.
Calepine (Sir), the knight attached to Sere´na (canto 3). Seeing a bear carrying off a child, he attacked it, and squeezed it to death, then committed the babe to the care of Matilde, wife of sir Bruin. As Matilde had no child of her own, she adopted it (canto 4).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. (1596).
Upton says, "the child" in this incident is meant for M'Mahon, of Ireland, and that "Mac Mahon" means the "son of a bear." He furthermore says that the M'Mahons were descended from the Fitz-Ursulas, a noble English family.
Ca´les (2 syl.). So gipsies call themselves.
Beltran Cruzado, count of the Cales.
Longfellow, The Spanish Student.
Calf-skin. Fools and jesters used to wear a calf-skin coat buttoned down the back, and hence Faulconbridge says insolently to the arch-duke of Austria, who had acted very basely towards Richard Lion-heart:
Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame,
And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs.