Chapter Capucinade to Care of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Capucinade to Care

Capucinade . “A capucinade” is twaddling composition, or wishy-washy literature. The term is derived from the sermons of the Capuchins, which were notoriously incorrect in doctrine and debased in style.

It was a vague discourse, the rhetoric of an old professor, a mere capucinade.—Lesage: Gil Blas, vii. 4 (1715).

Capulet, head of a noble h ouse of Verona, in feudal enmity with the house of Montague (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).

Then lady Capulet comes sweeping by with her train of velvet, her black hood, her fan, and her rosary, the very beau-ideal of a proud Italian matron of the fifteenth century, whose offer to poison Romeo in revenge for the death of Tybalt stamps her with one very characteristic trait of the age and country. Yet she loves her daughter, and there is a touch of remorseful tenderness in her lamentation over her.—Mrs. Jameson.

(Lord Capulet was about 60. He had “left off masking” for above thirty years (act i. sc. 5). Lady Capulet was only 28—at least she tells the nurse so, although her daughter Juliet was a marriageable woman.)

The tomb of all the Capulets. Burke, in a letter to Matthew Smith, says, “I would rather sleep in the corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of all the Capulets.” It does not occur in Shakespeare.

Capys, a blind old seer, who prophesied to Romulus the military triumphs of Rome from its foundation to the destruction of Carthage.

In the hall-gate sat Capys,
Capys the sightless seer;
From head to foot he trembled
As Romulus drew near.
And up stood stiff his thin white hair,
And his blind eyes flashèd fire.
   —Macaulay: Lays of Ancient Rome (“The Prophecy of Capys,” xi.).

Carabas (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—

Chapeau bas! chapeau bas!
Gloire au marquis de Carabas!

(The name occurs in Perrault’s tale of Puss in Boots, and in Disraeli’s novel of Vivian Grey (1820); but it is Béranger’s song (1816) which has given the word its present meaning.)

Caracci of France, Jean Jouvenet, who was paralyzed on the right side, and painted with his left hand (1647–1707).

Caractacus or Caradoc, king of the Silurês (Monmouthshire, etc.). For nine years he withstood the Roman a rms, but being defeated by Ostorius Scapula, the Roman general, he escaped to Brigantia (Yorkshire, etc. ) to crave the aid of Carthismandua (or Cartimandua), a Roman matron married to Venutius, 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.