Chapter Caroline to Carthon of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Caroline to Carthon

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.

Caroline, of Brunswick, wife of George IV., was divorced for “infidelity.” It was Bergami, her chamberlain, with whom her name was slanderously connected.

Caroline Gann, the heroine of Thackeray’s Shabby Genteel Story (1857), continued in 1860 in The Adventures of Philip. Caroline Gann was meant to be a model “Job,” deserted by a wicked husband, oppressed by wrongs, yet patient withal and virtuous.

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.

The Caros mentioned…is the…noted usurper Carausius, who assumed the purple in the year 287, and seizing on Britain, defeated the emperor Maximinian Herculius in several naval engagements, which give propriety to his being called “The King of Ships.”—Dissertation on the Era of Ossian.

Carove, “a story without an end.”—Mrs. Austin: Translation.

I must get on, or my readers will anticipate that my story, like Carové’s more celebrated one, will prove a “story without an end.”—Thoms: Notes and Queries, March 24, 1877.

Carpathian Wizard (The), Proteus, who lived in the island of Carpathos, 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 hook [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”).

Solomon’s Carpet. 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: Al Korân, xxvii, notes.

Carpet Knight (A), a civil, not a military knight.

Carpet knights are men who are, by the prince’s grace and favour, made knights at home, and in the time of peace, by the imposition or laying on of the king’s sword, having, by some special service done to the commonwealth, deserved this title and dignity. They are called “Carpet Knights” because they receive their honour in the court, and upon carpets [and not in the battle-field].—Markham: Booke of Honour (1625).

Carpillona (Princess), the daughter of Sublimus 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 that held the basket in which Carpillona