Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 · Chapter 29Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS (29)
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Corn-Law Rhymer (The), Ebenezer Elliot (1781-1849).
Cornwall (Barry), an imperfect anagram of Bryan Waller Proctor, author of English Songs (1788-1874).
Corombona (Vittoria), the White Devil, the chief character in a drama by John Webster, entitled The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona (1612).
Coro'nis, daughter of Phorôneus (3 syl.) king of Pho'cis, metamorphosed by Minerva into a crow. Corporal (The Little). General Bonaparte was so called after the battle of Lodi(1796).
Corrector (Alexander the), Alexander Cruden, author of the Concordance to the Bible, for many years a corrector of the press, in London. He believed himself divinely inspired to correct the morals and manners of the world (1701-1770).
Courrouge' (2 syl.), the sword of Sir Otuel, a presumptuous Saracen, nephew of Farracute (3 syl.). Otuel was in the end converted to Christianity.
Corsair (The), Lord Conrad, afterwards called Lara. Hearing that the Sultan Seyd [Seed] was about to attack the pirates, he assumed the disguise of a dervise and entered the palace, while his crew set fire to the Sultan's fleet. Conrad was apprehended and cast into a dungeon, but being released by Glulnare (queen of the harem), he fled with her to the Pirates' Isle. Here he found that Medo'ra (his heart's darling) had died during his absence, so he left the Island with Gulnare, returned to his native land, headed a rebellion, and was shot.—Byron, The Corsair, continued in Lara (1814).
(This tale is based on the adventures of Lafitte, the notorious buccaneer. Lafitte was pardoned by General Jackson for services rendered to the States in 1815, during the attack of the British on New Orleans).
Cor'sand, a magistrate at the examination of Dirk Hatteraick at Kippletringan.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time George II).
Corsican General (The), Napoleon I., who was born in Corsica (1769-1821).
Cor'sina, wife of the corsair who found Fairstar and Chery in the boat as it drifted on the sea. Being made very rich by her foster-children, Corsina brought them up as princes. Comtesse D'Aunoy, Fairy Tales (The Princess Fairstar, 1682).
Corte'jo, a cavaliere servente, who as Byron says in Beppo:
Coach, servants, gondola, must go to call,
And carries fan and tippet, gloves and shawl.
Was it not for this that no cortejo ere
I yet have chosen from the youth of Sev'ille?
Byron, Don Juan, i. 148 (1819).
Corvi'no (Signior), a Venetian merchant, duped by Mosca into believing that he is Vol'pone's heir.—Ben Jonson, Volpone or the Fox (1605).
Coryate's Crudities, a book of travels by Thomas Coryate, who called himself the "Odcombian Legstretcher." He was the son of the rector of Odcombe (1577—1617).
Corycian Nymphs (The), the Muses, so called from the cave of Corycîa on Lyeorça, one of the two chief summits of Mount Parnassus, in Greece.
Cor'ydon, a common name for a shepherd. It occurs in the Idylls of Theocritos; the Eclogues of Virgil; The Cantata, v., of Hughes, etc.
Cor'ydon, the shepherd who languished for the fair Pastorella (canto 9). Sir Calidore, the successful rival, treated him most courteously, and when he married the fair shepherdess, gave Corydon both flocks and herds to mitigate his disappointment (canto 11).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. (1596).
Cor'ydon, the shoemaker, a citizen.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).
Coryphaeus of German Literature (The), Goethe.
The Polish poet called upon ... the great Corypheeus of German literature.—W. R. Morfell, Notes and Queries, April 27, 1878.
Coryphe'us (4 syl.), a model man or leader, from the Koruphaios or leader of the chorus in the Greek drama. Aristarchos is called The Corypheus of Grammarians.
Cosette. Illegitimate child of Fantine, a Parisian grisette. She puts the baby into the care of peasants who neglect and maltreat the little creature. She is rescued by the ex-convict Jean Valjean, who nurtures her tenderly and marries her to a respectable man.—Victor Hugo, Les Miserables.
