Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 76

CLAYPOLE _(Noah), alias_ "Morris Bolter," an ill-conditioned charity-boy, who takes down the shutters of Sowerberry's shop and receives broken meats from Charlotte (Sowerberry's servant), whom he afterwards marries.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

CLAY AND RANDOLPH. In his _Thirty Years' View_, Thomas Hart Benton gives a graphic description of the famous duel between Henry Clay and John Randolph, of Roanoke (April 8, 1826).

After two shots had been exchanged without injury to either, the two statesmen shook hands, Randolph remarking: "You owe me a coat, Mr.

Clay," a bullet having pa.s.sed through his; and Mr. Clay answered: "I am glad the debt is no greater!" (1854).

CLEANTE (2 _syl_.), brother-in-law of Orgon. He is distinguished for his genuine piety, and is both high-minded and compa.s.sionate.--Moliere, _La Tartuffe_ (1664).

_Cleante_ (2 _Syl._), son of Har'pagon the miser, in love with Mariane (3 _syl_.). Harpagon, though 60 years old, wished to marry the same young lady, but Cleante solved the difficulty thus: He dug up a casket of gold from the garden, hidden under a tree by the miser, and while Harpagon was raving about the loss of his gold, Cleante told him he might take his choice between Mariane and the gold. The miser preferred the casket, which was restored to him, and Cleante married Mariane.--Moliere, _L'Avar_ (1667).

_Cleante_ (2 _syl_.), the lover of Angelique, daughter of Argan the _malade imaginaire_. As Argan had promised Angelique in marriage to Thomas Diafoirus, a young surgeon, Cleante carries on his love as a music-master, and though Argan is present, the lovers sing to each other their plans under the guise of an interlude called "Tircis and Philis." Ultimately, Argan a.s.sents to the marriage of his daughter with Cleante.--Moliere, _Le Malade Imaginaire_ (1673).

CLEAN'THE (2 _syl_.), sister of Siphax of Paphos.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Mad Lover_ (1617).

_Cleanthe_ (3 _syl_.), the lady beloved by Ion.--Talfourd, _Ion_ (1835).

CLEAN'THES (3 _syl_.), son of Leon'ides and husband of Hippolita, noted for his filial piety. The Duke of Epire made a law that all men who had attained the age of 80 should be put to death as useless inc.u.mbrances of the commonwealth. Simonides, a young libertine, admired the law, but Cleanthes looked on it with horror, and determined to save his father from its operation. Accordingly, he gave out that his father was dead, and an ostentatious funeral took place; but Cleanthes retired to a wood, where he concealed Leon'ides, while he and his wife waited on him and administered to his wants.--_The Old Law_ (a comedy of Philip Ma.s.singer, T. Middleton, and W. Rowley, 1620).

CLEGG _(Holdfast)_, a Puritan mill-wright.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

CLEISH'BOTHAM _(Jededi'ah)_, schoolmaster and parish clerk of Gandercleuch, who employed his a.s.sistant teacher to arrange and edit the tales told by the landlord of the Wallace Inn of the same parish.

These tales the editor disposed in three series, called by the general t.i.tle of _The Tales of My Landlord (q.v.)._ (See introduction to _The Black Dwarf_.) Of course the real author is Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

_Mrs. Dorothea Cleishbotham_, wife of the schoolmaster, a perfect Xantippe, and a "sworn sister of the Eumen'ides."

CLE'LIA OR CLOE'LIA, a Roman maiden, one of the hostages given to Por'sena. She made her escape from the Etruscan camp by swimming across the Tiber. Being sent back by the Romans, Porsena not only set her at liberty for her gallant deed, but allowed her to take with her a part of the hostages. Mdlle. Scuderi has a novel on the subject, ent.i.tled _Clelie, Histoire Romaine_.

Our statues--not those that men desire-- Sleek odalisques _[Turkish slaves_] ... but The Carian Artemisia ... _[See Artemisia_.]

Clelia, Cornelia ... and the Roman brows Of Agrippina.

Tennyson, _The Princess_, ii.

_Cle'lia_, a vain, frivolous female b.u.t.terfly, with a smattering of everything. In youth she was a coquette; and when youth was pa.s.sed, tried sundry means to earn a living, but without success.--Crabbe, _Borough_ (1810).

CLELIE (2 _syl_.), the heroine of a novel so called by Mdlle. Scuderi.

(See CLELIA.)

CLEMENT, one of the attendants of Sir Reginald Front de Boeuf (a follower of Prince John).--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Clem'ent (Justice)_, a man quite able to discern between fun and crime. Although he had the weakness "of justices' justice." he had not the weakness of ignorant vulgarity.

_Knowell_. They say he will commit a man for taking the wall of his horse.

_Wellbred_. Ay, or for wearing his cloak on one shoulder, or serving G.o.d. Anything, indeed, if it comes in the way of his humor.--B.

Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_, iii. 2 (1598).

CLEMENTI'NA _(The Lady_), an amiable, delicate, beautiful, accomplished, but unfortunate woman, deeply in love with Sir Charles Grandison. Sir Charles married Harriet Byron.--S. Richardson, _The History of Sir Charles Grandison_ (1753).

Cle'ofas (_Don_), the hero of a novel by Lesage, ent.i.tled _Le Diable Boiteux_ (_The Devil on Two Sticks_). A fiery young Spaniard, proud, high-spirited and revengeful; noted for gallantry but not without generous sentiment. Asmode'us (4 _syl_.) shows him what is going on in private families by unroofing the houses (1707).

