Colonna (The Marquis of), a high-minded, incorruptible noble of Naples. He tells the young king bluntly that his oily courtiers are vipers who would suck his life's blood, and that Ludovico, his chief minister and favorite, is a traitor. Of course he is not believed, and Ludovico marks him out for vengeance. His scheme is to get Colonna, of his own free will, to murder his sister's lover and the king. With this view he artfully persuades Vicentio, the lover, that Evadnê (the sister of Colonna) is the king's wanton. Vicentio indignantly discards Evadnê, is challanged to fight by Colonna, and is supposed to be killed. Colonna, to revenge his wrongs on the king, invites him to a banquet with intent to murder him, when the whole scheme of villainy is exposed: Ludovico is slain, and Vicentio marries Evadnê.—Shiel, Evadne, or the Statue (1820).
Colossos (Latin, colossus), a gigantic brazen statue 126 feet high, executed by Charles for the Rhodians. Blaise de Vignenère says it was a striding figure, but Comte de Caylus proves that it was not so, and did not even stand at the mouth of the Rhodian port. Philo tells us that it stood on a block of white marble, and Lucius Ampellius asserts that it stood in a car. Tiekell makes out the statue to be so enormous in size, that—
While at one foot the thronging galleys ride,
A whole hour's sail scarce reached the further side;
Betwixt the brazen thighs in loose array,
Ten thousand streamers on the billows play,
Tickell, On the Prospect of Peace.
Colossus. Negro servant in G.W. Cable's "Posson Jone." He vainly tries to dissuade his master from drinking, and, in the end, restores to him the money lost during the drunken bout.
"In thundering tones" the parson was confessing
himself a "plum fool from whom the conceit