2 IS 



CHEBUBINI, MARIA-LUIGI. 



CHESNE, ANDRE DU. 



814 



Finally, in 1788, he returned to Paris, and devoted his fine talents to 

 poetry for the rest of his life. His first essays were eclogues ; they 

 were very beautiful, and, though less known, are quite equal to those 

 of Delille. " His projected labours," says Rabbe, " were vast, and he 

 had laid the plans of numerous poems. Admiring the majesty of the 

 Bible as much as he did the simple strength of the Greek, he had 

 chosen his subjects as well from the sacred writings as from the 

 mythological themes of Hesiod; so conscious was he of his own 

 powers, that he wanted to embrace the poetry of every age, and the 

 whole circle of nature's beauties." When the revolution broke out, 

 Andre 1 Chdnier took a middle course, as far removed from anarchy as 

 from despotism. He did not conceal his sentiments, and was soon 

 suspected by the Jacobins. During the preparations for the king's 

 trial, he wrote to the venerable Malesherbes, aud offered to share the 

 responsibility of his defence. He then became a marked man, and had 

 to conceal himself. He was soon after arrested, was forgotten, and 

 might have escaped ; but his father's anxiety to save him recalled 

 attention to hia name, and he was brought before the Revolutionary 

 Tribunal. Even in prison, and after his sentence, he composed passages 

 of true poetry. He was guillotined on the 7th Thermidor (July 26) 

 1794, two days before Robespierre and St. Juet. Although the poems 

 of Andrd Chdnier are not generally read, they have certainly served 

 to form the present school : Chateaubriand, Barthdldmy, Casimir 

 Delavigne, Victor Hugo, and Lamartine, owe much of their early 

 inspiration to him. 



MARIE JOSEPH CHfeNiER, brother of Andrd, was born at Constanti- 

 nople, on the 28th of August 1764. He became famous as a member 

 of the Convention, and as the author of several tragedies, written in 

 conformity with the spirit of the times. Among these, his 'Charles IX.,' 

 which still keeps the stage, was the most successful. It appeared 

 November 4, 1789. He also produced 'Tibore,' 'Henri VIII.,' and 

 ' Caius Gracchus; ' the last in 1792. In 1794 he had the courage to 

 paint the character of a true patriot in ' Timoleon,' his finest tragedy; 

 but the Committee of Public Safety stopped the performance, and 

 ordered the manuscript to be burnt. Marie Joseph was an elegant 

 prose writer, and a tolerable satirist. He likewise produced several 

 lyrical poems. Being a good speaker, and possessing much self- 

 command, he was elected a member of every legislative assembly 

 from 1792 to 1802. He was also a member of several learned insti- 

 tutions. The report which was spread after the execution of his elder 

 brother, Andrd, that Marie Joseph had contributed to his fall, was the 

 reverse of the truth; but the charge preyed upon his mind, and caused 

 him bitter anguish for the rest of his life. He died January 10, 1811. 



(Biog. Univen. ; Rabbe ; Lamartine, Qlronduti.) 



CHERUBl'NI, MARI A-LUIGI-CARLO-ZENOBI-SALVADOR, was 

 born in Florence in 1760. At nine years of age he commenced the 

 study of composition under the two Felicia, father and son, both of 

 whom dying, he was transferred, first to Bizzari, and afterwards to 

 Castrucct In 1773 he composed a mass and a motet, which excited a 

 great sensation in his native city ; and during the five following years 

 he produced many other works, both for the church and the theatre, 

 which met with decided success. This attracted the notice of the 

 grand-duke Leopold II. of Tuscany, who in 1778 granted him a pen- 

 sion, and enabled him to complete his studies under the celebrated 

 Sarti, at Bologna, with whom he passed nearly four years, not only 

 receiving much valuable instruction from that master, but also assist- 

 ing him in filling up his scores, a practice to which, under such 

 superintendence, his skill in this branch of composition may in great 

 measure be attributed. In 1734 be was invited to London, where he 

 continued two years, and composed his operas ' La Finta Principesaa,' 

 and ' Giulio Sabino,' in the latter of which the famous musico Marches! 

 made bis diibut at the King's Theatre. In 1786 Cherubini quitted 

 London to settle in Paris, and Franca thenceforward became his 

 adopted country and the scene of his greatest triumphs. He however 

 occasionally visited Italy, and in 17S8 brought out his ' Ifigenia in 

 Aulide ' at Turin. Returning to Paris in the same year, he gave, at 

 the Acaddmie Royale, hia ' Demophoon." The opera of ' Lodoiska ' 

 was produced in 1791, at the Thdatre Feydeau, an event that forms an 

 epoch in the annals of the comic opera. ' Lodoiska' was succeeded 

 by 'Elisa,' 'Medde,' ' Les deux Journdes,' 'Anacreon,' and 'L'H6tellerie 

 Portugaiae.' In 1805 Cherubini was invited to Vienna, and there 

 brought out, at the Imperial Theatre, his ' Faniska." His fame now 

 became European, and in 1815 he was invited to London by the 

 Philharmonic Society, for which he composed an overture, a sym- 

 phony, and a grand concerted vocal piece, all of which were performed 

 under his own direction at the concerts of that distinguished society. 

 They were however but moderately successful, though they certainly 

 exhibit the pen of a master. Finding himself injured by the changes 

 making by the restored dynasty in the music il as well as the other 

 government establishments of Paris, Cherubini resigned some of his 

 situations in disgust ; but he was soon recalled, and became composer 

 of the Chapelle du Roi, Professor of Composition at the Ecole-Royale 

 (of which in 1822 he was made Director), a member of the Acaddmie 

 Royale des Beaux Art, and Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur. His 

 last theatrical work was 'AH Baba,' a grand opera, produced in 1833, 

 but, though received with every mark of respect by the French public, 

 it did not keep possession of the stage. He died in March 1842, and 

 his obsequies were celebrated in a most solemn and distinguished 



manner. His own fine ' Requiem,' the laat composed of hia masses, 

 was performed on the occasion. 



