Chapter Crimen læsæ Majestatis to Crone of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Crimen læsæ Majestatis to Crone

Crimen læsæ Majestatis (Latin). High treason.

Crimp A decoy; a man or woman that is on the look-out to decoy the unwary. It is more properly applied to an agent for supplying ships with sailors, but these agents are generally in league with public-houses and private lodging-houses of low character, into which they decoy the sailors and relieve them of their money under one pretence or another. (Welsh, crimpiaw, to squeeze or pinch; Norwegian, krympe, a sponge.)

Crimp of Death (A). A thief-catcher. A crimp is a decoy, especially of soldiers and sailors. (See above.)

"Here lie three crimps of death, knocked down by Fate,
Of justice the staunch blood-hounds, too, so keen."
Peter Pindar: Epitaph on Townsend, Macmanus, and Jealous.

Cringle (Tom). An excellent sailor character in the naval story by Michael Scott, called Tom Cringle's Log, first published in Blackwood's Magazine.

Cripple A battered or bent sixpence; so called because it is hard to make it go.

Cripplegate St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples and beggars, and was himself a cripple. Churches dedicated to this saint are, therefore, in the suburbs of large towns, as St. Giles of London, Norwich, Cambridge, Salisbury, etc. Cripplegate, London, was so called before the Conquest from the number of cripples who resorted thither to beg. (Stowe.)

Criss-cross Row (Christ-cross row). The A B C horn-book, containing the alphabet and nine digits. The most ancient of these infant-school books had the letters arranged in the form of a Latin cross, with A at the top and Z at the bottom; but afterwards the letters were arranged in lines, and a + was placed at the beginning to remind the learner that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

"Mortals ne'er shall know
More than contained of old the Chris'-cross row."
Tickell: The Horn-Book.

Crishna An incarnate deity of perfect beauty. King Canza, being informed that a child of the family of Devaci would overturn his throne, gave orders to destroy all the male infants that were born. When Crishna was born, his brother conveyed him secretly to the house of a shepherd king; but Canza discovered his retreat, and sent the monster Kâkshas to poison him. The tale says the infant child sucked the monster to death, and so escaped. As he grew up, his beauty was so dïvine that all the princesses of Hindustan fell in love with him, and even to the present hour he is the Apollo of India and the "idol of women." His images are always painted a deep azure colour. (Sir W. Jones.) (See Rama.)

Crisis properly means the "ability to judge." Hippocrates said that all diseases had their periods, when the humours of the body ebbed and flowed like the tide of the sea. These tidal days he called critical days, and the tide itself a crisis, because it was on these days the physician could determine whether the disorder was taking a good or a bad turn. The seventh and all its multiples were critical days of a favourable character. (Greek, krino, to judge or determine.)

Crispin A shoemaker. St. Crispin was a shoemaker, and was therefore chosen for the patron saint of the craft. It is said that two brothers, Crispin and Crispian, born in Rome, went to Soissons, in France (A.D. 303), to propagate the Christian religion, and maintained themselves wholly by making and mending shoes. Probably the tale is fabulous, for crepis is Greek for a shoe, Latin crepid-a, and St. Crepis or Crepid became Crepin and Crespin.
   St. Crispin's Day. October 25th, the day of the battle of Agincourt. Shakespeare makes Crispin Crispian one person, and not two brothers. Hence Henry V. says to his soldiers -

"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by ...
But we in it shall be remembered."
Shakespeare: Henry V., iv. 3.

   St. Crispin's holiday. Every Monday, with those who begin the working week on Tuesday; a no-work day with shoemakers. (See Crispin.)
   St. Crispin's lance. A shoemaker's awl. In French, "Lance de St. Crépin." Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers.
   The French argot for a leather purse is une crépine.