Camby´ses and Smerdis. Cambysês king of Persia killed his brother Smerdis from the wild suspicion of a madman, and it is only charity to think that he was really non compos mentis.
Camdeo, the god of love in Hindû mythology.
Camil´la, the virgin queen of the Volscians, famous for her fleetness of foot. She aided Turnus against Æneas.
Camilla, wife of Anselmo of Florence. Anselmo, in order to rejoice in her incorruptible fidelity, induced his friend Lothario to try to corrupt her. This he did, and Camilla was not trial-proof, but fell. Anselmo for a time was kept in the dark, but at the end Camilla eloped with Lothario. Anselmo died of grief, Lothario was slain in battle, and Camilla died in a convent.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. 5, 6 ("Fatal Curiosity," 1605).
Camilla, English girl, heroine of Miss Burney's novel of same name.
Camilla, the heroine of Signor Monaldini's Niece, by Mary Agnes Tincker, a story of modern Rome (1879).
Camille´ (2 syl.), in Corneille's tragedy of Les Horaces (1639). When her brother meets her and bids her congratulate him for his victory over the three Curiatii, she gives utterance to her grief for the death of her lover. Horace says, "What! can you prefer a man to the interests of Rome?" Whereupon Camille denounces Rome, and concludes with these words: "Oh, that it were my lot!" When Mdlle. Rachel first appeared in the character of "Camille," she took Paris by storm (1838).
¤¤¤ Whitehead has dramatized the subject and called it The Roman Father (1741).
Camille, one of the Parisian demi-monde. She meets and loves Armand Duval. Camille is besought by Duval père to leave her lover, whose prospects are ruined by the liaison. She quits him, returns to her former life, and dies of consumption in the arms of her lover, who has just found her after a long search.—A. Dumas, La Dame aux Camelias.
Camillo, a lord in the Sicilian court, and a very good man. Being commanded by king Leontês to poison Polixenês, instead of doing so he gave him warning, and fled with him to Bohemia. When Polixenês ordered his son Florizel to abandon Perdita, Camillo persuaded the young lovers to seek refuge in Sicily, and induced Leontês, the king thereof, to protect them. As soon as Polixenês discovered that Perdita was Leontês' daughter, he readily consented to the union which before he had forbidden.—Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (1604).
Cami´ola, "the maid of honor," a lady of great wealth, noble spirit, and great beauty. She loved Bertoldo (brother of Roberto king of the two Sicilies), and when Bertoldo was taken prisoner at Sienna, paid his ransom. Bertoldo before his release was taken before Aurelia the duchess of Sienna. Aurelia fell in love with him, and proposed marriage, an offer which Bertoldo accepted. The betrothed then went to Palermo to be introduced to the king, when Camiola exposed the conduct of the base young prince. Roberto was disgusted at his brother, Aurelia rejected him with scorn, and Camiola retired to a nunnery.—Massinger, The Maid of Honor (1637).
Campas´pe (3 syl.), mistress of Alexander. He gave her up to Apellês, who had fallen in love with her while painting her likeness.—Pliny, Hist. xxxv. 10.
John Lyly produced, in 1583, a drama entitled Cupid and Campaspe, in which is the well-known lyric:
Campbell (Captain), called "Green Colin Campbell," or Bar´caldine (3 syl.).— Sir W. Scott, The Highland Widow (time, George II.).
Campbell (General), called "Black Colin Campbell," in the king's service. He suffers the papist conspirators to depart unpunished.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Campbell (Sir Duncan), knight of Ardenvohr, in the marquis of Argyll's army. He was sent as ambassador to the earl of Montrose.
Lady Mary Campbell, sir Duncan's wife.
Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchenbreck, an officer in the army of the marquis of Argyll.
Murdoch Campbell, a name assumed by the marquis of Argyll. Disguised as a servant, he visited Dalgetty and M'Eagh in the dungeon, but the prisoners overmastered him, bound him fast, locked him in the dungeon, and escaped.—Sir W. Scott, Legend of Montrose (time, Charles I.).
Campbell (The lady Mary), daughter of the duke of Argyll.
The lady Caroline Campbell, sister of lady Mary.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).
Campeador [Kam.pay´.dor], the Cid, who was called Mio Cid el Campeador ("my lord the champion"). "Cid" is a corruption of saïd ("lord").
Campo-Basso (The count of), an officer in the duke of Burgundy's army, introduced by sir W. Scott in two novels, Quentin Durward and Anne of Geierstein, both laid in the time of Edward IV.
