Chapter Count not your Chickens before they are Hatched to Coverley of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Courtenay (Peregrine), the pseudonym of Praed (1802–1839).

Courtly (Sir Charles), a young libertine, who abducted the beautiful wife of farmer Cornflower.—Dibdin: The Farmer’s Wife (1780).

Courtship of Miles Standish (The), a poem in English hexameters by Longfellow (1858).

Cousin Michel or Michael, the nickname of a German, as John Bull is of an Englishman, Brother Jonathan of an American, Colin Tampon a Swiss, John Chinaman a Chinese, etc.

Cousins (The), a novel by Mrs. Trollope (1847).

Couvade , a man who takes the place of his wife when she is in child-bed. In these cases the man lies a-bed, and the woman does the household duties. The people called “Gold Tooth,” in the confines of Burmah, are couvades. M. Francisque Mi chel tells us the custom still exists in Biscay; and colonel Yule assures us that it is common in Yunnan an d among the Miris in Upper Assam. Mr. Tylor has observed the same custom among the Caribs of the West Indies, the Abipones of Central South America, the aborigines of California, in Guiana, in West Africa, and in the Indian Archipelago. Diodorus speaks of it as existing at one time in Corsica; Strabo says the custom prevailed in the north of Spain; and Apollonius Rhodius that the Tabarenes on the Euxine Sea observed the same—

In the Tabarenian land,
When some good woman bears her lord a babe,
’Tis he is swathed, and groaning put to bed;
While she arising tends his bath and serves
Nice possets for her husband in the straw.
   —Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautic Exp.

Coventry, a corruption of Cune-tre (“the town on the Cune”).

Cune, whence Coventry her name doth take.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xiii. (1613).

Coventry Mysteries, certain miracle-plays acted at Coventry till 1591. They were published in 1841 for the Shakespeare Society, under the care of J. O. Halliwell. (See Chester Mysteries, p. 200.)

Coverley (Sir Roger de), a member of an hypothetical club, noted for his modesty, generosity, hospitality, and eccentric whims; most courteous to his neighbours, most affectionate to his family, most amiable to his domestics. Sir Roger, who figures in thirty papers of the Spectator, is the very beau-ideal of an amiable country gentleman of queen Anne’s time.

What would sir Roger de Coverley be without his follies and his charming little brain-cracks? If the good

knight did not call out to the people sleeping in church and say “Amen” with such delightful pomposity; if he did not mistake Mde. Doll Tearsheet for a lady of quality in Temple Garden; if he were wiser than he is, …of what worth were he to us? We love him for his vanities as much as for his virtues.—Thackeray.