Chapter Colours to Comus of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

to the two colonels, and when Mr. Day arrives, quiets him by reminding him that she knows of certain deeds which would prove his ruin if divulged (1670).

T. Knight reproduced this comedy as a farce under the title of The Honest Thieves.

Common (Dol), an ally of Subtle the alchemist.—Ben Jonson: The Alchemist (1610).

Commoner (The Great), sir John Barnard, who in 1737 proposed to reduce the interest of the national debt from 4 per cent. to 3 per cent., any creditor being at liberty to receive his principal in full if he preferred it. William Pitt, the statesman, is so called also (1759–1806). Mr. Goschen in 1888 reduced the interest to 2¾ per cent.

Comnenus (Alexius), emperor of Greece, introduced by sir W. Scott in Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Anna Comnena, his daughter.

Compeyson, a would-be gentleman and a forger. He duped Abel Magwitch and ruined him, keeping him completely under his influence. He also jilted Miss Havisham. He was drowned near Greenwich in attempting to arrest Magwitch (q.v.).—Dickens: Great Expectations (1861).

Complaint (The), or Night Thoughts. Nine poems, called “Nights,” in blank verse, by Edward Young (1742–1745).

Compleat Angler (The), by Izaac Walton (1653).

Comrade , the horse given by a fairy to Fortunio.

He has many rare qualities…first he eats but once in eight days; and then he knows what s past, present, and to come [and speaks with the voice of a man].—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“Fortunio,” 1682).

Comus, th e god of revelry. In Milton’s “masque” so called. The “lady.” is lady Alice Egerton, the younger brother is Mr. Thomas Egerton, and the elder brother is lord viscount Brackley (eldest son of John earl of Bridgewater, president of Wales). The lady, weary with long walking, is left in a wood by her two brothers, while they go to gather “cooling fruit” for her. She sings to let them know her whereabouts, and Comus, coming up, promises to conduct her to a cottage till her brothers could be found. The brothers, hearing a noise of revelry, become alarmed about their sister, when her guardian spirit informs them that she has fallen into the hands of Comus. They run to her rescue, and arrive just as the god is offering his captive a potion; the brothers seize the cup and dash it on the ground, while the spirit invokes Sabrina, who breaks the spell and releases the lady (1634).