Can´ace (3 syl.), daughter of Cambuscan´, and the paragon of women. Chaucer left the tale half told, but Spenser makes a crowd of suitors woo her. Her brother Cambel or Cam´ballo resolved that none should win his sister who did not first overthrow him in fight. At length Tri´amond sought her hand, and was so nearly matched in fight with Camballo, that both would have been killed, if Cambi´na, daughter of the fairy Ag´apê (3 syl.), had not interfered. Cambina gave the wounded combatants nepenthe, which had the power of converting enmity to love; so the combatants ceased from fight, Camballo took the fair Cambina to wife, and Triamond married Canacê.—Chaucer, Squire's Tale; Spenser, Faëry Queen, iv. 3 (1596).
Canacê's Mirror, a mirror which told the inspectors if the persons on whom they set their affections would prove true or false.
Canacê's Ring. The king of Araby and Ind sent Canacê, daughter of Cambuscan´ (king of Sarra, in Tartary), a ring which enabled her to understand the language of birds, and to know the medical virtues of all herbs.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales ("The Squire's Tale," 1388).
Candace, negro cook in The Minister's Wooing, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She reverences Dr. Hopkins, but is slow to admit his dogma of Imputed Sin in Consequence of Adam's Transgression (1859).
Candau´les (3 syl.), king of Lydia, who exposed the charms of his wife to Gy´gês. The queen was so indignant that she employed Gygês to murder her husband. She then married the assassin, who became king of Lydia, and reigned twenty-eight years (B.C. 716-688).
Canday´a (The kingdom of), situate between the great Trapoba´na and the South Sea, a couple of leagues beyond cape Com´orin.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. iii. 4 (1615).
Candide´ (2 syl.), the hero of Voltaire's novel of the same name. He believes that "all things are for the best in the best of all possible worlds."
Candour (Mrs.), the beau-ideal of female backbiters.—Sheridan, The School for Scandal (1777).
Can´idia, a Neapolitan, beloved by the poet Horace. When she deserted him, he held her up to contempt as an old sorceress who could by charms unsphere the moon.—Horace, Epodes, v. and xvii.
Canmore or GREAT-HEAD, Malcolm III. of Scotland (1057-1093).—Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, i. 4.
Canning (George), statesman (1770-1827). Charles Lamb calls him:
Cano´pos, Meneläos's pilot, killed in the return voyage from Troy by the bite of a serpent. The town Canöpos (Latin, Canopus) was built on the site where the pilot was buried.
Can´tab, a member of the University of Cambridge. The word is a contraction of the Latin Cantabrig´ia.
Can´tacuzene´ (4 syl.), a noble Greek family, which has furnished two emperors of Constantinople, and several princes of Moldavia and Wallachia. The family still survives.
Can´tacuzene´ (Michael), the grand sewer of Alexius Comne´nus, emperor of Greece.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris. (time, Rufus).
Canterbury Tales. Eighteen tales told by a company of pilgrims going to visit the shrine of "St. Thomas à Becket" at Canterbury. The party first assembled at the Tabard, an inn in Southwark, and there agreed to tell one tale each both going and returning, and the person who told the best tale was to be treated by the rest to a supper at the Tabard on the homeward journey. The party consisted of twenty-nine pilgrims, so that the whole budget of tales should have been fifty-eight, but only eighteen of the number were told, not one being on the homeward route. The chief of these tales are: "The Knight's Tale" (Pal´amon and Ar´cite, 2 syl.); "The Man of Law's Tale" (Custance, 2 syl.); "The Wife of Bath's Tale" (A Knight); "The Clerk's Tale" (Grisildis); "The Squire's Tale" (Cambuscan, incomplete); "The Franklin's Tale" (Dor'igen and Arvir'agus); "The Prioress's Tale" (Hugh of Lincoln); "The Priest's Tale" (Chanticleer and Partelite); "The Second Nun's Tale" (St. Cecil'ia); "The Doctor's Tale" (Virginia); "The Miller's Tale" (John the Carpenter and Alison); and "The Merchant's Tale" (January and May) (1388).
Canton, the Swiss valet of lord Ogleby. He has to skim the morning papers and serve out the cream of them to his lordship at breakfast, "with good emphasis and good discretion." He laughs at all his master's jokes, flatters him to the top of his bent, and speaks of him as a mere chicken compared to himself, though his lordship is seventy and Canton about fifty. Lord Ogleby calls him his "cephalic snuff, and no bad medicine against megrims, vertigoes, and profound thinkings."—Colman and Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766).