Cosme (St.), patron of surgeons, born in Arabia. He practised medicine in Cilicia with his brother St. Damien, and both suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in 303 or 310. Their fête day is December 27. In the twelfth century there was a medical society called Saint Cosme.
Cos'miel (3 syl.), the genius of the world. He gave to Theodidactus a boat of asbestos, in which he sailed to the sun and planets.—Kircher, Ecstatic Journey to Heaven.
Cosmos, the personification of "the world" as the enemy of man. Phineas Fletcher calls him "the first son to the Dragon red" (the devil). "Mistake," he says, "points all his darts;" or, as the Preacher says, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Fully described in The Purple Island, viii (1633). (Greek, kosmos, "the world.")
Cos'tard, a clown who apes the court wits of Queen Elizabeth's time. He uses the word "honorificabilitudinitatibus," and some of his blunders are very ridiculous, as "ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say" (act v. I).—Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (1594).
Costigan, Irish Captain in Pendennis, W. M. Thackeray.
Costin (Lord), disguised as a beggar, in The Beggar's Bush, a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1622).
Cote Male-tailé (Sir), meaning the "knight with the villainous coat," the nickname given by Sir Key (the seneschal of King Arthur) to Sir Brewnor le Noyre, a young knight who wore his father's, coat with all its sword-cuts, to keep him in remembrance of the vengeance due to his father. His first achievement was to kill a lion that "had broken loose from a tower, and came hurling after the queen." He married a damsel called Maledisaunt (3 syl.), who loved him, but always chided him. After her marriage she was called Beauvinant.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 42-50 (1470).
Cotter's Saturday Night; Poem in which Burns depicts the household of a Scottish peasant gathering about the hearth on the last evening of the week for supper, social converse and family worship. The picture of the "Saint, the Father and the Husband" is drawn the poet's own father. Cotyt´to, Groddess of the Edõni of Thrace. Her orgies resembled those of the Thracian Cyb´elê (3 syl).
Hail goddess of nocturnal sport,
Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns.
Milton, Comus, 136, etc. (1634.)
Coulin, a British giant pursued by Debon till he came to a chasm 132 feet across which he leaped; but slipping on the opposite side, he fell backwards into the pit and was killed.
And eke that ample pit yet far renowned
For the great leap which Debon did compell
Coulin to make, being eight lugs of grownd,
Into which the returning back he fell.
Spencer, Faëry Queen, ii. 10 (1590.)
Count of Narbonne, a tragedy by Robert Jephson (1782). His father, Count Raymond, having poisoned Alphonso, forged a will barring Godfrey's right, and naming Raymond as successor. Theodore fell in love with Adelaide, the count's daughter, but was reduced to this dilemma: if he married Adelaide he could not challenge the count and obtain the possessions he had a right to as grandson of Alphonso; if, on the other hand, he obtained his rights and killed the count in combat, he could not expect that Adelaide would marry him. At the end the count killed Adelaide, and then himself. This drama is copied from Walpole's Castle of Otranto.
Count Robert of Paris, a novel by Sir W. Scott, after the wreck of his fortune and repeated strokes of paralysis (1831). The critic can afford to be indulgent, and those who read this story must remember that the sun of the great wizard was hastening to its set. The time of the novel is the reign of Rufus. Country (Father of his). Cicero was so called by the Roman senate (B.C. 106-43). Julius Cæsar was so called after quelling the insurrection in Spain (B.C. 100-43). Augustus Cæsar was called Pater atque Princeps (B.C. 63, 31-14). Cosmo de Med´ici (1389-1464). Washington, defender and paternal counsellor of the American States (1732-1799). Andrea Dorea is so called on the base of his statue in Gen´oa (1468-1560). Andronlcus Palaeol´ogus II. assumed the title (1260-1332). (See 1 Chron. iv. 14).
Country Girl (The), a comedy by Garrick, altered from Wycherly. The "country girl" is Peggy Thrift, the orphan daughter of Sir Thomas Thrift, and ward of Moody, who brings her up in the country in perfect seclusion. When Moody is 50 and Peggy is 19, he wants to marry her, but she outwits him and marries Bellville, a young man of suitable age and position.
