Chapter Cairbre to Calianax of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Cairbre to Calianax

Cairbre, sometimes called “Cairbar,” third king of Ireland, of the Caledonian line. (There was also a Cairbar, “lord of Atha,” a Fir-bolg, quite a different person.)

The Caledonian line ran thus: (1) Conar, first “king of Ireland;” (2) Cormac I., his son; (3) Cairbre, his son; (4) Artho, his son; (5) Cormac II., his son; (6) Ferad-Artho, his cousin.—Ossian.

Caius, th e assumed name of the earl of Kent when he attended on king Lear, after Goneril and Regan refused to entertain their aged father with his suite.—Shakespeare: King Lear (1605).

Caius (Dr.), a French physician, whose servants are Rugby and Mrs. Quickly.—Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor (1601).

The clipped English of Dr. Caius.—Macaulay.

Caius College (Cambridge), originally Gonville Hall. In 1557 it was erected into a college by Dr. John Key, of Norwich, and called after him Caius or Key’s College.

Cakes (Land of), Scotland, famous for its oatmeal-cakes.

Calais. When Calais was lost, queen Mary said they would find at her death the word Calais written on her heart.

Montpensier said, if his body were opened, the name of Felipe [II. of Spain] would be found imprinted on his heart (1552–1596).—Motley: Dutch Republic, part ii. 5.

Calandrino, a character in the Decameron, whose “misfortunes have made all Europe merry for four centuries.”—Boccaccio: Decameron, viii. 9 (1350).

Calantha, princess of Sparta, lov ed by Ithoclês. Ithoclês induces his sister Pen thea to break the matter to the princess. This she does; the princess is won to requite his love, and the king consents to the union. During a great court ceremony Calantha is informed of the sudden death of her father, another announces to h er that Penthea had starved herself to death from hatred to Bassanês, and a third follows to tell her that Ithoclês, her betrothed husband, has been murdered. Calantha bates no jot of the ceremony, but continues the dance even to the bitter end. The coronation ensues, but scarcely is the ceremony over than she can support the strain no longer, and, broken-hearted, she falls dead.—John Ford: The Broken Heart (1633).

Calantha and Ordella (q.v.) are the most perfect of women in all the range of fiction.

Calanthe, the betrothed wife of Pythias the Syracusian.—Banim: Damon and Pythias (1825).

Calaya, the third paradise of the Hindûs.

Calculator (The). Alfragan the Arabian astronomer was so called (died A.D. 820). Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbyshire, was also called “The Calculator” (1705–1775). George Bidder (1806–1878), Zerah Colburn, and a girl named Heywood (whose father was a Mile End weaver), all exhibited their calculating powers in public. (See Percy: Anecdotes.)

N.B.—Pascal, in 1642, made a calculating machine, which was improved by Leibnitz. C. Babbage also invented a calculating machine (1790–1871).

Calcutta is Kali-cuttah (“temple of the goddess Kali”).