Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/681

* CBISPI. 587 CRITICAL POINT. office of Premier, and held it till llu' dofeat of the Italians in Abyssinia in ISOG, when he was again succeeded by Riidini (q.v.). In Jlarch, 18!)S, he resigned his seat in the I-ower Chamber as a result of the charges brought against him in con- nection with extensive swindles perpetrated on the Banca (ritalia. Save for a few articles which he published in favor of the Triple Alliance, he took no further active interest in affairs, and he died on August 11, 1901. at Naples. C'rispi was the greatest statesman that southern Italy gave to the united kingiloni. In his lifetime he was much misunderstood and maligned. Distrusted by the Conservatives as a Radical and Republican, he incurred the hostility of the Repiiblicans by his famous dictum in his letter to ilazzini, JIarch 18, IStJo, ''Monarchy unites us. while a republic would separate lis." From that time he was a lirm supporter of the monarchy, but never a friend of the Court. Consult: Stillman. Fran- cesco Crisjii, Insurcient, Exile, Revolutionist, and titatesnian (London, 1S99), which contains an estimate as just as a contemporary estimate of a complex character can well be. CKIS'PIN. A saint and martyr of the third century, wlio was descended from a noble Roman family. With his brother Crispinianus, he fled during a persecution of the Christians from Rome to Gaul, where he worked as a shoe- maker in Soissons. and distinguished himself by his exertions for the spread of Christianity, as well as by his works of charity. According to the legend, his benevolence was so great that he even stole leather to make shoes for the poor! From this, charities done at the expense of others have been called Crispinadcs. In the year 287 he and his brother suffered a cruel martyr- dom. Both brothers are commemorated on the 25th of October. Crispin is the universally rec- ognized patron saint of shoemakers. Consult: fne Accurate Eistory of Crispin and Crispinia- nus, the Royal Shoemakers (Dublin, 1816) ; and Saint Crispin and the Gentle Craft (London, 18G8). CBISPIW. (1) The old name for shoe- makers, applied to them from the fact that Saint Crispin was their patron saint. (2) A conven- tional character in French comedy; introduced, probably, by Poirin in 1054 from Italian comedy. A witty, intriguing, impudent valet-de-chambre. CRISPIN, EIVAl DE SON MAITRE, kre'spfix', re'val' de so>f nia'tr' (Fr. Crispin, his master's rival). A lively comedj' by Le Sage (1707), with an exceedingly improbable plot and sparkling with wit. CRISTINEL'LA. A bright, witty girl, a foil to her modest sister Beatrice, in Marston's play The Dutch Courtesan. CRISPI'NTJS. A character in Ben .Tonson's comedy The Poetaster, representing an inferior poet, intended as a satire on Marston, with ■whom .Jonson was quarreling at the time, CRISTINOS, krs-ste'nSz (Sp., adherents of Christina). A political party in Spain during the regency of Queen JIaria Christina, mother of Isabella II. They were opposed to the Carlists and upheld the Pragmatic Sanction of Ferdinand VII. ( q.v. ), by which the crown oi Spain was made inheritable in the female line. CRISTOFORI, kre-st6'f6re. or CEISTO- FALI, -fa-le, B.VRTOLOMMEO (c.1651-1731). An Vol. v.— 38. Italian harpsichord-maker, and the inventor of the hammer action used in the modern pianoforte, lie was l)orn in Padua. After mainifailuring in- struments in tlKit city until about 1.S7 he was IKTsuaded by Prince Ferdinand, sou of the Grand j)uke Cosimo III., to remove to Florence. The instrument invented by Cristofori is well de- scribed b}' ilalTei, who also furnishes an illustra- tive engraving of the action, according to w-hich the regulated rebound of the hammer mu.st un- doubtedly be ascrilied to him. An authentiu gnind pinnofortc made by the inventor in 1720 is said still to be preserved in Florence. A tab- let was erected to the memory of Cristofori in Florence in 1870. CRITES, kri'tez. A character in Jonson's play Cynlhia's Revels, supposed to be 'Jonson's idea of Jonson.' CKITIAS, krlsh^-os (Lat.. from Gk. Kptrlai, Krilias) ( V-403B.C. ). An Athenian orator and poet, tlie pupil both of Socrates and of Gorgias of Leontini. He was a leader in the oligarchical partj' at Athens, and was exiled after the down- fall of the Four Hundred in B.C. 411, but after the subjugation of Athens by the Spartans he re- turned, and, in B.C. 404, became head of the Com- mittee of Thirty, laiown as the Thirty Tyrants. In 40.3 he was killed in the general revolt against their excesses. His literary activity was varied in the fields of oratory, tragic and elegiac poetry, and historical prose. Fragments of his elegies are in Bergk, Poctw Lyriei Grccci, vol, ii, (Leipzig, 1900) ; of his historical work, in Miiller, Frag- incnta Historicorum Grwcorum, vol. ii. (Paris, 1S08-83), CRITIC, The, A three-act farce by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in imitation of Buckingham's Rehearsal, produced at Covent Garden in 1779. It contains a mock tragedy called The Spanish A rmada. supposedly written by and rehearsed be- fore Pull', one of llie principal characters. CRITICAL ANGLE. See LiciiT, where under I'rfractiou this subject is treated. CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY, or CRITI- CISM. The name applied to Kant's philosophy, because it was not willing to accept all dicta that seemed to have the support of reason (see Dogmatism ), but sought to investigate the con- ditions of the possibility of knowledge and re- jected all so-called knowledge that did not eon- form to these conditions. Consult the authori- ties referred to in the article Kant. CRITICAL POINT. Experience shows that there is for every gas a certain temperature above which it cannot be liquefied, no matter how great the pressure exerted upon it. Thus, above 31.1° C. (87.98° F.) it is impossible to liquefv carbonic-aeid gas: water cannot exist in the liquid state above 370° C. (098° F.). etc. Such temperatures are termed the critical points or critical temperatures of substances. The vapor-tension of a liquid at its critical tempera- ture is termed the critical pressure, and the spe- cific volume of the fluid at the critical tempera- ture and under the critical pressure is termed the critical volume. The following table gives the critical tempera- tures and pressures for some of the more com- mon substances (the critical pressures in terms of pounds per square inch may be obtained by