Country Wife (The), a comedy by William Wycherly (1675).
Pope was proud to receive notice from the
author of
The Country Wife
.—R. Chambers,
English Literature
, i. 393.
Coupee, the dancing-master, who says "if it were not for dancing-masters, men might as well walk on their heads as heels." He courts Lucy by promising to teach her dancing.—Fielding, The Virgin Unmasked.
Cour´tain, one of the swords of Ogier the Dane, made by Munifican. His other sword was Sauvagine.
But Ogier gazed upon it [
the sea
] doubtfully
One Moment, and then, sheathing, Courtain, said,
"What tales are these?"
W. Morris, The Earthly Paradise ("August").
Courtall, a fop and consummate libertine, for ever boasting of his love-conquests over ladies of the haut monde. He tries to corrupt Lady Frances Touchwood, but is foiled by Saville.—Mrs. Cowley, The Belle's Stratagem (1780).
Courtly (Sir Charles), a young libertine, who abducted the beautiful wife of Farmer Cornflower.—Dibdin, The Farmer's Wife (1780).
Cousin Copeland, a little old bachelor, courtly and quaint, who lives in "Old Gardiston," the home of his ancestors "befo' de wah." He has but one suit of clothes, so he dresses for dinner by donning a ruffled shirt and a flower in his buttonhole. His work is among "documents," his life in the past; without murmur at poverty or change he keeps up the even routine of life until one evening, trying to elevate his gentle little voice as he reads to his niece, so as to be heard above the rain and wind, it fails.
"Four days afterward he died, gentle and
placid to the last. He was an old man, although
no one had ever thought so."—Constance
Fennimore Woolson,
Southern Sketches
, (1880).
Cousin Michel or MICHAEL, the nickname of a German, as John Bull is of an Englishman, Brother Jonathan of an American, Colin Tampon a Swiss, John Chinaman a Chinese, etc.
Couvade´ (2 syl.), a man who takes the place of his wife when she is in child-bed. In these cases the man lies a-bed, and the woman does the household duties. The people called "Gold Tooth," in the confines of Burmah, are couvades. M. Francisque Michel tells us the custom still exists in Biscay; and Colonel Yule assures us that it is common in Yunnan and among the Miris in Upper Assam. Mr.
Tylor has observed the same custom among the Caribs of the West Indies, the Abipones of Central South America, the aborigines of California, in Guiana, in West Africa, and in the Indian Archipelago. Diodorus speaks of it as existing at one time in Corsica; Strabo says the custom prevailed in the north of Spain; and Apollonius Rhodius that the Tabarenes on the Euxine Sea observed the same:
In the Tabarenian land,
When some good woman bears her lord a babe,
'
Tis he
is swathed, and groaning put to bed;
While she arising tends his bath and serves
Nice possets for her husband in the straw.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautic Exp
Cov´erley (Sir Roger de), a member of an hypothetical club, noted for his modesty, generosity, hospitality, and eccentric whims; most courteous to his neighbors, most affectionate to his family, most amiable to his domestics. Sir Roger, who figures in thirty papers of the Spectator, is the very beau-ideal of an amiable country gentleman of Queen Anne's time.
What would Sir Roger de Coverley be without
his follies and his charming little brain-cracks? If
the good knight did not call out to the people
sleeping in church, and say "Amen" with such
delightful pomposity; if he did not mistake Mde.
Doll Tearsheet for a lady of quality in Temple
Garden; if he were wiser than he is ... of
what worth were he to us? We love him for his
vanities as much as for his virtues.—Thackeray.
Cowards and BULLIES. In Shakespeare we have Parolès and Pistol; in Ben Jonson, Bob´adil; in Beaumont and Fletcher, Bessus and Mons. Lapet, the very prince of cowards; in the French drama, La Capitan, Metamore, and Scaramouch. (See also BASILISCO, CAPTAIN NOLL BLUFF, BOROUGHCLIFF, CAPTAIN BRAZEN, SIR PETRONEL FLASH, SACRIPANT, VINCENT DE LA ROSA, etc.)
