Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936; repr. 1970); E. M.
W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture (London:
Chatto & Windus, 1960).
chambers of rhetoric Amateur literary societies in
France and, more significantly, the Netherlands, active
from about 1400. The rhétoriqueurs (French) or rederijkers
(Dutch) were mainly middle-class townspeople who
formed associations similar to guilds in order to promote
their love of poetry and drama. They were mostly encour-
aged by the civic authorities and they reciprocated by or-
ganizing public celebrations, but the religious upheavals
of the 16th century caused many of the chambers to fall
under suspicion of heresy, and by 1600 their heyday was
generally over.
Like the MEISTERGESANG guilds in Germany, the
chambers of rhetoric were not usually innovative in their
literary enterprises or particularly quick to respond to Re-
naissance ideas; they were however associated with the
rise of secular drama in northern Europe, and the Dutch
Elckerlijk (c. 1495) is probably the source for the English
morality play Everyman. Significant Dutch writers associ-
ated with the rederijker tradition include: Cornelis Ever-
aert (c. 1480–1556), playwright and member of De Drie
Santinnen at Bruges; Matthijs de Castelein (1485–1550),
author of the first Dutch treatise on poetry, De Const van
Rhetoriken (1548); Colijn van Rijssele, the 15th-century
author of the bourgeois drama cycle De Spiegel der Minnen
(The Mirror of Love); Anna BIJNS, a schoolmistress at
Antwerp; Dirck COORNHEERT; and Henrick SPIEGEL. The
fanciful names adopted by the chambers were expressed
in mottoes and emblems: they included De Egelantier and
’t Wit Lavendel at Amsterdam, Het Bloemken Jesse at Mid-
delburg, Trou moet Blijcken at Haarlem, De Fonteine at
Ghent, and De Violieren at Antwerp.
See also: DUYTSCHE ACADEMIE
Chambord, Château de A château in central France, on
the left bank of the River Cosson, a tributary of the Loire,
east of Blois. Erected on the site of a hunting lodge and
surrounded by forest, the château was mainly built
(1519–47) during the reigns of Francis I and Henry II and
incorporated many Renaissance features. The design was
by the Italian architect DOMENICO DA CORTONAand was
executed by Jacques Sourdeau, Pierre Neveu, and Denis
Sourdeau. Although the château was laid out in a me-
dieval Gothic style, its 440 rooms were decorated in a clas-
sical manner typical of the Renaissance; other details
include a double spiral open staircase. See Plate IV.
Champlain, Samuel de (1567–1635) French navigator,
founder of Quebec, and governor of Canada
Hailed as the key figure in the establishment of French in-
terests in North America, Champlain was born at Brouage,
his father a sea captain. Champlain fought for Henry IV in
the religious wars as a youth and sailed to the West Indies
for Spain in 1599, before his first visit to Canada in 1603.
For the next five years he explored extensively, before
founding Quebec in 1608. He then devoted himself to the
welfare of this community, developing the fur trade and
making frequent sorties into the hinterland. He became
lieutenant of Canada in 1612, but was captured by an Eng-
lish expedition against Quebec in 1629 and taken to Eng-
land. France regained Quebec in 1632, and Champlain
returned the following year to end his days there.Chancellor, Richard (died 1556) English navigator and
mathematician
In his early years he lived in the household of Sir Henry
Sidney, where his tutor was John DEE. Chancellor applied
his mathematical abilities, which Dee rated very highly, to
improving navigational techniques, but apparently his
first practical experience of seamanship was on a voyage
to Chios in 1550. In 1553 he joined the three-ship MUS-
COVY COMPANYexpedition searching for the NORTHEAST
PASSAGE. Although his ship was only one to reach Russia,
he completed the hazardous winter journey overland from
Archangel to Moscow to negotiate trade terms with Tsar
Ivan IV. He consolidated Anglo–Muscovite links on subse-
quent visits in 1555 and 1556, but died in a shipwreck off
Scotland while returning from his final journey. His inter-
esting account of Russia was published by HAKLUYT.chanson A French polyphonic song of the medieval and
Renaissance periods. A generic term, “chanson” encom-
passes rondeaux, ballades, and virelais. MACHAUTcan be
regarded as the first major chanson composer. In the sec-
ond half of the 14th century composers regularly set
poems polyphonically, usually in three parts, in a rhyth-
mically complex manner. The chansons of DUFAYwere
refined, with a rich texture, inventive melodies, and rhyth-
mic variety. Chanson style changed radically around 1500;
Josquin DES PRÉSand his contemporaries treated each
voice independently, and the new technique of imitative
counterpoint was used with repetition of phrases. In Paris
in the 1530s and 1540s the music printer Pierre Attaig-
nant published many chansons, notably those by SERMISY
and JANEQUIN; the Parisian chanson was much simpler in
style and more chordal. In the 1550s and 1560s com-
posers used more word-painting, with more variety of tex-
ture, though the genre never attained the scope of the
MADRIGAL.Chantal, Jeanne Françoise de, St. See JEANNE
FRANÇOISE DE CHANTAL, ST.Chapman, George (c. 1559–1634) English poet,
playwright, and translator
Little is known for certain about Chapman’s life; he may
have been born near Hitchin in southeast England and11000 0 cchhaammbbeerrss ooff rrhheettoorriicc