Crossword-Solution: CRISPINS 8 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 12

SHOWING THE DESCENT OF CELESTIAL CRISPINS UPON THE SHOEMAKERS OF THE BAY STATE AND HOW THEY ROBBED THE NATIVE COBBLER OF HIS _ALL_.] * * * * * HIRAM GEEEN AT THE TOWER OF BABEL.

The Middle Ages, more than any other period, are rich in instances of that intimate blending of the comic and the horrible which we call the grotesque; the witches' Sabbath, the hoofed and horned devil, the hideous figures of Dante's hell; the Scaramouches, Crispins, Harlequins of Italian farce; "grimacing silhouettes of man, quite unknown to grave antiquity"; and "all those local dragons of our legends, the gargoyle of Rouen, the Taras of Tarascon, etc.

And what became of the Crispins? They struck! and then--they disappeared, vanished, went too "where the woodbine twineth." They too were not wanted.

Such feathers and flowers, mantelets and cloaks; such _capotes_ of _tulle_, and cardinal pelerines; such corsages _à la vierge_, and skirts _à la Corinne_—crispins of lace, and I know not what besides, are exhibited by the Antiguan belles, as would surprise any one who is not well versed in all the changes of the arbitrary rule of fashion.

When these towns, once so exclusively maritime, found the fishery slipping through their fingers, they took up shoe-making, and at present you will see plenty of Crispins, but not many blue-jackets, in Marblehead.