Can'trips (Mrs.), a quondam friend of Nanty Ewart, the smuggler-captain.
Jessie Cantrips, her daughter.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Cant'well (Dr.), the hypocrite, the English representative of Molière's Tartuffe. He makes religious cant the instrument of gain, luxurious living, and sensual indulgence. His overreaching and dishonorable conduct towards lady Lambert and her daughter gets thoroughly exposed, and at last he is arrested as a swindler.—I. Bicker staff, The Hypocrite (1768).
Dr. Cantwell ... the meek and saintly hypocrite.
L. Hunt.
Canute' or Cnut and Edmund Ironside. William of Malmesbury says: When Canute and Edmund were ready for their sixth battle in Gloucestershire, it was arranged between them to decide their respective claims by single combat. Cnut was a small man, and Edmund both tall and strong; so Cnut said to his adversary, "We both lay claim to the kingdom in right of our fathers; let us therefore divide it and make peace;" and they did so.
Canute's Bird, the knot, a corruption of "Knut," the Cinclus bellonii, of which king Canute was extremely fond.
Can´ynge (Sir William) is represented in the Rowley Romance as a rich, God-fearing merchant, devoting much money to the Church, and much to literature. He was, in fact, a Maece´nas of princely hospitality, living in the Red House. The priest Rowley was his "Horace."—Chatterton (1752-1770).
Cap (Charles), uncle of Mabel Dunham in Cooper's Pathfinder (1849). He is a sea-captain who insists in sailing a vessel upon the great northern lakes as he would upon the Atlantic, but, despite his pragmatic self-conceit, is nonplussed by the Thousand Islands.
"And you expect me, a stranger on your lake, to find this place without chart, course, distance, latitude, longitude, or soundings? Allow me to ask if you think a mariner runs by his nose, like one of Pathfinder's hounds?"
Having by a series of blunders consequent upon this course, brought schooners and crew to the edge of destruction, he shows heart by regretting that his niece is on board, and philosophy with professional pride by the conclusion:—
"We must take the bad with the good in every v'y'ge, and the only serious objection that an old sea-captain can with propriety make to such an event, is that it should happen on this bit of d—d fresh water."
Capability Brown, Launcelot Brown, the English landscape gardener (1715-1783).
Cap'aneus (3 syl.) a man of gigantic stature, enormous strength, and headlong valor. He was impious to the gods, but faithful to his friends. Capaneus was one of the seven heroes who marched against Thebes (1 syl.), and was struck dead by a thunderbolt for declaring that not Jupiter himself should prevent his scaling the city walls.
Capitan, a boastful, swaggering coward, in several French farces and comedies prior to the time of Molière.
Caponsac'chi (Guiseppe), the young priest under whose protection Pompilia fled from her husband to Rome. The husband and his friends said the elopement was criminal; but Pompilia, Caponsacchi, and their friends maintained that the young canon simply acted the part of a chivalrous protector of a young woman who was married at fifteen, and who fled from a brutal husband who ill-treated her.—R. Browning, The Ring and the Book.
Capstern (Captain), captain of an East
Indiaman, at Madras.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon's Daughter (time, George II.).
Captain, Manuel Comne´nus of Treb´izond (1120, 1143-1180).
Captain of Kent. So Jack Cade called himself (died 1450).
The Great Captain (el Gran Capitano), Gonzalvo di Cor´dova (1453-1515).
The People's Captain (el Capitano del Popolo), Guiseppe Garibaldi (1807-).
Captain (A Copper), a poor captain, whose swans are all geese, his jewellry paste, his guineas counters, his achievements tongue-doughtiness, and his whole man Brummagem. See Copper Captain.
Captain (The Black), lieutenant-colonel Dennis Davidoff of the Russian army. In the French invasion he was called by the French Le Capitaine Noir.
Captain Loys [Lo.is]. Louise Labé was so called, because in early life she embraced the profession of arms, and gave repeated proofs of great valor. She was also called La Belle Cordière. Louise Labé was a poetess, and has left several sonnets full of passion, and some good elegies (1526-1566).
Captain! my Captain! fallen leader apostrophized by Walt Whitman in his lines upon the death of President Lincoln (1865).