CLEOM'BROTUS or Ambracio'ta of Ambrac'ia, (in Epirus). Having read Plato's book on the soul's immortality and happiness in another life, he was so ravished with the description that he leaped into the sea that he might die and enjoy Plato's elysium.

He who to enjoy Plato's elysium leaped into the sea, Cleombrotus.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iii. 471, etc. (1665).

CLEOM'ENES (4 _syl_.), the hero and t.i.tle of a drama by Dryden (1692).

As Dryden came out of the theatre a young fop of fashion said to him: "If I had been left alone with a young beauty, I would not have spent my time like your Spartan hero." "Perhaps not," said the poet, "but you are not my hero."--W. C. Russell, _Representative Actors_.

_Cleom'enes_ (4 _syl_.). "The Venus of Cleomenes" is now called "The Venus de Medici." Such a mere moist lump was once ... "the Venus of Cleomenes."--Ouida, _Ariadne_, i. 8.

CLE'ON, governor of Tarsus, burnt to death with his wife Dionys'ia by the enraged citizens, to revenge the supposed murder of Mari'na, daughter of Per'icles, Prince of Tyre.--Shakespeare, _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_ (1608).

_Cle'on_, the personification of Glory.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_.

CLEOP'ATRA, Queen of Egypt, wife of Ptolemy Dionysius, her brother.

She was driven from her throne, but re-established by Julius Caesar, B.C. 47. Antony, captivated by her, repudiated his wife, Octavia, to live with the fascinating Egyptian. After the loss of the battle of Actium, Cleopatra killed herself by an asp.

E. Jodelle wrote in French a tragedy called _Cleopatre Captive_ (1550); Jean Mairet one called _Cleopatre_ (1630); Isaac de Benserade (1670); J. F. Marmontel (1750), and Mde. de Girardin (1847) wrote tragedies in French on the same subject. S. Daniel (1600) wrote a tragedy in English called _Cleopatra_; Shakespeare one called _Antony and Cleopatra_ (1608); and Dryden one on the same subject, called _All for Love_ or _the World Well Lost_ (1682).

[Ill.u.s.tration] Mrs. Oldfield (1683-1730) and Peg (Margaret) Woffington (1718-1760) were unrivalled in this character.

_Cleopatra and the Pearl_. The tale is that Cleopatra made a sumptuous banquet, which excited the surprise of Antony; whereupon the queen took a pearl ear-drop, dissolved it in a strong acid and drank the liquor to the health of the triumvir, saying: "My draught to Antony shall exceed in value the whole banquet."

[Ill.u.s.tration] When Queen Elizabeth visited the Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham pledged her health in a cup of wine containing a precious stone crushed to atoms, and worth 15,000.

Here 15,000 at one clap goes Instead of sugar; Gresham drinks the pearl Unto his queen and mistress. Pledge it; love it!--Th. Heywood, _If You Know not Me. You Know n.o.body_.

_Cleopatra in Hades_. Cleopatra, says Rabelais, is "a crier of onions"

in the shades below. The Latin for a pearl and onion is _unio_, and the pun refers to Cleopatra giving her _pearl_ (or _onion_) to Antony in a draught of wine, or, as some say, drinking it herself in toasting her lover.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 30 (1553).

_Cleopat'ra_, Queen of Syria, daughter of Ptolemy Philome'ter, King of Egypt. She first married Alexander Bala, the usurper (B.C. 149); next Deme'trius Nica'nor. Demetrius, being taken prisoner by the Parthians, married Rodogune (3 _syl_.), daughter of Phraa'tes (3 _syl_.) the Parthian king, and Cleopatra married Antiochus Sidetes, brother of Demetrius. She slew her son Seleucus (by Demetrius) for treason, and as this produced a revolt, abdicated in favor of her second son, Anti'ochus VIII., who compelled her to drink poison which she had prepared for himself. P. Corneille has made this the subject of his tragedy called _Rodogune_ (1646).

[Ill.u.s.tration] This is not the Cleopatra of Shakespeare's and Dryden's tragedies.

_Cleopatra_. In his _Graffiti d'Italia_, William Wetmore Story gives a pa.s.sionate soliloquy of the Egyptian Queen, beginning:--

"Here, Charmian, take my bracelets; They bar with a purple stain My arms."

(1868).

CLERE'MONT (2 _syl_.), a merry gentleman, the friend of Dinant'.--"Beaumont and Fletcher" _The Little French Lawyer_ (1547).

CLER'IMOND, niece of the Green Knight, sister of Fer'ragus the giant, and bride of Valentine the brave.--_Valentine and Orson_.

CLERKS _(St. Nicholas's)_, thieves, also called "St. Nicholas's Clergymen," in allusion to the tradition of "St. Nicholas and the thieves." Probably a play on the words _Nich-olas_ and _Old Nick_ may be designed.--See Shakespeare, 1 _Henry IV_. act ii. sc. 1 (1597).

CLESS'AMMOR, son of Thaddu and brother of Morna (Fingal's mother). He married Moina, daughter of Reutha'mir (the princ.i.p.al man of Balclutha, on the Clyde). It so happened that Moina was beloved by a Briton named Reuda, who came with an army to carry her off. Reuda was slain by Clessammor; but Clessammor, being closely pressed by the Britons, fled, and never again saw his bride. In due time a son was born, called Carthon; but the mother died. While Carthon was still an infant, Fingal's father attacked Balclutha, and slew Reuthama (Carthon's grandfather). While the boy grew to manhood, he determined on vengeance; accordingly he invaded Morven, the kingdom of Fingal, where Clessammor, not knowing who he was, engaged him in single combat, and slew him. When he discovered that it was his son, three days he mourned for him, and on the fourth he died.--Ossian, _Carthon_.