Cowper, called "Author of The Task," from his principal poem (1731-1800).
Coxcomb (The Prince of) Charles Joseph Prince de Ligne (1535-1614).
Richard II. of England (1366, 1377-1400).
Henri III, of France, Le Mignon (1551, 1574-1589).
Coxe (Captain), one of the masques at Kenilworth.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Coy Bishop. Best friend and unconscious foil to Avis Dobell in Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' Story of Avis. "Her face is as innocent of sarcasm as a mocking bird's;" she "is one of the immortal few who can look pretty in their crimping-pins;" she "has the glibness of most unaccentuated natures;" she admires Avis without comprehending her, and she makes an excellent wife to John Rose, a practical young clergyman. (1877).
Crabshaw (Timothy), the servant of Sir Launcelot Greaves's squire.—Smollett, Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves (1760).
Crab´tree, in Smollett's novel called The Adventures of Peregine Pickle (1751).
Crab´tree, uncle of Sir Harry Bumber, in Sheridan's comedy, The School for Scandal (1777).
Crab´tree, a gardener at Fairport.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time George III.).
Crac (M. de), the French Baron Munchausen; hero of a French operetta.
Crack´enthorp (Father), a publican.
Dolly Crackenthorp, daughter of the publican.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Crackit (Flash Toby), one of the villains in the attempted burglary in which Bill Sikes and his associates were concerned.—C. Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837.)
Cra'dlemont, king of Wales, subdued by Arthur, fighting for Leod'ogran, king of Cam'eliarn (3 syl.).—Tennyson, Coming of Arthur.
Cradock (Sir), the only knight who could carve the boar's head which no cuckold could cut; or drink from a bowl which no cuckold could quaff without spilling the liquor. His lady was the only one in King Arthur's court who could wear the mantle of chastity brought thither by a boy during Christmas-tide.—Percy, Reliques, etc., III. iii. 18.
Craigdal'lie (Adam), the senior baillie of Perth.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).
Craig'engelt (Captain), an adventurer and companion of Bucklaw. Sir W. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).
Craik Mamsell. A murderer who allows suspicion to fall upon the innocent in Anna Katherine Green's story, Hand and Ring (1883).
Cramp (Corporal), under captain Thornton.—Sir W. Scott, Bob Roy (time, George I.)
Cran'bourne, (Sir Jasper), a friend of Sir Geoffrey Peveril—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).
Crane (Dame Alison), mistress of the Crane inn, at Marlborough.
Gaffer Crane, the dame's husband.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Crane (Ichabod), a credulous Yankee schoolmaster. He is described as "tall, exceedingly lank, and narrow-shouldered; his arms, legs, and neck unusually long; his hands dangle a mile out of his sleeves; his feet might serve for shovels; and his whole frame is very loosely hung together."
The head of Ichabod Crane was small and
flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy
eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked
like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle
neck to tell which way the wind blew.—W. Irving,
Sketch-Book
("Legend of Sleepy Hollow.")
Cranes (1 syl.). Milton, referring to the wars of the pygmies and the cranes, calls the former
That small infantry
Warred on by cranes.
Paradise Lost
, i. 575 (1665).
Cranion, queen Mab's charioteer.
Four nimble gnats the horses were,
Their harnesses of gossamere,
Fly Cranion, her charioteer.
M. Dayton,
Nymphidia
(1563-1631).
Crank (Dame), the papist laundress at Marlborough.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Cra'paud (Johnnie), a Frenchman, as John Bull is an Englishman, Cousin Michael a German, Colin Tampon a Swiss, Brother Jonathan a North American, etc. Called Crapaud from the device of the ancient kings of France, "three toads erect saltant." Nostradamus, in the sixteenth century, called the French crapauds in the well-known line:
Les anciens crapauds prendront Sara.
