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

Tale of the Second Calender. No names given. This calender, like the first, was the son of a king. On his way to India he was attacked by robbers, and though he contrived to escape, he lost all his effects. In his flight he came to a large city, where he encountered a tailor, who gave him food and lodging. In order to earn a living, he turned wood-man for the nonce, and accidentally discovered an under-ground palace, in which lived a beautiful lady, confined there by an evil genius. With a view of liberating her, he kicked down the talisman; the genius killed the lady and turned the prince into an ape. As an ape he was taken on board ship, and transported to a large commercial city, where his penmanship recommended him to the sultan, who made him his vizier. The sultan’s daughter undertook to disenchant him and restore him to his proper form; but to accomplish this she had to fight with the malignant genius. She succeeded in killing the genius, and restoring the enchanted prince; but received such severe injuries in the struggle that she died, and a spark of fire which flew into the right eye of the prince, perished it. The sultan was so heart-broken at the death of his only child, that he insisted on the prince quitting the kingdom without delay. So he assumed the garb of a calender, and being received into the hospitable house of “the three sisters,” told his tale in the hearing of the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid.—The Arabian Nights.

Tale of the Third Calender. This tale is given under the word Agib, p. 14.

“I am called Agib,” he says, “and am the son of a king whose name was Cassib.”—Arabian Nights.

Calepine (Sir), the knight attached to Serena (canto 3). Seeing a bear carrying off a child, he attacked it, and squeezed it to death, then committed the babe to the care of Matilde, wife of sir Bruin. As Matilde had no child of her own, she adopted it (canto 4).—Spenser: Faérie Queene, vi. (1596).

(Upton says, “the child” in this incident is meant for M‘Mahon, of Ireland, and that “Mac Mahon” means the “son of a bear.” He furthermore says that the M‘Mahons were descended from the Fitz-Ursulas, a noble English family.)

Cales. So gipsies call themselves.

Beltran Cruzado, count of the Cales.
   —Longfellow: The Spanish Student.

Calf-skin. Fools and jesters used to wear a calf-skin coat buttoned down the back, and hence Faulconbridge says insolently to the archduke of Austria, who had acted very basely towards Richard Lion-heart—

Thou wear a lion’s hide! doff it for shame,
And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs.
   —Shakespeare: King John, act iii. sc. 1 (1596).

Calianax, a humorous old lord, father of Aspatia the troth-plight wife of Amintor. It is the death of Aspatia which gives name to the drama.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Maid’s Tragedy (1610).