CAIUS (2 syl.), the assumed name of the earl of Kent when he attended on king Lear, after Goneril and Regan refused to entertain their aged father with his suite.—­Shakespeare, King Lear (1605).

Caius (Dr.), a French physician, whose servants are Rugby and Mrs. Quickly.—­Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor (1601).

  The clipped English of Dr. Cains.—­Macau lay.

CALANDRINO, a character in the Decameron, whose “misfortunes have made all Europe merry for four centuries.”—­Boccaccio, Decameron, viii. 9 (1350).

CALANTHA, princess of Sparta, loved by Ithocles.  Ithocles induces his sister, Penthea, to break the matter to the princess.  This she does; the princess is won to requite his love, and the king consents to the union.  During a grand court ceremony Calantha is informed of the sudden death of her father, another announces to her that Penthea had starved herself to death from hatred to Bassanes, and a third follows to tell her that Ithocles, her betrothed husband, has been murdered.  Calantha bates no jot of the ceremony, but continues the dance even to the bitter end.  The coronation ensues, but scarcely is the ceremony over than she can support the strain no longer, and, broken-hearted, she falls dead.—­John Ford, The Broken Heart (1633).

CALAN’THE (3 syl.), the betrothed wife of Pyth’ias the Syracusian.—­J.  Banim, Damon and Pythias (1825).

CAL’CULATOR (The).  Alfragan the Arabian astronomer was so called (died A.D. 820).  Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbyshire, was also called “The Calculator” (1705-1775).  George Bidder, Zerah Colburn, and a girl named Heywood (whose father was a Mile End weaver) all exhibited their calculating powers in public.

Pascal, in 1642, made a calculating machine, which was improved by Leibnitz.  C. Babbage also invented a calculating machine (1790-1871).

CAL’DERON (Don Pedro), a Spanish poet born at Madrid (1600-1681).  At the age of fifty-two he became an ecclesiastic, and composed religious poetry only.  Altogether he wrote about 1000 dramatic pieces.

  Her memory was a mine.  She knew by heart
  All Cal’deron and greater part of Lope. 
  Byron, Don Juan, i. 11 (1819).

[Illustration] “Lope,” that is Lope de Vega, the Spanish poet (1562-1635).

CALEB, the enchantress who carried off St. George in infancy.

Ca’leb, in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for lord Grey of Wark, in Northumberland, an adherent of the duke of Monmouth.

  And, therefore, in the name of dulness be
  The well-hung Balaam and cold Caleb free. 
  Part i.

[Illustration] “Balaam” is the earl of Huntingdon.

CA’LED, commander-in-chief of the Arabs in the siege of Damascus.  He is brave, fierce, and revengeful.  War is his delight.  When Pho’cyas, the Syrian, deserts Eu’menes, Caled asks him to point out the governor’s tent; he refuses; they fight, and Caled falls.—­John Hughes, Siege of Damascus (1720).