("Sara" is Aras backwards, a city taken from the Spaniards under Louis XIV.) Cratchit (Bob or Robert), clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge, stock-broker. Though Bob Cratchit has to maintain nine persons on 15s. a week, he has a happier home and spends a merrier Christmas than his master with all his wealth and selfishness.
Tiny Tim Cratchit, the little lame son of Bob Cratchit, the Benjamin of the family, the most helpless and most beloved of all. Tim does not die, but Ebenezer Scrooge, after his change of character, makes him his special care.—C. Dickens, A Christmas Carol (in five staves, 1843).
Craw'ford (Lindsay, earl of), the young earl-marshal of Scotland.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).
Craw'ford (Lord), captain of the Scottish guard at Plessis lés Tours, in the pay of Louis XI.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Crawley (Sir Pitt), of Great Gaunt Street, and of Queen's Crawley, Hants. A sharp, miserly, litigious, vulgar, ignorant baronet, very rich, desperately mean, "a philosopher with a taste for low life," and intoxicated every night. Becky Sharp was engaged by him to teach his two daughters. On the death of his second wife, Sir Pitt asked her to become lady Crawley, but Becky had already married his son, Captain Rawdon Crawley. This "aristocrat" spoke of "brass fardens," and was unable to spell the simplest words, as the following specimen will show:—"Sir Pitt Crawley begs Miss Sharp and baggidge may be hear on Tuseday, as I leaf ... to-morrow erly." The whole baronetage, peerage, and commonage of England did not contain a more cunning, mean, foolish, disreputable old rogue than Sir Pitt Crawley. He died at the age of fourscore, "lamented and beloved, regretted and honored," if we can believe his monumental tablet.
Lady Crawley. Sir Pitt's first wife was "a confounded quarrelsome, high-bred jade." So he chose for his second wife the daughter of Mr. Dawson, iron-monger, of Mudbury, who gave up her sweetheart, Peter Butt, for the gilded vanity of Crawleyism. This ironmonger's daughter had "pink cheeks and a white skin, but no distinctive character, no opinions, no occupation, no amusements, no vigor of mind, no temper; she was a mere female machine." Being a "blonde, she wore draggled sea-green or slatternly sky-blue dresses," went about slip-shod and in curl-papers all day till dinner-time. She died and left Sir Pitt for the second time a widower, "to-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new."
Mr. Pitt Crawley, eldest son of Sir Pitt, and at the death of his father inheritor of the title and estates. Mr. Pitt was a most proper gentleman. He would rather starve than dine without a dress-coat and white neckcloth. The whole house bowed down to him; even Sir Pitt himself threw off his muddy gaiters in his son's presence. Mr. Pitt always addressed his mother-in-law with "most powerful respect," and strongly impressed her with his high aristocratic breeding. At Eton he was called "Miss Crawley." His religious opinions were offensively aggressive and of the "evangelical type." He even built a meeting-house close by his uncle's church. Mr. Pitt Crawley came into the large fortune of his aunt, Miss Crawley, married Lady Jane Sheepshanks, daughter of the Countess of Southdown, became an M.P., grew money-loving and mean, but less and less "evangelical" as he grew great and wealthy.
Captain Rawdon Crawley, younger brother of Mr. Pitt Crawley. He was in the Dragoon Guards, a "blood about town," and an adept in boxing, rat-hunting, the fives-court, and four-in-hand driving. He was a young dandy, six feet high, with a great voice, but few brains. He could swear a great deal, but could not spell. He ordered about the servants, who nevertheless adored him; was generous, but did not pay his tradesmen; a Lothario, free and easy. His style of talk was, "Aw, aw; Jave-aw; Grad-aw; it's a confounded fine segaw-aw—confounded as I ever smoked. Gad-aw." This military exquisite was the adopted heir of Miss Crawley, but as he chose to marry Becky Sharp, was set aside for his brother Pitt. For a time Becky enabled him to live in splendor "upon nothing a year," but a great scandal got wind of gross improprieties between Lord Steyne and Becky, so that Rawdon separated from his wife, and was given the governorship of Coventry Isle by Lord Steyne. "His Excellency Colonel Rawdon Crawley died in his island of yellow fever, most deeply beloved and deplored," and his son Rawdon inherited his uncle's title and the family estates.
