Chapter Cumberland to Cushla Machree of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

look upon her lover a drop of hot oil fell on his shoulder, awoke him, and he fled. Psychê now wandered in search of the lost one, but was persecuted by Venus with relentless cruelty. Having suffered almost to the death, Cupid at length married her, and she became immortal.

Woman’s ideal of love must not be subjected to too strong a light, or it will flee away, and the woman will suffer long years of torment. At length truth will correct her exaggerated notions, and love will reside with her for the rest of her life.

(This exquisite allegory has been translated into English verse by Lockman, in 1744; by Taylor, in 1795; by H. Gurney, in 1799. Mrs. Tighe has a poem on the subject; Wm. Morris has poetized the same in his Earthly Paradise (“May”); Lafontaine has a poem called Psyché, in imitation of the episode of Apuleius; and Molière has dramatized the subject.)

Cupid’s Jack-o-Lantern, the object of an affair of gallantry. Bob Acres says—

“Sir, I have followed Cupid’s Jack-o’-lantern, and find myself in a quagmire at last.”—Sheridan: The Rivals, iii. 4 (1775).

Cupidon (Jeune), Count d’Orsay was so called by lord Byron (1798–1852). The count’s father was styled Le Beau d’Orsay.

Curan, a courtier in Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear (1605).

Curé de Meudon, Rabelais, who was first a monk, then a leech, then prebendary of St. Maur, and last curé of Meudon (1483–1553).

Cure for the Heart-ache, a comedy by Thomas Morton (1811). Noted for the line, “Approbation from sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.”—Act v. 2.

Curio, a gentleman attending on the duke of Illyria.—Shakespeare: Twelfth Night (1614).

Curio. So Akenside calls Mr. Pulteney, and styles him “the betrayer of his country,” alluding to the great statesman’s change of politics. Curio was a young Roman senator, at one time the avowed enemy of Cæsar; but subsequently of Cæsar’s party, and one of the victims of the civil war.

Is this the man in freedom’s cause approved,
The man so great, so honoured, so beloved…
This Curio, hated now and scorned by all,
Who fell himself to work his country’s fall?
   —Akenside: Epistle to Curio.

Curious Impertinent (The), a tale introduced by Cervantês in his Don Quixote. The “impertinent” is an Italian gentleman who is silly enough to make trial of his wife’s fidelity by persuading a friend to storm it if he could. Of course his friend “takes the fort,” and the fool is left to bewail his own folly.—Pt. I. iv. 5 (1605).

Currer Bell, the pen-name of Charlotte Brontê, author of Jane Eyre [Air] (1816–1855).

Curtain Lectures. (See Caudle, p. 189.)

Curtain Painted. Parrhasius painted a curtain so wonderfully well that even Zeuxis, the rival artist, thought it was real, and bade him draw his drapery aside and show his picture. The painting of Zeuxis was a bunch of grapes so true to nature that the birds came to peck at the fruit. The “curtain,” however, gained the prize; for though the grapes deceived the birds, the curtain deceived Zeuxis.

A curious mistake occurred in my own house. I had new scarlet curtains hung in the drawing-room, and a lady calling said to me, “Why, doctor, do you have painted curtains, and not real ones?”