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

The Infamy of Crete, the Minotaur.

[There] lay stretched
The infamy of Crete, detested brood
Of the feigned heifer.
   —Dante: Hell, xii. (1300, Cary’s translation).

Crèvecour . The count Philip de Crèvecour is the envoy sent by Charles “the Bold,” duke of Burgundy, with a defiance to Louis XI. king of France.

The countess of Crèvecour, wife of the count.—Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Crib (Tom), Thomas Moore, author of Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, in verse (1819).

Crichton (The Admirable), James Crichton, a Scotchman (1560–1583). He was killed at Mantua in a duel with his pupil, Vincenzo di Gonzao, at the age of twenty-three.

The Irish Crichton, John Henderson (1757–1788).

Cricket on the Hearth (The), a Christmas fairy tale, by Dickens (1845). (See Peerybingle.)

Crillon. The following story is told of this brave but simple-minded officer. Henri IV., after the battle of Arques, wrote to him thus—

Prends-toi, brave Crillon, nous avons vaincu à Arques, et tu n’y étais pas.

The first and last part of this letter have become proverbial in France.

When Crillon heard the story of the Crucifixion read at church, he grew so excited that he cried out in an audible voice, Où étais tu, Crillon? (“What were you about, Crillon, to permit of such atrocity?”)

When Clovis was told of the Crucifixion, he exclaimed, “Had I and my Franks been by, we would have avenged the wrong, I warrant.”

Crime—Blunder. Talleyrand said of the execution of the duc d’Enghien by Napoleon I., that it was “not merely a crime, it was a blunder.” The words have been attributed to Fouché also.

Crimora and Connal. Crimora, daughter of Rinval, was in love with Connal of the race of Fingal, who was defied by Dargo. He begs his “sweeting” to lend him her father’s shield; but she says it is ill-fated, for her father fell by the spear of Gormar. Connal went against his foe, and Crimora, disguised in armour, went also, but unknown to him. She saw her lover in fight with Dargo, and discharged an arrow at the foe, but it missed its aim and shot Connal. She ran in agony to his succour. It was too late. He died, Crimora died also, and both were buried in one grave.—Ossian: Carric-Thura.

Crim-Tartary, now called the Crimea.

Cringle’s Log (Tom), a sea story by Michael Scott (1789–1835).

Crispin (St.). Crispinos and Crispianus were two brothers, born at Rome, from which place they travelled to Soissons, in France (about A.D. 303), to propagate the gospel. They worked as shoemakers, that they might not be chargeable to any one. The governor of the town ordered them to be beheaded the very year of their arrival; and they were made the tutelary saints of the “gentle craft.” St. Crispin’s Day is October 25.

This day is called the feast of Crispian…
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered.
   —Shakespeare: Henry V. act iv. sc. 3 (1599).

Crispinus, in Ben Jonson’s play of The Poetaster, is meant for Maston, the dramatist (1661).