Captain Right, a fictitious commander, the ideal of the rights due to Ireland. In the last century the peasants of Ireland were sworn to captain Right, as chartists were sworn to their articles of demand called their charter. Shakespeare would have furnished them with a good motto, "Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping?" (Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2).
Captain Rock, a fictitious name assumed by the leader of certain Irish insurgents in 1822, etc. All notices, summonses, and so on, were signed by this name.
Cap'ulet, head of a noble house of Verona, in feudal enmity with the house of Mon'tague (3 syl). Lord Capulet is a jovial, testy old man, self-willed, prejudiced, and tyrannical.
Lady Capulet, wife of lord Capulet and mother of Juliet.—Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1598).
Capys, a blind old seer, who prophesied to Romulus the military triumphs of Rome from its foundation to the destruction of Carthage.
Lord Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome ("The Prophecy of Capys," xi.).
Car'abas (Le marquis de), an hypothetical title to express a fossilized old aristocrat, who supposed the whole world made for his behoof. The "king owes his throne to him;" he can "trace his pedigree to Pepin;" his youngest son is "sure of a mitre;" he is too noble "to pay taxes;" the very priests share their tithes with him; the country was made for his "hunting-ground;" and, therefore, as Béranger says:
The name occurs in Perrault's tale of Puss in Boots, but it is Béranger's song (1816) which has given the word its present meaning.
Carac´ci of France, Jean Jouvenet, who was paralyzed on the right side, and painted with his left hand (1647-1707).
Carac´tacus or Caradoc, king of the Sil´urês (Monmouthshire, etc.). For nine years he withstood the Roman arms, but being defeated by Osto´rius Scap´ula the Roman general, he escaped to Brigantia (Yorkshire, etc.) to crave the aid of Carthisman´dua (or Cartimandua), a Roman matron married to Venu´tius, chief of those parts. Carthismandua betrayed him to the Romans, A.D. 47.—Richard of Cirencester, Ancient State of Britain, i. 6, 23.
Caradoc was led captive to Rome, A.D. 51, and, struck with the grandeur of that city, exclaimed, "Is it possible that a people so wealthy and luxurious can envy me a humble cottage in Britain?" Claudius the emperor was so charmed with his manly spirit and bearing that he released him and craved his friendship.
Drayton says that Caradoc went to Rome with body naked, hair to the waist, girt with a chain of steel, and his "manly breast enchased with sundry shapes of beasts. Both his wife and children were captives, and walked with him."—Polyolbion, viii. (1612).
Caracul (i.e. Caraeatta), son and successor of Severus the Roman emperor. In A.D. 210 he made an expedition against the Caledo´nians, but was defeated by Fingal. Aurelius Antoninus was called "Caracalla" because he adopted the Gaulish caracalla in preference to the Roman toga.—Ossian, Comala.
The Caracul of Fingal is no other than Caracalla, who (as the son of Severus) the emperor of Rome ... was not without reason called "The Son of the King of the World." This was A.D. 210.—Dissertation on the Era of Ossian.
Caraculiam'bo, the hypothetical giant of the island of Malindra'ma, whom don Quixote imagines he may one day conquer and make to kneel at the foot of his imaginary lady-love.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I.i.1 (1605).
Car'adoc or Cradock, a knight of the Round Table. He was husband of the only lady in the queen's train who could wear "the mantle of matrimonial fidelity." This mantle fitted only chaste and virtuous wives; thus, when queen Guenever tried it on—
Percy, Reliques ("Boy and the Mantle," III. iii. 18).
Sir Caradoc and the Boar's Head. The boy who brought the test mantle of fidelity to king Arthur's court drew a wand three times across a boar's head, and said, "There's never a cuckold who can carve that head of brawn." Knight after knight made the attempt, but only sir Cradock could carve the brawn.
Sir Cradock and the Drinking-horn. The boy furthermore brought forth a drinking-horn, and said, "No cuckold can drink from that horn without spilling the liquor." Only Cradock succeeded, and "he wan the golden can."—Percy, Reliques ("Boy and the Mantle," III. iii. 18).
Caradoc of Men'wygent, the younger bard of Gwenwyn prince of Powys-land. The elder bard of the prince was Cadwallon.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).
Car´atach or Carac´tacus, a British king brought captive before the emperor Claudius in A.D. 52. He had been betrayed by Cartimandua. Claudius set him at liberty.
(Byron alludes to the "spectacle" of Caractacus produced by Thomas Sheridan at Drury Lane Theatre. It was Beaumont's tragedy of Bonduca, minus the dialogue.)
