CHICKEN (The), Michael Angelo Taylor, barrister, so called because in his maiden speech, 1785, he said, “I deliver this opinion with great deference, being but a chicken in the profession of the law.”

Chicken (The Game), a low fellow, to be heard of at the bar of the Black Badger.  Mr. Toots selects this man as his instructor in fencing, betting, and self-defence.  The Chicken has short hair, a low forehead, a broken nose, and “a considerable tract of bare and sterile country behind each ear.”—­C.  Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

CHICKENS AND THE AUGURS.  When the augurs told Publius Claudius Pulcher, the Roman consul, who was about to engage the Carthaginian fleet, that the sacred chickens would not eat, he replied, “Then toss them into the sea, that they may drink.”

CHICK’ENSTALKER (Mrs.), a stout, bonny, kind-hearted woman, who keeps a general shop.  Toby Veck, in his dream, imagines her married to Tugby, the porter of sir Joseph Bowley.—­C.  Dickens, The Chimes (1844).

CHICK’WEED (Conkey, i.e.  Nosey), the man who robbed himself.  He was a licensed victualler on the point of failing, and gave out that he had been robbed of 327 guineas “by a tall man with a black patch over his eye.”  He was much pitied, and numerous subscriptions were made on his behalf.  A detective was sent to examine into the “robbery,” and Chickweed would cry out, “There he is!” and run after the “hypothetical thief” for a considerable distance, and then lose sight of him.  This occurred over and over again, and at last the detective said to him, “I’ve found out who done this here robbery.”  “Have you?” said Chickweed.  “Yes,” said Spyers, “you done it yourself.”  And so he had.—­C.  Dickens, Oliver Twist, xxxi. (1837).

CHIF’FINCH (Master Thomas), alias Will Smith, a friend of Richard Ganlesse (2 syl.).  The private emissary of Charles II.  He was employed by the duke of Buckingham to carry off Alice Bridgenorth to Whitehall, but the captive escaped and married Julian Peveril.

Kate Chiffinch, mistress of Thomas Chiffinch.—­Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

CHIGNON [Shin.yong], the French valet of Miss Alscrip “the heiress.”  A silly, affected, typical French valet-de-chambre.—­General Burgoyne, The Heiress (1718).

CHI’LAX, a merry old soldier, lieutenant to general Memnon, in Paphos.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, The Mad Lover (1617).

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

CHILD OF NATURE (The), a play by Mrs. Inchbald.  Amantis was 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.