.
There are other members of the Cantacuzenê
family besides myself.—Ditto.
Can´tacuzene´ (Michael), the grand sewer of Alexius Comne´nus, emperor of Greece.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris. (time, Rufus).
Canterbury Tales. Eighteen tales told by a company of pilgrims going to visit the shrine of "St. Thomas à Becket" at Canterbury. The party first assembled at the Tabard, an inn in Southwark, and there agreed to tell one tale each both going and returning, and the person who told the best tale was to be treated by the rest to a supper at the Tabard on the homeward journey. The party consisted of twenty-nine pilgrims, so that the whole budget of tales should have been fifty-eight, but only eighteen of the number were told, not one being on the homeward route. The chief of these tales are: "The Knight's Tale" (Pal´amon and Ar´cite, 2 syl.); "The Man of Law's Tale" (Custance, 2 syl.); "The Wife of Bath's Tale" (A Knight); "The Clerk's Tale" (Grisildis); "The Squire's Tale" (Cambuscan, incomplete); "The Franklin's Tale" (Dor'igen and Arvir'agus); "The Prioress's Tale" (Hugh of Lincoln); "The Priest's Tale" (Chanticleer and Partelite); "The Second Nun's Tale" (St. Cecil'ia); "The Doctor's Tale" (Virginia); "The Miller's Tale" (John the Carpenter and Alison); and "The Merchant's Tale" (January and May) (1388).
Canton, the Swiss valet of lord Ogleby. He has to skim the morning papers and serve out the cream of them to his lordship at breakfast, "with good emphasis and good discretion." He laughs at all his master's jokes, flatters him to the top of his bent, and speaks of him as a mere chicken compared to himself, though his lordship is seventy and Canton about fifty. Lord Ogleby calls him his "cephalic snuff, and no bad medicine against megrims, vertigoes, and profound thinkings."—Colman and Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766).
Can'trips (Mrs.), a quondam friend of Nanty Ewart, the smuggler-captain.
Jessie Cantrips, her daughter.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Cant'well (Dr.), the hypocrite, the English representative of Molière's Tartuffe. He makes religious cant the instrument of gain, luxurious living, and sensual indulgence. His overreaching and dishonorable conduct towards lady Lambert and her daughter gets thoroughly exposed, and at last he is arrested as a swindler.—I. Bicker staff, The Hypocrite (1768).
Dr. Cantwell ... the meek and saintly hypocrite.