COMMITTEE (The), a comedy by the Hon. Sir R. Howard.  Mr. Day, a Cromwellite, is the head of a Committee of Sequestration, and is a dishonest, canting rascal, under the thumb of his wife.  He gets into his hands the deeds of two heiresses, Anne and Arbella.  The former he calls Ruth, and passes her off as his own daughter; the latter he wants to marry to his booby son Able.  Ruth falls in love with Colonel Careless, and Arbella with colonel Blunt.  Ruth contrives to get into her hands the deeds, which she delivers over to the two colonels, and when Mr. Day arrives, quiets him by reminding him that she knows of certain deeds which would prove his ruin if divulged (1670).

T. Knight reproduced this comedy as a farce under the title of The Honest Thieves.

COMMON (Dol), an ally of Subtle the alchemist.—­Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (1610).

COMMONER (The Great), Sir John Barnard, who in 1737 proposed to reduce the interest of the national debt from 4 per cent. to 3 per cent., any creditor being at liberty to receive his principal in full if he preferred it.  William Pitt, the statesman, is so called also (1759-1806).

COMNE’NUS (Alexius), emperor of Greece, introduced by Sir.  W. Scott in Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Anna Comne’na the historian, daughter of Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Greece.—­Same novel.

COMPEYSON, a would-be gentleman and a forger.  He duped Abel Magwitch and ruined him, keeping him completely under his influence.  He also jilted Miss Havisham.—­C.  Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

COM’RADE (2 syl.), the horse given by a fairy to Fortunio.

He has many rare qualities ... first he eats but once in eight days; and then he knows what’s past, present, and to come [and speaks with the voice of a man].—­Comtesse DAunoy, Fairy Tales ("Fortunio.” 1682).

COMUS, the god of revelry.  In Milton’s “masque” so called, the “lady” is lady Alice Egerton, the younger brother is Mr. Thomas Egerton, and the elder brother is Lord Viscount Brackley (eldest son of John, earl of Bridgewater, president of Wales).  The lady, weary with long walking, is left in a wood by her two brothers, while they go to gather “cooling fruit” for her.  She sings to let them know her whereabouts, and Comus, coming up, promises to conduct her to a cottage till her brothers could be found.  The brothers, hearing a noise of revelry, become alarmed about their sister, when her guardian spirit informs them that she has fallen into the hands of Comus.  They run to her rescue, and arrive just as the god is offering his captive a potion; the brothers seize the cup and dash it on the ground, while the spirit invokes Sabri’na, who breaks the spell and releases the lady (1634).

CONACH’AR, the Highland apprentice of Simon Glover, the old glover of Perth.  Conachar is in love with his master’s daughter, Catharine, called “the fair maid of Perth;” but Catharine loves and ultimately marries Henry Smith, the armorer.  Conachar is at a later period Ian Eachin [Hector] M’Ian, chief of the clan Quhele.—­Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).