In instrumental music Cherubini's fame hag spread throughout 

 Europe. But it is in the field of sacred music that his geniua ex- 

 panded in its full dimensions. His masses, psalms, motets, &c., unite 

 the most learned construction and the charms of the most original 

 and sweetest melody. His mass 'A Trois Voix" is a masterpiece, and 

 of itself sufficient to ensure the composer great and lasting reputation. 

 Of his secular vocal works, we only need mention his admirable fiuale 

 to ' Les deux Journdes,' of which M. Castil- Blaze has given so pic- 

 turesque a description and so laboured an analysis in his work on the 

 French opera. The other compositions of this great artist are too 

 numerous to be even named here. 



CHESELDEN, WILLIAM, a distinguished surgeon and anatomist 

 of the last century, was born in Leicestershire, in 1688. At fifteen he 

 commenced his medical studies in London, under the best instructors ; 

 and began himself to give lectures in anatomy in 1711, which he 

 continued for twenty years with a reputation not far inferior to that 

 of hia master, Cowper. Becoming soon favourably known, he was 

 elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1712, and repaid this early 

 distinction by a variety of interesting papers in the 'Philosophical 

 Transactions.' The most remarkable of them, communicated in 1728, 

 is an account of the sensations of a youth of fourteen, blind from 

 infancy, on recovering his sight by the formation of an artificial pupil. 

 The memoir has been much quoted by metaphysical writers : the 

 operation, now common, was then perfectly new; and added con- 

 siderably and justly to Cheselden's fame. 



In 1713 he published a work on anatomy which was long the text- 

 book of that science in England, and was frequently republished both 

 before and after his death. The eleventh edition was printed in 1778. 

 On the retirement of his tutor, Mr. Ferae, Cheselden succeeded him as 

 surgeon to St. Thomas's, and was afterwards appointed consulting 

 surgeon to St. George's and the Westminster hospitals. He turned 

 these opportunities to good account in maturing his own skill and 

 advancing the science of surgery, which is largely indebted to him. 

 He was probably never surpassed in dexterity and success as an 

 operator ; his coolness never deserted him ; and he is said to have been 

 as much distinguished for the tenderness as for the judgment that 

 directed his hand. We are told that out of forty-two patients whom 

 he cut for the stone in four years, he lost but one ; the present average 

 being at least six in that number. It is In lithotomy that Cheselden 

 has most reputa as an innovator as well as an operator. In 1723 he 

 published a volume on this subject, recommending an improved method 

 of performing what is called the ' high ' operation ; but after more 

 experience and investigation, he laid it aside for the 'lateral' method, 

 of which, as practised of late years, he may almost be considered the 

 inventor. His splendid work on the bones was published by subscrip- 

 tion in 1733, with a dedication to Queen Caroline, to whom he held 

 the appointment of surgeon. It consists of a series of plates of the 

 natural size, with short descriptions; and was then unequalled in 

 execution, and unsurpassed in accuracy. It was not successful as a 

 speculation, and was attacked with bitterness by a lithotomUt of the 

 name of Douglas. 



In 1737, after a brilliant professional career, and, it is said, partly in 

 disgust at the asperity to which his succeas had exposed him, Chesel- 

 den retired from practice at the age of forty-nine, and undertook the 

 honorary duties of surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, which he retained for 

 the rest of his life. His last contribution to science, made subsequently 

 to his retirement, consisted of a series of plates with original remarks 

 appended to Gataker's translation of Le Dran's ' Surgery.' 



In 1751 he suffered an attack of apoplexy from which he recovered ; 

 but a return of the complaint caused his sudden death at Bath, on the 

 10th of April 1752, in his sixty-fourth year. 



Cheselden's reputation as a surgeon was solid, and will be lasting. 

 As a man, much that is good is recorded of him, and nothing unfavour- 

 able, unlesa it be his fondness for pugilistic exhibitions, which might 

 have their interest for him as an anatomist. He associated with Pope 

 and other wits of his time ; but as his classical merit was certainly 

 not considerable, their intimacy may be ascribed to his professional 

 eminence and strong natural talents, rather than to the taste for 

 literature and art, upon which he seems to have prided himself with 

 no great reason. 



CHESNE, ANDRfi DU, born in 1584 in the province of Touraine, 

 became distinguished for hia historical and philological erudition, and 

 was one of the most learned men of France in his age. The work for 

 which he is best known is his valuable collection of the oldest French 

 chroniclers: 'Historiso Francorum Scriptores coaotanei, ab Gentia 

 Origine usque ad Philippi IV. tempora,' of which he edited 4 vols. fol. 

 and his son, Fran9t>is du Chcsne, edited the 5th after his father's 

 death. He also published : 2. ' Hiatoire des Rois, Dues, et Comtes 

 de Bourgogne et d'Arles,' 2 vols. 4to. 3. ' Histoire des Cardinaux 

 Francais." 4. 'BibliothecaCheniaceusis.' 5. ' Biblioth&que des Auteurs 

 qui ont dcrit 1'Histoire et Topographie de la France.' 6. ' Hiatoire des 

 Papes,' 2 vols. foL 7. ' Histoire gdndalogique dea Maisons de Luxem- 

 bourg, de Montmorency, Vergy, Guisnes, Chatillou, Bdthune, <fce.,' 

 7 vola. fol., besides a ' History of England ' in 2 vols. fol., Paris, 1634. 

 Duchesne died in 1640 near Paris. He has been called the father of 

 French history. 



