Chapter Carton to Cassius of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Carton to Cassius

Carton (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.

Carun, a small river of Scotland, now called Carron, in the neighbourhood of Agricola’s wall. The word means “winding.”

Carus (Slow), in Garth’s Dispensary, is Dr. Tyson (1649–1708).

Carvel (Hans), a tale in a verse by Prior (1664–1721).

Caryatides or Caryates , fe male figures in Greek costume, used in architecture to support entablatures. Carya, in Arcadia, sided with the Persians when they invaded Greece; so after the battle of Thermopylæ, the victorious Greeks destroyed the city, slew the men, and made the women slaves. Praxitelês, to perpetuate the disgrace, employed figures of Caryan women with Persian men, for architectural columns.

Casabianca. A boy set by his father on watch. The ship caught fire, and his father was burnt to death. As the flames spread, the boy called to his father, but the ship blew up, and the boy was killed.—Mrs. Hemans: A Poem (1794–1835).

Casaubon (Mr.), the scholar who marries the heroine in George Eliot’s novel of Middlemarch (1872).

Casa Wappy, an elegy by D. M. Moir, on the death of his infant son, called by the pet name of “Casa Wappy.”

Casca, a blunt, violent conspirator, in the faction of Brutus. When Cæsar was slain, Antony said, “See what a rent the envious Casca made!”—Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar (1607).

Caschcasch, a hideous genius, “hunchbacked, lame, and bli nd of one eye; with six horns on his head, and both his hands and feet hooked.” The fairy Maimounê summoned him to decide which was the more beautiful, “the prince Camaralzaman or the princess Badoura,” but he was unable to determine the knotty point.—Arabian Nights (“Camaralzaman and Badoura”).

Case is Altered (The), a comedy by Ben Jonson (1597).

Casella, 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 [Dantês] second canzone.

Dantê shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing,
Met in the milder shades of purgatory.
   —Milton: Sonnet, xiii. (To H. Lawes).

Caser Wine, forbidden fruit. The reference is to the ancient Jews after their conquest by the Romans.

A Jew might be seen to drink Caser wine, and heard to ask a blessing in his cup.—Hepworth Dixon: The Two Queens, chap. iv.

Cashmere, a Polish emigrant in The Rovers, a parody by Canning on Schiller’s Robbers.

Casket Homer, Alexander’s edition with Aristotle’s notes. So called because it was kept in a golden casket, studded with jewels, part of the spoil which fell into the hands of Alexander after the battle of Arbela.