522 



CRICHTON CRICKET. 



are to be thrown out, and the set to make sixty-one ; 

 niul, as it is an advantage to deal, by reason of the 

 crib, it is proper to lift fur it, ami lie that lias the 

 least card deals. 



CRICHTON, JAMES, was born in Scotland, in 

 1551, or, according to some accounts, in 1560, of a 

 noble family. On account of his remarkable endow- 

 ments, both of body and mind, he obtained the sur- 

 name of the Admirable. He was educated at the 

 university of St Andrews, and, before his twentieth 

 year, had run through the whole circle of the sciences, 

 rould speak ami write to perfection ten different lan- 

 guages, and was equally distinguished for his skill in 

 ridintr, dancing, singing, and playing upon all sorts 

 of instruments. Thus accomplished, he set out on 

 liis travels, and is said to have gone to Paris, where 

 he offered to dispute in any art or science, and to 

 answer wliatever should be proposed to him in any 

 of these twelve languages Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, 

 Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, 

 Dutch, Flemish, and Sclavonic ; and tliis either hi 

 prose or verse, at the option of his antagonist. On 

 the day fixed, he is said to have maintained the con- 

 test from nine o'clock in the morning until six at 

 night, to the great admiration of the spectators, who 

 saluted him as the "admirable Crichton." Before 

 and after the dispute, he was engaged in tilting, vault- 

 ing, &c., or in balls, concerts, and other similar 

 amusements. After similar exhibitions at Rome and 

 Venice, we find him, in 1581, at Padua, exposing 

 the errors of Aristotle, astonishing his hearers with 

 his ingenuity and elegance in an extempore oration 

 in praise of ignorance ; and, finally, to confound his 

 enemies, offering to prove the fallacies of Aristotle, 

 and the ignorance of Ins commentators, to dispute in 

 all the sciences, to answer all that should be pro- 

 posed or objected, in the common logical way, or by 

 numbers and mathematical figures, or in a hundred 

 sorts of verses, and during three days, sustaining this 

 contest with a spirit and energy, with such learning 

 and skill, as to obtain the praises and admiration of 

 all men. His next exploit was at Mantua. There 

 was in that city a famous gladiator, who had foiled 

 the most skilful fencers in Europe, and had lately 

 killed tliree persons, who had entered the lists with 

 him. Crichton offered to fight him for 1500 pistoles, 

 and, having slain him in the contest, he distributed 

 his prize among the widows of the three persons 

 above mentioned. The duke of Mantua, in conse- 

 quence of his wonderful performances, chose him 

 preceptor to his son a youth of a dissolute life and 

 riotous temper. To amuse his patron, Crichton 

 composed a comedy, ridiculing the weaknesses of 

 men in all employments, and sustained fifteen charac- 

 ters in his own play, " setting before the eyes of the 

 spectators the overweening monarch, the peevish 

 swain, the superficial courtier, the proud warrior, 

 the dissembled churchman, the cozening lawyer, the 

 lying traveller, the covetous merchant, the rude sea- 

 man, the pedantic scholar, and the tricksy servant," 

 &c. During the carnival (1583), while amusing him- 

 self with his guitar, he was attacked by half a dozen 

 persons in masks. He defended himself, and, dis- 

 arming their leader, found him to be his own pupil. 

 Crichton fell on his knees, and presented his own 

 sword to the prince, who immediately stabbed him to 

 the heart. The motives which impelled his pupil to 

 the commission of so savage a deed are unknown. 



Crichton's real claims to admiration have been 

 much disputed. Dr Kippis, in a life of him in the 

 Biographia Britannica, has impugned some of the 

 testimonies regarding him, and endeavoured to make 

 him out a very clever but not very extraordinary 

 personage, with a fine person, strong memory, and 

 fluent speech. But Mr Tytler, in his life of liim 



published in 1822, lias adduced very satisfactory evi- 

 dence, tliat he was indeed a youth of uncommon ta- 

 lents and accomplislunents, and tliat in all his trials 

 of skill, both bodily and mental, he found no one in 

 Europe to equal him. His death took place at the 

 early age of twenty-three, before he liad an oppor- 

 tunity of leaving to the world any lasting evidence oi 

 liis genius or attainments. Dr Joluison, though little 

 given to patronize the marvellous, except when 

 connected with the spiritual world, and still less given 

 to extend the fame of a Scotcliman, lias devoted a 

 paper in the Adventurer to the diaracter of Crichton, 

 which he opens by saying, that " wliatever we may 

 suppress as surpassing credibility, yet we sliall, UJMMI 

 incontestable authority, relate enough to rank him 

 among prodigies." 



CRICKET (gryllus, Lin. ; acheta, Fab.) ; a genus 

 of orthopterous or straight-winged insects, bekngfeag 

 to the grylloid family, which comprises the grasshop- 

 pers, mole-crickets, crickets proper. Tliis family, 

 like all other ortlioptera, do not undergo a complete 

 transformation. They are hatched from eggs sym- 

 metrically stuck together by a viscous material, 

 either upon vegetables, or placed under ground ; 

 and, from the moment of escaping from the egg, the 

 young are sufficiently vigorous to seek their own 

 food, which consists of organized substances. Wliile 

 yet very soft, they are perfectly formed, with the ex- 

 ception of the rudiments of the elytra and wings. 

 These, in some species, are never developed. As 

 the bisect grows, the skin becomes too small, and 

 requires to be changed as often as seven or eight 

 times, before the insect attains its full size. The 

 crickets are distinguished from the other members of 

 this family by their long, silken antenna, by having 

 but tliree joints to their tarsi, and by the compara- 

 tive smallness of their thighs. Their bodies are 

 short, thick-set and soft, with the head, corselet, and 

 abdomen immediately applied, and of equal length 

 and breadth. The head is thick, rounded above, 

 and nearly vertical. Between the eyes, which are 

 widely separated and reticulated on the surface, 

 there are two brilliant stemmata. The corselet is 

 quadrangular, somewhat larger transversely, and 

 rounded at the edges. The elytra, which do not 

 completely cover the belly, are curved squarely, and 

 are not roof-shaped, as in the locust and grasshopper. 

 In the winged species, the wings exceed the elytra, 

 and even abdomen, beyond which they project, in the 

 form of a sort of bifid tail. In addition to the two 

 flexible abdominal appendages common to both sexes, 

 the females have a long borer or oviduct, which is a 

 stiff, square tube, formed of two pieces, separable, 

 and free at the point, sometimes seeming to be split, 

 and terminating by a slight enlargement. 



The noise, for which all crickets are remarkable, 

 and usually called chirping, is produced by the fric- 

 tion of the bases of their elytra, or wing-cases, against 

 each other, these parts being curiously adapted to 

 produce this sound. Both sexes have the elytra 

 longitudinal, divided into two portions, one of which 

 is vertical or lateral, covering the sides, and the 

 other dorsal, covering the back. These portions, in 

 the female, have their nervures alike, running 

 obliquely in two directions, forming, by their niter- 

 section, numerous small meshes, which are of a 

 rhomboidal or lozenge shape. The elytra of the 

 females have an elevation at the base. The vertical 

 portion hi the males does not materially differ from 

 that of the females, but, in the horizontal part, the 

 base of each elytrum is so elevated as to form a cavity 

 beneath. The nervures are stronger, and very irre- 

 gular in then- course, with various inflexions, curved, 

 spiral, &c., producing a variety of different sized and 

 shaped meshes, generally larger than in the female ; 



