Life of Siddons
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Car´athis, mother of the caliph Vathek. She was a Greek, and induced her son to study necromancy, held in abhorrence by all good Mussulmans. When her son threatened to put to death every one who attempted without success to read the inscription of certain sabres, Carathis wisely said, "Content yourself, my son, with commanding their beards to be burnt. Beards are less essential to a state than men." She was ultimately carried by an afrit to the abyss of Eblis, in punishment of her many crimes.—W. Beckford, Vathek (1784).
Carau´sius, the first British emperor (237-294). His full name was Marcus Aurelius Valerius Carausius, and as emperor of Britain he was accepted by Diocletian and Maxim´ian; but after a vigorous reign of seven years he was assassinated by Allectus, who succeeded him as "emperor of Britain."—See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc., ii. 13.
Car´dan (Jerôme) of Pa´via (1501-1576), a great mathematician and astrologer. He professed to have a demon or familiar spirit, who revealed to him the secrets of nature.
Carden (Grace), lovely girl with whom Henry Little (an artisan) and Frederick Coventry, gentleman, are enamored. Beguiled by Coventry into a belief that Little is dead, she consents to the marriage ceremony with his rival. Little reappears on the wedding-day, and she refuses to live with her husband. The marriage is eventually set aside, and Grace Carden espouses Henry Little.—Charles Reade, Put Yourself in His Place.
Carde´nio of Andalusi´a, of opulent parents, fell in love with Lucinda, a lady of equal family and fortune, to whom he was formally engaged. Don Fernando his friend, however, prevailed on Lucinda's father, by artifice, to break off the engagement and promise Lucinda to himself, "contrary to her wish, and in violation of every principle of honor." This drove Cardenio mad, and he haunted the Sierra Morena or Brown Mountain for about six months, as a maniac with lucid intervals. On the wedding-day Lucinda swooned, and a letter informed the bridegroom that she was married to Cardenio. Next day she privately left her father's house and took refuge in a convent; but being abducted by don Fernando, she was carried to an inn, where Fernando found Dorothea his wife, and Cardenio the husband of Lucinda. All parties were now reconciled, and the two gentlemen paired respectively with their proper wives.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. (1605).
Care, described as a blacksmith, who "worked all night and day." His bellows, says Spenser, are Pensiveness and Sighs.—Faéry Queen, iv. 5 (1596).
Care'less, one of the boon companions of Charles Surface.—Sheridan, School for Scandal (1777).
Care'less (Colonel), an officer of high spirits and mirthful temper, who seeks to win Ruth (the daughter of sir Basil Thoroughgood) for his wife.—T. Knight, The Honest Thieves.