"Then feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis."—
Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. act ii. sc 4 (1598).
Cal´is (The princess), sister of As´torax, king of Paphos, in love with Polydore, brother of general Memnon, but loved greatly by Siphax.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Mad Lover (1617).
Calis´ta, the fierce and haughty daughter of Sciol´to (3 syl.), a proud Genoese nobleman. She yielded to the seduction of Lotha´rio, but engaged to marry Al´tamont, a young lord who loved her dearly. On the wedding-day a letter was picked up which proved her guilt, and she was subsequently seen by Altamont conversing with Lothario. A duel ensued, in which Lothario fell; in a street row Sciolto received his death-wound, and Calista stabbed herself. The character of "Calista" was one of the parts of Mrs. Siddons, and also of Miss Brunton.—N. Rowe, The Fair Penitent (1703).
Richardson has given a purity and sanctity to the sorrows of his "Clarissa" which leave "Calista" immeasurably behind.—R. Chambers, English Literature, i. 590.
Twelve years after Norris's death, Mrs. Barry was acting the character of "Calista." In the last act, where "Calista" lays her hand upon a skull, she [Mrs. Barry] was suddenly seized with a shuddering, and fainted. Next day she asked whence the skull had been obtained, and was told it was "the skull of Mr. Norris, an actor." This Norris was her former husband, and so great was the shock that she died within six weeks.—Oxberry.
Calis'to and Ar'cas. Calisto, an Arcadian nymph, was changed into a she-bear. Her son Arcas, supposing the bear to be an ordinary beast, was about to shoot it, when Jupiter metamorphosed him into a he-bear. Both were taken to heaven by Jupiter, and became the constellations Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.
Call'aghan O'Brall'aghan (Sir), "a wild Irish soldier in the Prussian army. His military humor makes one fancy he was not only born in a siege, but that Bellona had been his nurse, Mars his schoolmaster, and the Furies his playfellows" (act i. 1). He is the successful suitor of Charlotte Goodchild.—C. Macklin, Love à la mode (1779).
Callet, a fille publique. Brantôme says a calle or calotte is "a cap," hence the phrase, Plattes comme des calles. Ben Jonson, in his Magnetick Lady, speaks of "wearing the callet, the politic hood."
Des filles du peuple et de la campagne s'appellant çalles, à cause de la "cale" qui leur servait de coiffure.—Francisque Michel.