TO (3 _syl_.), the fifteenth century of Italian notables.
They were Ariosto (1474-1533), Tasso (1544-1595), and Giovanni
Rucellai (1475-1526), _poets_; Raphael (1483-1520), Titian
(1480-1576), and Michael Angelo (1474-1564), _painters_. These, with
Machiavelli, Luigi Alamanni, Bernardo Baldi, etc., make up what is
termed the "Cinquecentesti." The word means the worthies of the '500
epoch, and it will be observed that they all flourished between 1500
and the close of that century. (See SEICENTA).

Ouida writes in winter mornings at a Venetian
writing-table of cinquecento work that
would enrapture the souls of the virtuosi who
haunt Christie's.--E. Yates, _Celebrities_, xix.

CIPAN'GO OR ZIPANGO, a marvellous island described in the _Voyages_ of
Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller. He described it as lying some 1500
miles from land. This island was an object of diligent search with
Columbus and other early navigators, but belongs to that wonderful
chart which contains the _El Dorado_ of Sir Walter Raleigh, the
_Utopia_ of Sir Thomas More, the _Atlantis_ of Lord Bacon, the
_Laputa_ of Dean Swift, and other places better known in story than in
geography.

CIRCE (2 _syl_.), a sorceress who metamorphosed the companions of
Ulysses into swine. Ulysses resisted the enchantment by means of the
herb _moly_, given him by Mercury.

Who knows not Circe,
The daughter of the sun, whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a grovelling swine?
Milton, _Comus_ (1634).

CIRCUIT _(Serjeant)_, in Foote's farce called _The Lame Lover_.

CIS'LEY or CISS, any dairy-maid. Tusser frequently speaks of the
"dairy-maid Cisley," and in _April Husbandry_ tells Ciss she must
carefully keep these ten guests from her cheeses: Gehazi, Lot's wife,
Argus, Tom Piper, Crispin, Lazarus, Esau, Mary Maudlin, Gentiles and
bishops. (1)Gehazi, because a cheese should never be a dead white,
like Gehazi the leper. (2) Lot's wife, because a cheese should not be
too salt, like Lot's wife. (3) Argus, because a cheese should not be
full of eyes, like Argus. (4) Tom Piper, because a cheese should
not be "hoven and puffed," like the cheeks of a piper. (5) Crispin,
because a cheese should not be leathery, as if for a cobbler's use.
(6) Lazarus, because a cheese should not be poor, like the beggar
Lazarus. (7) Esau, because a cheese should not be hairy, like Esau.
(8) Mary Maudlin, because a cheese should not be