Coryphe'us (4 syl.), a model man or leader, from the Koruphaios or leader of the chorus in the Greek drama. Aristarchos is called The Corypheus of Grammarians.
Cosette. Illegitimate child of Fantine, a Parisian grisette. She puts the baby into the care of peasants who neglect and maltreat the little creature. She is rescued by the ex-convict Jean Valjean, who nurtures her tenderly and marries her to a respectable man.—Victor Hugo, Les Miserables.
Cosme (St.), patron of surgeons, born in Arabia. He practised medicine in Cilicia with his brother St. Damien, and both suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in 303 or 310. Their fête day is December 27. In the twelfth century there was a medical society called Saint Cosme.
Cos'miel (3 syl.), the genius of the world. He gave to Theodidactus a boat of asbestos, in which he sailed to the sun and planets.—Kircher, Ecstatic Journey to Heaven.
Cosmos, the personification of "the world" as the enemy of man. Phineas Fletcher calls him "the first son to the Dragon red" (the devil). "Mistake," he says, "points all his darts;" or, as the Preacher says, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Fully described in The Purple Island, viii (1633). (Greek, kosmos, "the world.")
Cos'tard, a clown who apes the court wits of Queen Elizabeth's time. He uses the word "honorificabilitudinitatibus," and some of his blunders are very ridiculous, as "ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say" (act v. I).—Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (1594).
Costigan, Irish Captain in Pendennis, W. M. Thackeray.
Costin (Lord), disguised as a beggar, in The Beggar's Bush, a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1622).
Cote Male-tailé (Sir), meaning the "knight with the villainous coat," the nickname given by Sir Key (the seneschal of King Arthur) to Sir Brewnor le Noyre, a young knight who wore his father's, coat with all its sword-cuts, to keep him in remembrance of the vengeance due to his father. His first achievement was to kill a lion that "had broken loose from a tower, and came hurling after the queen." He married a damsel called Maledisaunt (3 syl.), who loved him, but always chided him. After her marriage she was called Beauvinant.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 42-50 (1470).
Cotter's Saturday Night; Poem in which Burns depicts the household of a Scottish peasant gathering about the hearth on the last evening of the week for supper, social converse and family worship. The picture of the "Saint, the Father and the Husband" is drawn the poet's own father. Cotyt´to, Groddess of the Edõni of Thrace. Her orgies resembled those of the Thracian Cyb´elê (3 syl).