Rowley. 1772. 4to.

Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley [a monk], and others in the 15th Century; the greatest part now first published from the most authentic copies, with an engraved specimen of one of the MSS., to which are added a preface, an introductory account of the several pieces, and a glossary [edited by T. Tyrwhitt, with a frontispiece]. Lond. 1777. 8vo. Numerous editions.

For much of the following brief notice of the impostures of this
unfortunate, mad genius, we are indebted to an article by our
respected friend, Mr. Frederick Lawrence, who has kindly given us
permission to make such use of his articles in Sharpe’s London
Magazine as suit our purpose.

“Chatterton’s _first_ forgery, although of the nature of an
innocent hoax--a mere schoolboy’s trick--is deserving of some
little attention, as illustrating in a striking manner, not
merely his profound skill in the art of deception, but his ready
insight into human character, and quick perception of individual
weakness and peculiarities. A pewterer of Bristol, named Burgum,
had taken some notice of him, and whilst treating him as a mere
boy, had encouraged a degree of intimacy which gave Chatterton
an opportunity of practising on his credulity. He soon found
that Burgum was a vain man, and just the person to be tickled
and inflated with the pride of ancestry; so he set to work and
deduced his pedigree from one of the companions of the Conqueror.
From documents which he pretended to have discovered in the
muniment room of the Church of St. Mary, Redcliffe, he compiled
a history of the ‘De Bergham’ family; and furthermore produced a
poem, entitled ‘the Romaunt of the Cnyghte,’ written by one John
de Bergham, who flourished in the 14th century. As Chatterton had
suspected, the worthy pewterer was too well pleased to permit
himself to doubt the authenticity of the document which conferred
on him such an amount of ancestral dignity; and thus auspiciously
commenced the course of Fraud which ended in the production of
Rowley.”

Then came the forged account of the opening of an old bridge,
sent to the printer of Farley’s Bristol Journal, introduced by a
letter, signed ‘Dunhelmus Bristoliensis,’ intimating that it was
taken from an old MS.

This again went down, and the game went on merrily: it was
followed by another. Chatterton was found out, and told a good
round lie to account for his possession of the MSS.

His next fraud was perpetrated at the expense of a Mr. Catcott,
who was then writing a history of Bristol, and for whose benefit
Chatterton manufactured an account of Bristol, by Turgot or
Turgotus, “translated by T. Rowley, out of Saxon into English.”

Chatterton emboldened by success, next wrote to Horace Walpole,
who, though at first deceived, soon discovered the cheat, and
gave him kindly advice. “Too cautious and sensitive to become the
dupe of a lawyer’s apprentice, he now drew back, and wrote the
young enthusiast an edifying homily on the danger and disgrace of
forgeries, and urged him to stick to his business, and relinquish
his poetical aspirations.”

Horace Walpole had just before been made the instrument
of introducing into the world the Macpherson forgeries.
Chatterton, instead of following it, was indignant at the advice
given--advice which certainly did not come from one who himself
had acted on it; for, be it remembered, “The Castle of Otranto”
was said in the preface to have been discovered “in the library
of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England, and
printed at Naples, in black letter, in the year 1529!”

“Chatterton took his revenge on Walpole, and expressed his
resentment in some spirited lines, which have been published in
a recent memoir. We select a few couplets as _apropos_ to our
remarks:

“Thou mayst call me cheat;
Say didst thou never practice such deceit?
Who wrote Otranto?--But I will not chide;
Scorn I’ll repay with scorn, and pride with pride;
Still, Walpole, still thy prosy chapters write,
And twaddling letters to some fair indite;
Laud all above thee, fawn and cringe to those
Who for thy fame were better friends than foes.”

It is not our purpose to linger on Chatterton’s ultimate
unfortunate fate. That of literary forgers seems almost as
sure and inevitable as those of a commoner order, and though
not visited upon them physically by the law of the land, the
punishment has hitherto been unerring, and even more severe.

For the controversy which these forgeries excited, we must refer
our readers to the works mentioned in Lowndes by Bohn, and to the
article in Allibone’s Dictionary of English Literature.

CHRISTABEL, _pseud._ [Miss MAHONY, of Kenmare].

Poems on various subjects and occasions.

CHURNE (William) _pseud._ [F. E. PAGET].

The Hope of the Katzekopfs; a fairy tale, 1845.