Car´athis, mother of the caliph Vathek. She was a Greek, and induced her son to study necromancy, held in abhorrence by all good Mussulmans. When her son threatened to put to death every one who attempted without success to read the inscription of certain sabres, Carathis wisely said, "Content yourself, my son, with commanding their beards to be burnt. Beards are less essential to a state than men." She was ultimately carried by an afrit to the abyss of Eblis, in punishment of her many crimes.—W. Beckford, Vathek (1784).
Carau´sius, the first British emperor (237-294). His full name was Marcus Aurelius Valerius Carausius, and as emperor of Britain he was accepted by Diocletian and Maxim´ian; but after a vigorous reign of seven years he was assassinated by Allectus, who succeeded him as "emperor of Britain."—See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc., ii. 13.
Car´dan (Jerôme) of Pa´via (1501-1576), a great mathematician and astrologer. He professed to have a demon or familiar spirit, who revealed to him the secrets of nature.
Carden (Grace), lovely girl with whom Henry Little (an artisan) and Frederick Coventry, gentleman, are enamored. Beguiled by Coventry into a belief that Little is dead, she consents to the marriage ceremony with his rival. Little reappears on the wedding-day, and she refuses to live with her husband. The marriage is eventually set aside, and Grace Carden espouses Henry Little.—Charles Reade, Put Yourself in His Place.
Carde´nio of Andalusi´a, of opulent parents, fell in love with Lucinda, a lady of equal family and fortune, to whom he was formally engaged. Don Fernando his friend, however, prevailed on Lucinda's father, by artifice, to break off the engagement and promise Lucinda to himself, "contrary to her wish, and in violation of every principle of honor." This drove Cardenio mad, and he haunted the Sierra Morena or Brown Mountain for about six months, as a maniac with lucid intervals. On the wedding-day Lucinda swooned, and a letter informed the bridegroom that she was married to Cardenio. Next day she privately left her father's house and took refuge in a convent; but being abducted by don Fernando, she was carried to an inn, where Fernando found Dorothea his wife, and Cardenio the husband of Lucinda. All parties were now reconciled, and the two gentlemen paired respectively with their proper wives.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. (1605).
Care, described as a blacksmith, who "worked all night and day." His bellows, says Spenser, are Pensiveness and Sighs.—Faéry Queen, iv. 5 (1596).
Care'less, one of the boon companions of Charles Surface.—Sheridan, School for Scandal (1777).
Care'less (Colonel), an officer of high spirits and mirthful temper, who seeks to win Ruth (the daughter of sir Basil Thoroughgood) for his wife.—T. Knight, The Honest Thieves.
This farce is a mere réchauffé of The Committee, by the hon. sir R. Howard. The names "colonel Careless" and "Ruth" are the same, but "Ruth" says her proper Christian name is "Anne."
Careless, in The Committee, was the part for which Joseph Ashbury (1638-1720) was celebrated.—Chetwood, History of the Stage.
(The Committee, recast by T. Knight, is called The Honest Thieves.)
Careless (Ned), makes love to lady Pliant.—W. Congreve, The Double Dealer (1700).
Careless Husband (The), a comedy by Colley Cibber (1704). The "careless husband" is sir Charles Easy, who has amours with different persons, but is so careless that he leaves his love-letters about, and even forgets to lock the door when he has made a liaison, so that his wife knows all; yet so sweet is her temper, and under such entire control, that she never reproaches him, nor shows the slightest indication of jealousy. Her confidence so wins upon her husband that he confesses to her his faults, and reforms entirely the evil of his ways.
Carême (Jean de), chef de cuisine of Leo X. This was a name given him by the pope for an admirable soupe maigre which he invented for Lent. A descendant of Jean was chef to the prince regent, at a salary of £1000 per annum, but he left this situation because the prince had only a ménage bourgeois, and entered the service of baron Rothschild at Paris (1784-1833).
Carey, innocent-faced rich young dude in Ellen Olney Kirk's novel, A Daughter of Eve (1889).
Carey (Patrick), the poet brother of lord Falkland, introduced by sir W. Scott in Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).
Car'gill (The Rev. Josiah), minister of St. Ronan's Well, tutor of the hon. Augustus Bidmore (2 syl.), and the suitor of Miss Augusta Bidmore, his pupil's sister.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan's Well (time, George III.).
