Chapter Crayon to Crispinus of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Crayon to Crispinus

Crayon (Le Sieur de), one of the officers of Charles “the Bold,” duke of Burgundy.—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Crayon (Geoffrey), Esq., a pseudonym of Washington Irving, author of The Sketch-Book (1820).

Creakle, a hard, vulgar schoolmaster, to whose charge David Copperfield was entrusted, and where he first made the acquaintance of Steerforth.

The circumstance about him which impressed me most was that he had no voice, but spoke in a whisper.
   —Dickens: David Copperfield, vi. (1849).

Creation, a poem by Richard Blackmore, M.D. (1711). Dr. Johnson thought well of it. An oratorio by Haydn (1798); La Première Semaine, by Du Bartas (about 1570); a French epic, translated into English verse by Joshua Sylvester, in 1605. Milton, in his Paradise Lost, was under obligation to Du Bartas.

Credat Judæus Apella, non ego (Horace, I Satires, v. 100). Of “Apella” nothing whatever is known. In general the name is omitted, and the word “Judæus” stands for any Jew. “A disbelieving Jew would give credit to the statement sooner than I should.”

Creed (An Exposition of the) by Pearson (1659). When I was at College, “Pearson on the Creed” and Paley’s “Evidences” were standard books.

Crekenpit, a fictitious river near Husterloe, according to the hypothetical geography of Master Reynard, who calls on the hare to attest the fact.—Reynard the Fox. (1498).

Crescent City, New Orleans [Or-leenz], in Louisiana, U.S.

Cressida, in Chaucer Cresseide , a beautiful, sparkling, and accomplished woman, who has become a by-word for infidelity. She was the daughter of Calchas, a Trojan priest, who took part with the Greeks. Cressida is not a character of classic story, but a mediæval creation. Pope says her story was the invention of Lollius the Lombard, historiographer of Urbino, in Italy. Cressida betroths herself to Troïlus, a son of Priam, and vows eternal fidelity. Troïlus gives the maiden a sleeve, and she gives her Adonis a glove, as love-knots. Soon after this betrothal an exchange of prisoners is made, when Cressida falls to the lot of Diomed, to whom she very soon yields her love, and even gives him the very sleeve which Troïlus had given her as a love-token.

In Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, she is a mere giddy jilt, who might be wooed and won by any one.

As false
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth…
Yea, let [men] say to stick the heart of falsehood, “As false as Cressid.”
   —Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, act iii. sc. 2 (1602).

Cresswell (Madame), a woman of infamous character, who bequeathed £10 for a funeral sermon, in which nothing ill should be said of her. The duke of Buckingham wrote the sermon, which was as follows:—“All I shall say of her is this: she was born well, she married well, lived well, and died well; for she was born at Shad-well, married Cress-well, lived at Clerken-well, and died in Bride-well.”—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xliv.

Crete (Hound of), a blood-hound.—See Midsummer Night’s Dream, act iii. sc. 2.

Coupe le gorge, that’s the word; I thee defy again,
O hound of Crete!
   —Shakespeare: Henry V. act ii. sc. I (1599).