Some think Cunobeline is Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline,” who reigned from B.C. 8 to A.D. 27; but Cymbeline’s father was Tenantius or Tenuantius, his sons Guide’rius Arvir’agus, and the Roman general was Caius Lucius.

  ... the courageous sons of our Cunobelin
  Sank under Plautius’ sword. 
  Drayton, Polyolbion, viii. (1612).

CUNSTANCE or CONSTANCE (See CUSTANCE).

CUPID AND PSYCHE [Si.ky] an episode in The Golden Ass of Apuleius.  The allegory represents Cupid in love with Psyche.  He visited her every evening, and left at sunrise, but strictly enjoined her not to attempt to discover who he was.  One night curiosity overcame her prudence, and going to look upon her lover a drop of hot oil fell on his shoulder, awoke him, and he fled.  Psyche 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.  Mrs. Tighe has a poem on the subject.  Wm. Morris has poetized the same in his Earthly Paradise ("May"); Lafontaine has a poem called Psyche, in imitation of the episode of Apuleius; and Moliere has dramatized the subject.

CU’PIDON (Jean).  Count d’Orsay was so called by Lord Byron (1798-1852).  The count’s father was styled Le Beau d’ Orsay.

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

CURE DE MEUDON, Rabelais, who was first a monk, then a leech, then prebendary of St. Maur, and lastly cure of Meudon (1483-1553).

CU’RIO, 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 Caesar, but subsequently of Caesar’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 honored, 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 Cervantes 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 can.  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 nom de plume of Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre [Air] (1816-1855).

CURTA’NA, the sword of Edward the Con’fessor, which had no point, and was therefore the emblem of mercy.  Till the reign of Henry III., the royal sword of England was so called.

  But when Curtana will not do the deed,
  You lay the pointless clergy-weapon by,
  And to the laws, your sword of justice, fly. 
  Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, ii. (1687).