Chapter Cock of Westminster to Cole of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Walter Cockney, son of the grocer, in the shop. A conceited young prig, not yet out of the quarrelsome age. He makes boy-love to Priscilla Tomboy and Miss La Blond; but says he will “tell papa” if they cross him.

Penelope Cockney, sister of Walter.—The Romp (altered from Bickerstaff’s Love in the City).

Cockney School (The), a name given to a coteric of London authors, such as Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, and some others.

Cockpit of Europe. Belgium is so called because it has been the site of more European battles than any other: e.g. Oudenarde, Ramillies, Fontenoy, Fleurus, Jemmapes, Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo, etc.

Cocles [Coc-leez] defended the Sublician Bridge, with two comrades, against the whole Etrusc an army led on by Porsena, till the Romans had broken down the bridge. He then sent away his two comrades, and when the bridge had fallen in, he plunged into the river and swam safely to the opposite bank.

In the battle of Cerignola, the chevalier Bayard (with one other knight) guarded the bridge of Tormaino against 200 Spaniards. He sent his companion to bring up reinforcements, and he himself guarded the bridge alone till 100 men-at-arms arrived and came to his assistance.

Cocqcigrues (The Coming of the), that golden period when all mysteries will be cleared up.

“That is one of the seven things” said the fairy… “I am forbidden to tell till the coming of the Cocq. cigrues.”—C. Kingsley: The Water-Babies, chap. vi.

Cocytus [ko-ky-tus], one of the five rivers of hell. The word means the “river of weeping” (Greek, kôkuo, “I l ament”), because “into this river fall the tears of the wicked.” The other four rivers are Styx, Acheron, Phlegethon, and Lethê. (See Styx.)

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud, Heard on the rueful stream.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 579 (1665).

Cœlebs’ Wife, a bachelor’s ideal of a model wife. Cœlebs is the hero of a novel by Mrs. Hannah More, entitled Cœlebs in Search of a Wife (1809).

In short she was a walking calculation, Miss Edgeworth’s novels stepping from their covers, Or Mrs. Trimmer’s books on education, Or “Cœlebs’ wife” set out in quest of lovers.
   —Byron: Don Juan, i. 16 (1819).

Coffin (Long Tom), the best sailor character ever drawn. He is introduced in The Pilot, a novel by J. Fenimore Cooper, of New York. Cooper’s novel has been dramatized by E. Fitzball, under the same name, and Long Tom Coffin preserves in the burletta his reckless daring, his unswerving fidelity, his simple-minded affection, and his love for the sea (1823).

Cogia Houssain, the captain of forty thieves, outwitted by Morgiana, the slave. When, in the guise of a merchant, he was entertained by Ali Baba, and refused to eat any salt, the suspicions of Morgiana were aroused, and she soon detected him to be the captain of the forty thieves. After supper she amused her master and his guest with dancing; then playing with Cogia’s dagger for a time, she plunged it suddenly into his heart and killed him.—Arabian Nights (“Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves”).

Coila , Kyle, in Ayrshire. So called from Coilus, a Pictish monarch. Sometimes all Scotland is so called, as—

Farewell, old Coila’s hills and dales, Her heathy moors and winding vales.
   —Burns.

Coincidences. The fall of Robespierre was in 1794. The sum of this date =21, which added to the date makes 1815 (the fall of Napoleon). Again, the sum of 1815 = 15, which added to the date comes to 1830, the fall of Charles IX.