Cari'no, father of Zeno'cia, the chaste troth-plight wife of Arnoldo (the lady dishonorably pursued by the governor count Clodio).—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Custom of the Country (1647).
Car'ker (James), manager in the house of Mr. Dombey, merchant. Carker was a man of forty, of a florid complexion, with very glistening white teeth, which showed conspicuously when he spoke. His smile was like "the snarl of a cat." He was the Alas'tor of the house of Dombey, for he not only brought the firm to bankruptcy, but he seduced Alice Marwood (cousin of Edith, Dombey's second wife), and also induced Edith to elope with him. Edith left the wretch at Dijon, and Carker, returning to England, was run over by a railway train and killed.
John Carker, the elder brother, a junior clerk in the same firm. He twice robbed it and was forgiven.
Harriet Carker, a gentle, beautiful young woman, who married Mr. Morfin, one of the employés in the house of Mr. Dombey, merchant. When her elder brother John fell into disgrace by robbing his employer, Harriet left the house of her brother James (the manager) to live with and cheer her disgraced brother John.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).
Carle´ton (Captain), an officer in the Guards.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).
Carlisle (Frederick Howard, earl of), uncle and guardian of lord Byron (1748-1826). His tragedies are The Father's Revenge and Bellamere.
Car´los, elder son of don Antonio, and the favorite of his paternal uncle Lewis. Carlos is a great bookworm, but when he falls in love with Angelina he throws off his diffidence and becomes bold, resolute, and manly. His younger brother is Clodio, a mere coxcomb.—C. Cibber, Love Makes a Man (1694).
Carlos (under the assumed name of the marquis D'Antas) married Ogari´ta, but as the marriage was effected under a false name it was not binding, and Ogarita left Carlos to marry Horace de Brienne. Carlos was a great villain: he murdered a man to steal from him the plans of some Californian mines. Then embarking in the Urania, he induced the crew to rebel in order to obtain mastery of the ship. "Gold was the object of his desire, and gold he obtained." Ultimately, his villainies being discovered, he was given up to the hands of justice.—E. Stirling, The Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).
Carlos (Don), son of Philip II. of Portugal; deformed in person, violent and vindictive in disposition. Don Carlos was to have married Elizabeth of France, but his father supplanted him. Subsequently he expected to marry the arch-duchess Anne, daughter of the emperor Maximilian, but her father opposed the match. In 1564 Philip II. settled the succession on Rodolph and Ernest, his nephews, declaring Carlos incapable. This drove Carlos into treason, and he joined the Netherlands in a war against his father. He was apprehended and condemned to death, but was killed in prison. This has furnished the subject of several tragedies: i.e., Otway's Don Carlos (1672), in English; those of J.G. de Campistron (1683) and M.J. de Chénier (1789) in French; J.C.F. Schiller (1798) in German; Alfieri in Italian, about the same time.
Car'los (Don), the friend of don Alonzo, and the betrothed husband of Leono'ra, whom he resigns to Alonzo out of friendship. After marriage, Zanga induces Alonzo to believe that Leonora and don Carlos entertain a criminal love for each other, whereupon Alonzo, out of jealousy, has Carlos put to death, and Leonora kills herself.—Edward Young, The Revenge (1721).
Carlos (Don), husband of donna Victoria. He gave the deeds of his wife's estate to donna Laura, a courtesan, and Victoria, in order to recover them, assumed the disguise of a man, took the name of Florio, and made love to her. Having secured a footing, Florio introduced Gaspar as the wealthy uncle of Victoria, and Gaspar told Laura the deeds in her hand were utterly worthless. Laura in a fit of temper tore them to atoms, and thus Carlos recovered the estate and was rescued from impending ruin.—Mrs. Cowley, A Bold Stroke for a Husband (1782).
Carlton (Admiral George), George IV., author of The Voyage of—in search of Loyalty, a poetic epistle (1820).
Carmen, the fisherman's wife who, in Lufcadio Hearn's story Chita, adopts the baby dragged by her husband from the surf, and takes it to her heart in place of the child she has lost (1889).
Carmen (Eschelle), beautiful, ambitious, and intriguing New York society girl.—Charles Dudley Warner, A Little Journey in the World (1889).
Car´milhan, the "phantom ship." The captain of this ship swore he would double the Cape, whether God willed it or not, for which impious vow he was doomed to abide forever and ever captain in the same vessel, which always appears near the Cape, but never doubles it. The kobold of the phantom ship is named Klabot´erman, a kobold who helps sailors at their work, but beats those who are idle. When a vessel is doomed the kobold appears smoking a short pipe, dressed in yellow, and wearing a night-cap.