The Rev. Bute Crawley, brother of Sir Pitt. He was a "tall, stately, jolly, shovel-hatted rector." "He pulled stroke-oar in the Christ Church boat, and had thrashed the best bruisers of the town. The Rev. Bute loved boxing-matches, races, hunting, coursing, balls, elections, regattas, and good dinners; had a fine singing voice, and was very popular." His wife wrote his sermons for him.
Mrs. Bute Crawley, the rector's wife, was a smart little lady, domestic, politic, but apt to overdo her "policy." She gave her husband full liberty to do as he liked; was prudent and thrifty.—Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848).
Craydocke (Miss). Quaint friend of the Ripwinkleys and of everybody else who figures in A.D.T. Whitney's Real Folks, and other of her books. "Around her there is always springing up a busy and a spreading crystallizing of shining and blessed elements. The world is none too big for her, or for any such, of course."
Cray'on (Le Sieur de), one of the officers of Charles "the Bold," Duke of Burgundy.—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).
Crayon (Geoffrey), Esq., Washington Irving, author of The Sketch-Book (1820).
Crea'kle, a hard, vulgar school-master, to whose charge David Copperfield was entrusted, and where he first made the acquaintance of Steerforth.
The circumstance abont him which impressed
me most was that he had no voice, but spoke in
a whisper.—C. Dickens,
David Copperfield
, vi.
(1849).
Cream Cheese (Rev.), an aesthetic divine whose disciple Mrs. Potiphar is in The Potiphar Papers.—George William Curtis (1853).
Crebillon of Romance (The), A. François Prévost d'Exiles (1697-1763).
Credat Judaeus Apella, nonego (Horace, Sat. I. v. 100). Of "Apella" nothing whatever is known. In general the name is omitted, and the word "Judaeus" stands for any Jew. "A disbelieving Jew would give credit to the statement sooner than I should."
Cres'sida, in Chaucer Cresseide (2 syl.), a beautiful, sparkling, and accomplished woman, who has become a by-word for infidelity. She was the daughter of Calchas, a Trojan priest, who took part with the Greeks. Cressida is not a character of classic story, but a mediaeval creation. Pope says her story was the invention of Lollius the Lombard, historiographer of Urbino, in Italy. Cressida betroths herself to Troilus, a son of Priam, and vows eternal fidelity. Troilus gives the maiden a sleeve, and she gives her Adonis a glove, as a love-knot. Soon after this betrothal an exchange of prisoners is made, when Cressida falls to the lot of Diomed, to whom she very soon yields her love, and even gives him the very sleeve which Troilus had given her as a love-token.
As false
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth.
Yea, let [
men
] say to stick the heart of falsehood,
"As false as Cressid."
(Shakespeare,
Troilus and Cressida
, act iii. sc. 2)
(1602).
Cresswell (Madame), a woman of infamous character, who bequeathed £10 for a funeral sermon, in which nothing ill should be said of her. The Duke of Buckinham wrote the sermon, which was as follows:—"All I shall say of her is this: she was born well, she married well, lived well, and died well; for she was born at Shad-well, married Cress-well, lived at Clerken-well, and died in Bride-well."
Cressy McKinstry. Belle of Tuolumne County, California; pretty, saucy and illiterate. She conceives the idea of getting an education, and attends the district school, breaking an engagement of marriage to do this; bewitches the master, a college graduate, and confesses her love for him, but will not be "engaged:"
"I don't know enough to be a wife to you just now and you know it. I couldn't keep a house fit for you and you couldn't keep me without it.... You're only a dandy boy, you know, and they don't get married to backwood Southern girls."
After many scrapes involving perils, shared together, and much love-making, he is stunned one morning to learn that Cressy is married to another man, whom she had feigned not to like.—Bret Harte, Cressy (1889).
Crete (Hound of), a blood-hound.—See Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii. sec. 2.
