x 8'5'o C O M 
remarkably hifpid.] In botany, a genus of the clafs te- 
trandria, order monogynia, natural order tricoccse. The 
.igeneric characters are—Calyx: involucre three-flowered, 
flowers feflile, four-leaved ; leaflets oblong, equal, thread¬ 
ing, ciliate-hifpid ; perianthium four-leaved; leaflets ob- 
Jong, equal, length of the involucre. Corolla : none. 
Stamina : filaments four, capillary, length of the perian¬ 
thium ; antherae roundifh. Piftilium : germ roundifli:; 
ftyle filiform, length of the flower; digma three-cleft. 
Pericarpium : capfule tricoccous. Seed : folitary.— EJ- 
fential Character. Involucre four-leaved, three-flowered ; 
calyx, four-leaved ? capfule, tricoccous. 
There is but one fpecies known, the cometes alterni- 
flora : it is annual; item herbaceous ; leaves oppofite, fef- 
file,,obovate, acuminate, very entire, fmooth; peduncles 
axillary, alternate, folitary, one-flowered, patulous, the 
length of the leaves; Items a foot high, round ; pedun¬ 
cles in jaairs, terminating and axillary, fubalternate. Na¬ 
tive of Surat. 
COMETHO, in fabulous hiflory, a daughter of Pteri- 
laus, who deprived her father of a golden hair in his head, 
upon which depended his fate. She was put to death by 
Amphitryon for her perfidy. Apollodorus. 
COM'FIT,/. \bellaria arida, Lat. konfit , Dut. Itfhould 
feem that both are formed by halty pronunciation from 
confetti .] A dry fweetmeat; any kind of fruit or root pre- 
lerved with fngar, and dried. 
To COM'FIT, ns. a. To preferve dry with fugar: 
The fruit that does fo quickly wade, 
Men fcarce can fee it, much lels tafte, 
Thou comfitefi in ftreets to make it lad. Cowley. 
COMTIT-MAKER, f. A maker of comfits.—You 
fwear like a comfit-maker's wife. Shakefpeare . 
COMTITURE,/. Sweetmeat: 
From country graft to confitures of court. 
Or city’s queique-chofes, let not report 
My mind tranfport. Donne. 
fo COM'FORT, ‘v.a. [ro«z/or/o,lowLat.] Todrengthen ; 
to enliven ; to invigorate.—Light excelleth in comforting 
the fpirits of men : light varied doth the fame effect, with 
more novelty. This is the caufe why precious Hones com¬ 
fort. Bacon. —To confole ; to flrengthen the mind under 
the prelfure of calamity.—They bemoaned him, and com¬ 
forted him overall the evil that the Lord had brought upon 
him. Job, xlii. 11. 
COM'FORT,/. Support; affiflance; countenance.— 
Poynings made a wild chace upon the wild Irifh; where, 
in refpeft of the mountains and faftnefles, he did little 
good, which he would needs impute unto the conifort that 
tite rebels fliould receive underhand from the earl of Kil¬ 
dare. Bacon. —Confolation; fupport under calamity or 
danger: 
Her foul heaven’s queen, wdiofe name fhe bears. 
In comfort of her mother’s fears, 
Has plac’d among her virgin train. • Ben Jo/tfon. 
That which gives confolation or fupport in calamity : 
We need not fear 
To pafs commodioufly this life, fuftain’d 
By him with many comforts, till we end 
In dull, our final reft and native home. Milton. 
COM'FORTABLE, adj. Receiving comfort; fufcep- 
tible of comfort; cheerful: of perfons. Not in ufe. 
For my fake be comfortable ; hold death 
A while at the arm’s end. Shakefpeare. 
Admitting comfort: of condition.—What can promife 
him a cotnfortable appearance before his dreadful judge ? 
South. —Difpenfing comfort: having the power of giving 
comfort.—The lives of many miferable men were faved, 
and a comfortable provifion made for their fubiiftence. 
Ihyden. 