Caro, the Flesh or "natural man" personified. Phineas Fletcher says "this dam of sin" is a hag of loathsome shape, arrayed in steel, polished externally, but rusty within. On her shield is the device of a mermaid, with the motto, "Hear, Gaze, and Die."—The Purple Island, vii. (1633).
Caroline, queen-consort of George II., introduced by sir W. Scott in The Heart of Midlothian. Jeanie Deans has an interview with her in the gardens at Richmond, and her majesty promises to intercede with the king for Effie Deans's pardon.
Caros or Carausius, a Roman captain, native of Belgic Gaul. The emperor Maximian employed Caros to defend the coast of Gaul against the Franks and Saxons. He acquired great wealth and power, but fearing to excite the jealousy of Maximian, he sailed for Britain, where (in A.D. 287) he caused himself to be proclaimed emperor. Caros resisted all attempts of the Romans to dislodge him, so that they ultimately acknowledged his independence. He repaired Agricola's wall to obstruct the incursions of the Caledonians, and while he was employed on this work was attacked by a party commanded by Oscar, son of Ossian and grandson of Fingal. "The warriors of Caros fled, and Oscar remained like a rock left by the ebbing sea."—Ossian, The War of Caros.
Carpath'ian Wizard (The), Proteus (2 syl.), who lived in the island of Car'pathos, in the Archipelago. He was a wizard, who could change his form at will. Being the sea-god's shepherd, he carried a crook.
[By] the Carpathian wizard's book [crook]. Milton, Comus, 872 (1634).
Carpet (Prince Housain's), a magic carpet, to all appearances quite worthless, but it would transport any one who sat on it to any part of the world in a moment. This carpet is sometimes called "the magic carpet of Tangu," because it came from Tangu, in Persia.—Arabian Nights ("Prince Ahmed").
Carpet (Solomon's). Solomon had a green silk carpet, on which his throne was set. This carpet was large enough for all his court to stand on; human beings stood on the right side of the throne, and spirits on the left. When Solomon wished to travel he told the wind where to set him down, and the carpet with all its contents rose into the air and alighted at the proper place. In hot weather the birds of the air, with outspread wings, formed a canopy over the whole party.—Sale, Korân, xxvii. (notes).
Carpil'lona (Princess), the daughter of Subli'mus king of the Peaceable Islands. Sublimus, being dethroned by a usurper, was with his wife, child, and a foundling boy thrown into a dungeon, and kept there for three years. The four captives then contrived to escape; but the rope which held the basket in which Carpillona was let down snapped asunder, and she fell into the lake. Sublimus and the other two lived in retirement as a shepherd family, and Carpillona, being rescued by a fisherman, was brought up by him as his daughter. When the "Humpbacked" Prince dethroned the usurper of the Peaceable Islands, Carpillona was one of the captives, and the "Humpbacked" Prince wanted to make her his wife; but she fled in disguise, and came to the cottage home of Sublimus, where she fell in love with his foster-son, who proved to be half-brother of the "Humpbacked" Prince. Ultimately, Carpillona married the foundling, and each succeeded to a kingdom.—Comtesse D'Aunoy, Fairy Tales ("Princess Carpillona," 1682).
Car'pio (Bernardo del), natural son of don Sancho, and doña Ximena, surnamed "The Chaste." It was Bernardo del Carpio who slew Roland at Roncesvallês (4 syl.). In Spanish romance he is a very conspicuous figure.
Carras'co (Samson), son of Bartholomew Carrasco. He is a licentiate of much natural humor, who flatters don Quixote, and persuades him to undertake a second tour.
Carrier (Martha), a Salem goodwife, tried and executed for witchcraft. To Rev. Cotton Mather's narrative of her crimes and punishment is appended this memorandum:
This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was the person of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own children among the rest, agreed that the devil had promised her she should be Queen of Hell.—Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693).
Carril, the gray-headed, son of Kinfe'na bard of Cuthullin, general of the Irish tribes.—Ossian, Fingal.
Carrlllo (Fray) was never to be found in his own cell, according to a famous Spanish epigram.
Like Fray Carillo, the only place in which one cannot find him Is his own cell.
Longfellow, The Spanish Student, i. 5.
