Chapter Clytie to Cob of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Clytie to Cob

Clytie (3 syl.). A water-nymph, in love with Apollo. Meeting with no return, she was changed into a sunflower, which, traditionally, still turns to the sun, following him through his daily course.

Cneph The name under which the Egyptians adore the Creator of the world.

Cnidian Venus (The) The exquisite statue of Venus or Aphroditê by Praxitelês, placed in the temple of Venus, at Cnidus.

Co A contraction of company, as Smith and Co.

Coach (A) A private tutor The term is a pun on getting on fast. To get on fast you take a coach, you cannot get on fast without a private tutor- ergo, a private tutor is the coach you take in order that you may get on quickly. (University slang.)

“The books are expensive, and often a further expense is entailed by the necessity of securing `a coach.' ”- Stedman Oxford, chap. x. p. 188.

   To dine in the coach. In the captain's private room. The coach or couch of a ship is a small apartment near the stern, the floor being formed of the aftmost part of the quarter-deck, and the roof by the poop.
   A slow coach. A dull, unprogressive person, somewhat fossilised.

“What a dull, old-fashioned chap thou be st but thou wert always a slow-coach.”- Mrs. Gaskell: Cibbie Marsh (Era 2).

Coach-and-four (or Coach-and-six). It is said one may drive a coach-and-four through an Act of Parliament, i.e. lawyers can always find for their clients some loophole of escape.

“It is easy to drive a coach-and-four through wills, and settlements, and legal things.”- H. R. Haggard.

“[Rice] was often heard to say that he would drive a coach and six horses through the Act of Settlement.”- Welwood.

Coach-and-pair (A). A coach drawn by a pair of horses. Coach-and-four, coach-and-six, etc.

Coach Away Get on a little faster Your coach drags; drive on faster

Coached Up Taught by a private tutor for examination. “Well coached up,” well crammed or taught.

Coal Hot as a coal. The expression has an obvious allusion
   To post the coal or cole To pay or put down the cash. Coal=money has been in use in the sporting world for very many years. Buxton, in 1863, used the phrase “post the coal,” and since then it has been in frequent use. Probably rhyming slang “Coal,” an imperfect rhyme of gool =gold. (See page 248, Chivy and page 266, Coaling)

“It would not suit me to write, ... even if they offered, ..., to post the cole.”- Hood.

Coal Brandy Burnt brandy The ancient way to set brandy on fire was to drop in it a live or red-hot coal.

Coals
   To blow the coals To fan dissensions, to excite smouldering animosity into open hostility, as dull coals are blown into a blaze by a pair of bellows.
   To carry coals To be put upon. “Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals”- i.e. submit to be “put upon” (Romeo and Juliet, i. 1) So in Every Man out of his Humour, “Here comes one that will carry coals, ergo, will hold my dog.” The allusion is to the dirty, laborious occupation of coal-carriers. Gifford, in his edition of Ben Jonson, says, “Of these (i.e scullions, etc.), the most forlorn wretches were selected to carry coals to the kitchen, halls, etc.” (See page 141, col. 1, Blackguard)
   To carry coals to Newcastle. To do what is superfluous. As Newcastle is the great coal-field, it would be quite superfluous to carry coals thither. The French say, “Porter de l'eau à la rivière ” (to carry water to the river). There are numerous Latin equivalents as, “To carry wood to the forests,” “Poma Alcinoo dare ” (See Alcinoo); “Noctuas Athenas ferre ” (See Noctuas), “Crocum in Ciliciam ferre ” (See Crocum).
   To haul over the coals. To bring to task for shortcomings, to scold. At one time the Jews were “bled” whenever the kings or barons wanted money, and one very common torture, if they resisted, was to haul them over the coals of a slow fire, to give them a “roasting.” (See Ivanhoe, where Front-de-Boeuf threatens to haul Isaac over the coals.)