Chapter Caliban to Calumet of Peace of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Caliban to Calumet of Peace

Caliban, a savage, deformed slave of Prospero (the rightful duke of Milan and father of Miranda). Caliban is the “freckled whelp” of the witch Sycorax. Mrs. Shelley’s monster, in Frankenstein, is a sort of Caliban.—Shakespeare: The Tempest (1609).

“Caliban” … is all earth … he has the dawnings of understanding without reason or the moral sense … this advance to the intellectual faculties without the moral sense is marked by the appearance of vice.—Coleridge.

Caliburn, same as Excalibar, the famous sword of king Arthur.

Onward Arthur paced, with hand
On Caliburn’s resistless brand.
   —Sir W. Scott: Bridal of Triermain (1813).

Arthur … drew out his Caliburn, and … rushed forward with great fury into the thickest of the enemy’s ranks … nor did he give over the fury of his assault till he had, with his Caliburn, killed 470 men.—Geoffrey: British History, ix. 4 (1142).

Calidore (Sir), the type of courtesy, and the hero of the sixth book of Spenser’s Faërie Queene. The model of this ch aracter was sir Philip Sydney. Sir Calidore (3syl) starts in quest of the Blatant Beast, which had escaped from sir Artegal (bk. v. 12). He first compels the lady Briana to discontinue her discourteous toll of “the locks of ladies and the beards of knights” (canto I). Sir Calidore falls in love with Pastorella, a shepherdess, dresses like a shepherd, and assists his lady-love in keeping sheep. Pastorella being taken captive by brigands, sir Calidore rescues her, and leaves her at Belgard Castle to be taken care of, while he goes in quest of the Blatant Beast. He finds the monster after a time, by the havoc it had made with religious houses, and after an obstinate fight succeeds in muzzling it, and dragging it in chains after him; but it got loose again, as it did before (canto 12).—Spenser: Faërie Queene, vi. (1596).

Sir Gawain was the “Calidore” of the Round Table.—Southey.

“Pastorella” is Frances Walsingham (daughter of sir Francis), whom sir Philip Sydney married. After the death of sir Philip she married the earl of Essex. The “Blatant Beast” is what we now call “Mrs. Grundy.”

“Calidore” is the name of a poetical fragment by Keats (1796–1821).

Caligorant, an Egyptian giant and cannibal, who used to ent rap travellers with an invisible net. It was the very same net that Vulcan made to catch Mars and Venus wi th. Mercury stole it for the purpose of entrapping Chloris, and left it in the temple of Anubis, whence it was stolen by Caligorant. One day Astolpho, by a blast of his magic horn, so frightened the giant that he got entangled in his own net, and being made captive was despoiled of it.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Calino, a famous French utterer of bulls.

Caliph means “vicar” or representative of Mahomet. Scaliger says, “Calipha est vicarius” (Isagoge of Chronology, 3). The dignity of sultan is superior to that of caliph, although many sultans called themselves caliphs. That passage which in our version of the New Testament is rendered “Archelaus reigned in his stead” (i.e. in the place of Herod), is translated in the Syriac version Chealaph Herodes, that is, “Archelaus was Herod’s caliph” or vicar. Similarly, the pope calls himself “St. Peter’s vicar.”—Selden: Titles of Honour, v. 68, 69 (1672).

Calipolis, in The Battle of Alcazar, a drama by George Peele (1582). Pistol says to Mistress Quickly—

Then feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis.—Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV. act ii. sc. 4 (1598).

Calis (The princess), sister of Astorax king of Paphos, in love with Polydore, brother of general Memnon, but loved greatly by Siphax.—John Fletcher: The Mad Lover (1617).