Coupe le gorge, that's the word; I thee defy again,
O hound of Crete!
Shakespeare, Henry V. act ii. sc. 1 (1599).
Crete (The Infamy of), the Minotaur.
[
There
] lay stretched
The infamy of Crete, detested brood
Of the feigned heifer.
Dante,
Hell
, xii. (1300, Cary's translation).
Crèvecour (2 syl.). The count Philip de Crèvecour is the envoy sent by Charles "the Bold," duke of Burgundy, with a defiance to Louis XI., king of France.
The Countess of Crèvecour, wife of the count.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Crib (Tom), Thomas Moore, author of Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress (1819).
Crillon. The following story is told of this brave but simple-minded officer. Henry IV., after the battle of Arques, wrote to him thus:
Prends-toi, brave Crillon, nous avons vaincu à Arques, et tu n'y étais pas.
The first and last part of this letter have become proverbial in France.
When Crillon heard the story of the Crucifixion read at Church, he grew so excited that he cried out in an audible voice, Où étais tu, Crillon? ("What were you about, Crillon, to permit of such atrocity!")
[Illustration: symbol] When Clovis was told of the Crucifixion, he exclaimed, "Had I and my Franks been by, we would have avenged the wrong, I warrant."
Crimo'ra and Connal. Crimora, daughter of Rinval, was in love with Connal of the race of Fingal, who was defied by Dargo. He begs his "sweeting" to lend him her father's shield, but she says it is ill-fated, for her father fell by the spear of Gormar. Connal went against his foe, and Crimora, disguised in armor, went also, but unknown to him. She saw her lover in fight with Dargo, and discharged an arrow at the foe, but it missed its aim and shot Connal. She ran in agony to his succor. It was too late. He died, Crimora died also, and both were buried in one grave. Ossian, Carric-Thura.
Cringle (Tom), Hero of sea-story by Michael Scott, Tom Cringle's Log.
Crispin (St.). Crispinos and Crispianus were two brothers, born at Rome, from which place they traveled to Soissons, in France (about A.D. 303), to propagate the gospel, and worked as shoe-makers, that they might not be chargeable to any one. The governor of the town ordered them to be beheaded the very year of their arrival, and they were made the tutelary saints of the "gentle craft." St. Crispin's Day is October 25.
This day is called the feast of Crispian..
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered.
Shakespeare, Henry V. act iv. sc. 3 (1599).
Critic (A Bossu), one who criticizes the "getting up" of a book more than its literary worth; a captious, carping critic. Réne le Bossu was a French critic (1631-1680).
The epic poem your lordship bade me look at,
upon taking the length, breadth, height, and
depth of it, and trying them at home upon an
exact scale of Bossu's, 'tis out, my lord, in every
one of its dimensions. Admirable connoisseur!
—Sterne.
(Probably the scale referred to was that of Bossut the mathematician, and that either Bossu and Bossut have been confounded, or else that a pun is intended).
Critic (The), by R. B. Sheridan, suggested by The Rehearsal (1779).
The Rehearsal is by the Duke of Buckingham (1671).
Critics (The Prince of), Aristarchos of Byzantium, who compiled, in the second century B.C., the rhapsodies of Homer.
Croaker, guardian to Miss Richland. Never so happy as when he imagines himself a martyr. He loves a funeral better than a festival, and delights to think that the world is going to rack and ruin. His favorite phrase is "May be not."
A poor, fretful soul, that has a new distress
for every hour of the four and twenty.—Act i. 1.
Mrs. Croaker, the very reverse of her grumbling, atrabilious husband. She is mirthful, light-hearted, and cheerful as a lark.
The very reverse of each other. She all laugh
and no joke, he always complaining and never
sorrowful.—Act i. 1.
Leontine Croaker, son of Mr. Croaker. Being sent to Paris to fetch his sister, he falls in love with Olivia Woodville, whom he brings home instead, introduces her to Croaker as his daughter, and ultimately marries her.—Goldsmith, The Good Natured Man (1768).