Calandrino (kä-län-drē´nō).—A simpleton frequently introduced in Boccaccio’s Decameron; expressly made to be befooled and played upon. His mishaps, as Macaulay states, “have made all Europe merry for more than four centuries.”
Caleb.—(1) The enchantress who carried off St. George in infancy. (2) A character in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achitophel, meant for Lord Grey, one of the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth.
Caleb Quotem.—A parish clerk or jack-of-all-trades, in Coleman’s play The Review, or Ways of Windsor. Coleman borrowed the character from Throw Physic to the Dogs, an old farce.
Caliban (kal´i-ban).—A savage and deformed slave of Prospero in Shakespeare’s Tempest. He is represented as being the “freckled whelp” of Sycorax, a foul hag, who was banished from Argier (or Algiers) to the desert island afterward inhabited by Prospero. From his rude, uncouth language we get the phrase “Caliban style,” “Caliban speech,” meaning the coarsest possible use of words.
Calidore (kal´i-dōr).—A knight in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, typical of courtesy, and said to be intended for a portrait of Sir Philip Sidney.
Calista.—The name of a celebrated character in Rowe’s Fair Penitent.
Callipolis (ka-lip´o-lis).—Battle of Alcazar, George Peele. A character in the Battle of Alcazar, used by Sir Walter Scott and others as a synonym for lady-love, sweetheart, charmer. Sir Walter always spells the word Callipolis, but Peele calls it Calipolis.
Calydon (kal´i-don).—A forest celebrated in the romances relating to King Arthur and Merlin.
Camaralzaman, Prince.—Arabian Nights.—One of the stories of the Arabian Nights and the name of a prince who fell in love with Badoura, princess of China, the moment he saw her.
Camancho (kä-mä´chō).—Don Quixote, Cervantes. A character in an episode in Don Quixote, who gets cheated out of his bride after having made great preparations for their wedding.