4 
C O M 
COM'FORTABLY, adaj. In a comfortable manner -, 
with cbeerfiiinefs ; without defpair.—Upon view of the 
fincerity of that performance, hope comfortably and cheer¬ 
fully for God’s performance. Hammond. 
COM'FORTER, /. One that adminifters confolation 
in misfortunes; one that drengthens and fupports the 
mind in mifery or 'danger.—This very prayer of Chrifl 
obtained angels to be fent him, as comforters in his agony. 
Hooker. 
The heav’ns have bleft you with a goodly fon, 
To be a comforter when he is gone. Shakefpeare. 
The title of the Third Perfor. of the Holy Trinity; the 
Paraclete. John, xv. 26. 
COM'FORTLESS, adj. Wanting comfort; being with¬ 
out any thing to allay misfortune: ufed of perlons as 
well as things.—Yet fhallnot my death be contfortlefs. Sid. 
On thy feet thou flood’d at lad, 
Though comfortlefs, as when a father mourns 
his children, all in view dedroy’d at once. Milton . 
COM'FREY,/. in botany. -See Symphytum. 
COMHO'LA, a river of Ireland, which runs into Ban- 
try Bay : three miles north of Bantry. 
CO'MIC, adj. [comictts, Lat. comique, Fr.] Relating, to 
comedy ; not tragic : 
I never yet the tragic mufe eflay’d, 
Deterr’d by thy inimitable maid ; 
And when I venture at the comic dile, 
Thy Icornful lady feems to mock my toil. Waller „ 
Railing mirth: 
Stately triumphs, mirthful comic (hews, 
Such as befit the pleafure. Shakefpeare. 
CO'MICAL, adj. \_comicus, Lat.] Railing mirth ; mer¬ 
ry ; diverting.—Something fo comical in the voice and 
gedures, that a man can hardly forbear being pleafed. 
AJdifon. —Relating to comedy; befitting comedy ; not 
tragical.—They deny it to be tragical becaufe its cataf- 
trophe is a wedding, which hath ever been accounted co¬ 
mical. Gay. 
CO'MICALI.Y, ad-v. In fuch a manner as raifes mirth. 
In a manner befitting comedy.— The ladies have layghed 
at thee mod comically fince thou wentd. Silent Woman. 
CO'MICALNESS,/ The quality of being comical; 
the power of raifing mirth. 
COMIL LAH, a town ofHindoodan, in the country 
of Bengal: 160 miles ead-north-ead of Calcutta, and 176 
ead fouth-ealf of M001 fliedabad. Lat. 13. 25. N. Ion. 91. 
15. E. Greenwich. 
COMI'NES, a town of Flanders fituated on the Lis, 
which divides it in two parts. This town is greatly re- • 
duced from its former grandeur by accidents and war. In 
1450, great part of it u'as burnt down, together with the 
cadle, but the w'hole was rebuilt fome years after. In 
J5S5, the garrifon from Odend burnt it almod entirely 
down, except the cadle. In 1645, marechal de Gaflion 
made liimfelf mader of the cadle, but the archduke Leo¬ 
pold retook it in 1648. In 1657, the marechal de Tu- 
renne, after defeating a body of troops commanded by 
the prince de Ligne, at Boufbeeck, took it and gave it up 
to pillage. Two years after, it was redored to Spain at 
the treaty of the Pyrenees; but the French again leized 
it in 1672, and razed the fortifications both of the town 
and cadle. It was alfo taken by the French republican 
army on the 2zd day of November 1793. Philip de Co¬ 
niines, author of the celebrated Memoirs of his own Time, 
was born of an illudrious family in this place : twenty- 
five miles fbuth of Bruges, and feven north of Lille. 
COMI'NES (Philip de), an excellent hillorian, born of 
a noble .family in Flanders in 1446. He lived in intimacy 
with Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, for about eight 
years; .but, being feduced to the intered of France by 
Louis XI, lie was highly promoted by him, and executed 
feveral 
