Chapter Cheatly to Chevy Chase of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Chemos (ch=k), god of the Moabites; also called Baal -Peör; the Priapus or idol of turpitude and obscenity. Solomon built a temple to this obscene idol “in the hill that is before Jerusalem” (1 Kings xi. 7). In the hierarchy of hell Milton gives Chemos the fourth rank: (1) Satan, (2) Beëlzebub, (3) Moloch, (4) Chemos.

Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab’s sons…
Peör his other name.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, 406, 412 (1665).

Chequers, a public-house sign; the arms of Fitz-Warren, the head of which house, in the days of the Plantagenets, was invested with the power of licensing vintners and publicans.

The Chequers of Abingdon Street, Westminster, the bearings of the earls of Arundel, at one time empowered to grant licences to public-houses.

Cheronean (The) or The Cheronean Sage (ch=k), Plutarc h, who was born at Chæronea, in Bœotia (A.D. 46-120).

This praise, O Cheronean sage, is thine!
   —Beattie: Minstrel (1773).

Cherry, the lively daughter of Boniface, landlord of the inn at Lichfield.—Farquhar: The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707). (See below, Chery.)

Cherry (Andrew), comic actor and dramatist (1762–1812), author of The Soldier’s Daughter, All for Fame, Two Strings to your Bow, The Village, Spanish Dollars, etc. He was specially noted for his excellent wigs.

Shall sapient managers new scenes produce
From Cherry, Skeffington, and Mother Goose!
   —Byron: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).

(Mother Goose is a pantomime by C. Dibdin.)

Chersett (Anglo-Saxon, Chirch-sett, or “church-seed,” ecclesiæ semen), a certain quota of wheat annually made to the Church on St. Martin’s Day.

All that measure of wheat called chersett.—Deed of Gift to Boxgrove Priory (near Chichester).

Cherubim (Don), the “bachelor of Salamanca,” who is placed in a vast number of different situations of life, and made to associate with all classes of society, that the authors may sprinkle his satire and wit in every direction.—Lesage: The Bachelor of Salamanca (1737).

Chery, the son of Brunetta (who was the wife of a king’s brother), married his cousin Fairstar, daughter of the king. He obtained for his cousin the three wonderful things: The dancing water, which had the power of imparting beauty; the singing apple, which had the power of imparting wit; and the little green bird, which had the power of telling secrets.—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“The Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

Chesse(The Game and Play of), the first book printed by William Caxton, at the Westminster Press (1474). The art of printing by movable type was known at Mayence, Strasburg, and Haarlem some 20 years before Caxton set up his press in England.

Chester (Sir John), a plausible, foppish villain, the sworn enemy of Geoffrey Haredale, by whom he is killed in a duel. Sir John is the father of Hugh, the gigantic servant at the Maypole inn.

Edward Chester, son of sir John, and the lover of Emma Haredale.—Dickens: Barnaby Rudge (1841).

Chester Mysteries, certain miracle-plays performed at Chester in the fifteenth century, and printed in 1843 for the Shakespeare Society, under the care of Thomas Wright. (See Townley Mysteries.)