Car'rol, deputy usher at Kenilworth Castle.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Car'stone (Richard), cousin of Ada Clare, both being wards in Chancery interested in the great suit of "Jarndyce v. Jarndyce." Richard Carstone is a "handsome youth, about nineteen, of ingenuous face, and with a most engaging laugh." He marries his cousin Ada, and lives in hope that the suit will soon terminate and make him rich. In the meantime he tries to make two ends meet, first by the profession of medicine, then by that of law, then by the army; but the rolling stone gathers no moss, and the poor fellow dies of the sickness of hope deferred.—C. Dickens, Bleak House (1853).
Cartaph'ilus, the Wandering Jew of Jewish story. Tradition says he was doorkeeper of the judgment-hall, in the service of Pontius Pilate, and, as he led our Lord from the judgment-hall, struck Him, saying "Get on! Faster, Jesus!" Whereupon the Man of Sorrows replied, "I am going fast, Cartaphilus; but tarry thou till I come again." After the crucifixion, Cartaphilus was baptized by the same Anani'as who baptized Paul, and received the name of Joseph. At the close of every century he falls into a trance, and wakes up after a time a young man about thirty years of age.—Book of the Chronicles of the Abbey of St. Allans.
(This "book" was copied and continued by Matthew Paris, and contains the earliest account of the Wandering Jew, A.D. 1228. In 1242 Philip Mouskes, afterwards bishop of Tournay, wrote the "rhymed chronicle.")
Carter (Mrs. Deborah), housekeeper to Surplus the lawyer.—J. M. Morton, A Regular Fix.
Car'thage (2 syl.). When Dido came to Africa she bought of the natives "as much land as could be encompassed with a bull's hide." The agreement being made, Dido cut the hide into thongs, so as to enclose a space sufficiently large for a citadel, which she called Bursa "the hide." (Greek, bursa, "a bull's hide.")
The following is a similar story in Russian history:—The Yakutsks granted to the Russian explorers as much land as they could encompass with a cow's hide; but the Russians, cutting the hide into strips, obtained land enough for the town and fort which they called Yakutsk.
Carthage of the North. Lübeck was so called when it was the head of the Hanseatic League.
Car'thon, son of Cless'ammor and Moina, was born while Clessammor was in flight, and his mother died in childbirth. When he was three years old, Comhal (Fingal's father) took and burnt Balclutha (a town belonging to the Britons, on the Clyde), but Carthon was carried away safely by his nurse. When grown to man's estate, Carthon resolved to revenge this attack on Balclutha, and accordingly invaded Morven, the kingdom of Fingal. After overthrowing two of Fingal's heroes, Carthon was slain by his own father, who knew him not; but when Clessammor learnt that it was his own son whom he had slain, he mourned for him three days, and on the fourth he died.—Ossian, Carthon.
Car'ton (Sydney), a friend of Charles Darnay, whom he personally resembled. Sydney Carton loved Lucie Manette, but knowing of her attachment to Darnay, never attempted to win her. Her friendship, however, called out his good qualities, and he nobly died instead of his friend.—C. Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859).
Cartouche, an eighteenth century highwayman. He is the French Dick Turpin.
Ca'rus (Slow), in Garth's Dispensary, is Dr. Tyson (1649-1708).
Caryati'des (5 syl.), or Carya'tes (4 syl.), female figures in Greek costume, used in architecture to support entablatures Ca'rya, in Arcadia, sided with the Persians when they invaded Greece, so after the battle of Thermop'ylae, the victorious Greeks destroyed the city, slew the men, and made the women slaves, Praxit'elês, to perpetuate the disgrace, employed figures of Caryan women with Persian men, for architectural columns.
Cas'ca, a blunt-witted Roman, and one of the conspirators who assassinated Julius Cæsar. He is called "Honest Casca," meaning plain-spoken.—Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1607).
Casch'casch, a hideous genius, "hunch-backed, lame, and blind of one eye; with six horns on his head, and both his hands and feet hooked." The fairy Maimou'nê (3 syl.) summoned him to decide which was the more beautiful, "the prince Camaral'zaman or the princess Badou'ra," but he was unable to determine the knotty point.—Arabian Nights ("Camaralzaman and Badoura").
Casel'la, a musician and friend of the poet Dantê, introduced in his Purgatory, ii. On arriving at purgatory, the poet sees a vessel freighted with souls come to be purged of their sins and made fit for paradise; among them he recognizes his friend Casella, whom he "woos to sing;" whereupon Casella repeats with enchanting sweetness the words of [Dantê's] second canzone.