CRINGLE (Tom), Hero of sea-story by Michael Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log.

CRISPIN (St.).  Crispinos and Crispianus were two brothers, born at Rome, from which place they traveled to Soissons, in France (about A.D. 303), to propagate the gospel, and worked as shoe-makers, that they might not be chargeable to any one.  The governor of the town ordered them to be beheaded the very year of their arrival, and they were made the tutelary saints of the “gentle craft.”  St. Crispin’s Day is October 25.

  This day is called the feast of Crispian.. 
  And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
  From this day to the ending of the world,
  But we in it shall be remembered.

Shakespeare, Henry V. act iv. sc. 3 (1599).

CRITIC (A Bossu), one who criticizes the “getting up” of a book more than its literary worth; a captious, carping critic.  Rene le Bossu was a French critic (1631-1680).

The epic poem your lordship bade me look at, upon taking the length, breadth, height, and depth of it, and trying them at home upon an exact scale of Bossu’s, ’tis out, my lord, in every one of its dimensions.  Admirable connoisseur!  —­Sterne.

(Probably the scale referred to was that of Bossut the mathematician, and that either Bossu and Bossut have been confounded, or else that a pun is intended).

Critic (The), by R. B. Sheridan, suggested by The Rehearsal (1779).

[Illustration] The Rehearsal is by the Duke of Buckingham (1671).

CRITICS (The Prince of), Aristarchos of Byzantium, who compiled, in the second century B.C., the rhapsodies of Homer.

CROAKER, guardian to Miss Richland.  Never so happy as when he imagines himself a martyr.  He loves a funeral better than a festival, and delights to think that the world is going to rack and ruin.  His favorite phrase is “May be not.”

  A poor, fretful soul, that has a new distress
  for every hour of the four and twenty.—­Act i. 1.

Mrs. Croaker, the very reverse of her grumbling, atrabilious husband.  She is mirthful, light-hearted, and cheerful as a lark.

  The very reverse of each other.  She all laugh
  and no joke, he always complaining and never
  sorrowful.—­Act i. 1.

Leontine Croaker, son of Mr. Croaker.  Being sent to Paris to fetch his sister, he falls in love with Olivia Woodville, whom he brings home instead, introduces her to Croaker as his daughter, and ultimately marries her.—­Goldsmith, The Good Natured Man (1768).

CROCODILE (King).  The people of Isna, in Upper Egypt, affirm that there is a king crocodile as there is a queen bee.  The king crocodile has ears but no tail, and has no power of doing harm.  Southey says that though the king crocodile has no tail, he has teeth to devour his people with.—­Browne, Travels.