Chapter Cunstance to Curse of Scotland of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Cupboard Love Love from interested motives. The allusion is to the love of children to some indulgent person who gives them something nice from her cupboard.

“Cupboard love is seldom true.” - Poor Robin.

Cupid The god of love, and son of Venus. According to fable he wets with blood the grindstone on which he sharpens his arrows.

“Ferus et Cupido
Semper ardentes acuens sagittas.'
Horace: 2 Odes, viii. 14, 15.

    The best statues of this little god are “Cupid Sleeping,” in Albano (Rome); “Cupid playing with a Swan,” in the Capitol: “Cupid mounted on a Tiger,” (Negroni); and “Cupid stringing his Bow,” in the Louvre (Paris). Raphael's painting of Cupid is in the Farnesina (Rome).

Cupid and Psyche An exquisite episode in the Golden Ass of Apuleius. It is an allegory representing the progress of the soul to perfection. Mrs. Tighe has a poem on the same subject; and Molière a drama entitled Psyche. (See Morris, Earthly Paradise [May].)

Cupid's Golden Arrow Virtuous love. “Cupid's leaden arrow,” sensual passion.

“Deque sagittifera promsit duo tela pharetra
Diversorum operum; fugat hoc, facit illud amorem.
Quod facit auratum est, et cuspide fulget acuta-,
Quod fugat obtusum est, et habet sub arundine plumbum.'
Ovid: Tale of Apollo and Daphnë.

“I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow;
By his best arrow with the golden head
By that which knitteth souls and prospers love.”
Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream.

Cupidon (Le jeune). Count d'Orsay was so called by Lord Byron (1798-1852). The Count's father was styled Le beau d'Orsay.

Cur A fawning, mean-spirited fellow, a crop-tailed dog (Latin, curtus, crop-tailed. French, court; our curt). According to forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase was obliged to cut off the tail of his dog. Hence, a degenerate dog or man is called a cur.

“What would you have, you curs,
That like nor peace nor war?”
Shakespeare: Coriolanus, i. 1.

Curate (See Clerical Titles .)

Cure de Meudon - i.e. Rabelais, who was first a monk, then a leech, then prebend of St. Maur, and lastly curé of Meudon. (1483-1653.)

Curetes (3 syl). A mythical people of Crete, to whom the infant Zeus or Jupiter was entrusted by his mother Rhea. By clashing their shields they drowned the cries of the infant, to prevent its father (Cronos) from finding the place where the babe was hid.

Curfew Bell The bell rung in the reigns of William I. and II. at sunset, to give notice to their subjects that they were to put out their fires and candles (French, couvre feu, cover-fire). The Klokans in Abo, even to the present day, traverse the towns crying the “go-to-bed time.” Those abroad are told to “make haste home,” and those at home to “put out their fires.” Abolished, as a police regulation, by Henry I.

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.”
Gray: Elegy.

Curmudgeon (3 syl.). A grasping, miserly churl. Dr. Johnson gives the derivation of this word thus, “coeur mechant, unknown correspondent.” Dr. Ash, in his dictionary, says, “coeur, unknown; merchant, correspondent,” a blunder only paralleled by the schoolboy translation of the Greek, me genoito, by mh (God) geuoito (forbid) (Luke xx. 6).

Currant A corruption of Corinth, hence called by Juvenal Corinthiaca uvae.

Current The drift of the current is the rate per hour at which the current runs.
   The setting of the current is that point of the compass towards which the waters of the current run.

Currente Calamo (Latin). Offhand; without premeditation; written off at once, without making a rough copy first.