Chapter Chibiabos to Children of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Chignon [Shon-yo], the French valet of Miss Alscrip “the heiress.” A silly, affected, typical French valet- de-chambre.—Burgoyne: The Heiress (1718).

Chilax, a merry old soldier, lieutenant to general Memnon, in Paphos.—John Fletcher: The Mad Lover (1617).

Beaumont died 1616.

Child or Childe, a title given to a knight. It is given by Spenser to prince Arthur. We have Childe Rolande, Byron’s Childe Harold, Childe Waters, Childe Tristram, Childe Childers, etc. The Spanish infante means a “prince.”

Child. The notes of this bank bear a marigold, because this flower was the trade-mark of “Blanchard and Child.” The original “marigold” is still to be seen in the front office, with the motto, Ainsi mon ame.—See First London Directory (1677).

Child (The), Bettina, daughter of Maximiliane Brentano. So called from the title of her book, Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child.

Child of Elle , a ballad of considerable antiquity. The Child of Elle loved the fair Emmeline, but the two families being severed by a feud, the lady’s father promised her to another. The Child of Elle told Emmeline’s page that he would set her free that very night, but when he came up, the lady’s damselle betrayed her to her father, who went in pursuit with his “merrie men all.” The Child of Elle slew the first who came up, and Emmeline, kneeling at her father’s feet, obtained her forgiveness and leave to marry her true love. He said to the knight—

And as thou love her, and hold her deare,
Heaven prosper thee and thine;
And now my blessing wend wi’ thee,
My lovely Emmeline.

Child of Nature (The), a play by Mrs. Inchbald. Amantis is the “child of Nature.” She was the daughter of Alberto, banished “by an unjust sentence,” and during his exile he left his daughter under the charge of the marquis Almanza. Amantis was brought up in total ignorance of the world and the passion-principles which sway it, but felt grateful to her guardian, and soon discovered that what she called “gratitude” the world calls “love.” Her father returned home rich, his sentence cancelled and his innocence allowed, just in time to give his daughter in marriage to his friend Almanza.—

Child of the Cord. So the defendant was called by the judges of the Vehm-gericht, in Westphalia; because every one condemned by the tribunal was hanged to the branch of a tree.

Child-King. Shakespeare says, “Woe to that land that’s governed by a child!” (Richard III. act ii. sc. 3).

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child!—Eccles. x. 16.

Childe Harold, a man sated with the world, who roams from place to place, to kill time and escape from himself. The ‘childe” is, in fact, lord Byron himself, who was only 21 when he began the poem, which was completed in seven years. In canto i. the “childe” visits Portugal and Spain (1809); in canto ii., Turkey in Europe (1810); in canto iii., Belgium and Switzerland (1816); and in canto iv., Venice, Rome, and Florence (1817).

Childe Waters. The fair Ellen was enceinte of Childe Waters, and, when he went on his travels, besought that she might be his foot-page. She followed him in this capacity barefoot through “mosse and myre.” They came to a river, and the knight pushed her in, but “our Ladye bare upp her chinne,” and she came safe ashore. Having treated her with other gross indignities, she was taken with the throes of childbirth while on the knight’s steed. The child was born, and then Childe Waters relented, and married the much- wronged mother.— Percy: Reliques (Third Series, No. 9).