Chapter VI: Part 6

The principal church is the Protestant cathedral, founded in 1865, and consecrated on St Andrew's Day 1870; while the central tower was completed in 1879. It is dedicated to St Fin Barre or Finbar, who founded the original cathedral in the 7th century. The present building is in the south-west part of the city, and replaces a somewhat mean structure erected in 1735 on the site of the ancient cathedral, which suffered during the siege of Cork in September 1689. Money for the erection of the building of 1735 was raised by the curious method of a tax on imported coal. The new cathedral is in the Early French (pointed) style, with an eastern apse and a striking west front. Its design was by William Burges (d. 1881), and its erection was due to the indefatigable exertions and munificence of Dr John Gregg, bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross; while the tower and spires were the gift of two merchants of Cork. The other principal Protestant churches are St Luke's, St Nicholas and St Anne Shandon, with its striking tower of parti-coloured stones; and its peal of bells extolled in Father Prout's lyric "The Bells of Shandon." The Roman Catholic cathedral, also dedicated to St Finbar, is conspicuous on the north side of the city; it dates from 1808, but has been since restored. Other fine churches of this faith are St Mary, St Peter and Paul, St Patrick, Holy Trinity and St Vincent de Paul. St Finbar's cemetery has handsome monuments, and St Joseph's, founded by Father Mathew in 1830 on the site of the old botanic gardens of the Cork Institution, is beautifully planted. The court house in Great George's Street has a good Corinthian portico, happily undamaged in a fire which destroyed the rest of the building in 1891. The custom-house commands the river in a fine position at the lower junction of the branches. The usual commercial and public buildings are mainly on the island. The most notable educational establishment is the University College, founded as Queen's College (1849), with those of the same name at Belfast and Galway, under an Act of 1845. A new charter was granted to it under letters patent pursuant to the Irish Universities Act 1908, when it was given its present name. The building, designed by Sir Thomas Deane, occupies a beautiful site on the river in the west of the city, where Gill Abbey, of the 7th century, formerly stood. It is a fine building in Tudor Style, "worthy," said Macaulay, "to stand in the High Street of Oxford." A large library, museum and well-furnished laboratory are here. The Crawford School of Science (1885); and the Munster Dairy and Agricultural School, 1 m. west of the city, also claim notice, while besides parochial and industrial schools several of the religious orders located here devote themselves to education. The Cork library (founded 1790) contains a valuable collection of books. The Royal Cork Institution (1807), in addition to an extensive library and a rare collection of Oriental MSS., possesses a valuable collection of minerals, and the collections of casts from the antique presented by the pope to George IV. There are numerous literary and scientific societies, including the Cork Cuvierian and Archaeological Society. The principal clubs are the County and the Southern in South Mall, and the City in Grand Parade; while for sport there are the Cork Golf Club, Little Island, three rowing clubs, and the Royal Munster and Royal Cork Yacht clubs, the latter located at Queenstown. The theatres are the opera-house in Nelson's Place, and the Theatre Royal.

Based on information embodied from the Ordnance Survey, by permission of the Controller of H. M. Stationery Office.]

The country neighbouring to Cork is highly attractive. The harbour, with the ceaseless activity of shipping, its calm waters, sheltered by many islands, and its well-wooded shores studded with pleasant watering-places, affords a series of charming views, apart from its claim to be considered one of the finest natural harbours in the kingdom. Military depots occupy several of the smaller islets, and three batteries guard the entry. This is about 1 m. wide, but within the width increases to 3 m. while the length is about 10 m. The Atlantic port of Queenstown (q.v.) is on Great Island at the head of the outer harbour. Tivoli (the residence of Sir Walter Raleigh), Fort William, Lota Park, and Blackrock Castle are notable features on the shore; and Passage, Blackrock, Glenbrook and Monkstown are waterside resorts. Inland from Cork runs the picturesque valley of the Lee, and low hills surround the commanding situation of the port.

The harbour is by far the most important on the south coast of Ireland, and dredging operations render the quays approachable for vessels drawing 20 ft. at all states of the tide. Its trade is mainly with Bristol and the ports of South Wales. The imports, exceeding L1,000,000 in annual value, include large quantities of wheat and maize, while the exports (about L9000 annually) are chiefly of cattle, provisions, butter and fish. The Cork Butter Exchange, where classification of the various qualities is carried out by branding under the inspection of experts, was important in the early part of the 17th century, and an unbroken series of accounts dates from 1769 when the present market was founded. There are distilleries, breweries, tanneries and iron foundries in the city; and manufactures of woollen and leather goods, tweeds, friezes, gloves and chemical manure. Nearly six-sevenths of the population are Roman Catholics. The city does not share with the county the rapid decrease of population. It is governed by a lord mayor, 14 aldermen and 42 councillors. The parliamentary borough returns two members.

The original site of Cork seems to have been in the vicinity of the Protestant cathedral; St Finbar's ecclesiastical foundation attracting many students and votaries. In the 9th century the town was frequently pillaged by the Northmen. According to the _Annals of the Four Masters_ a fleet burned Cork in 821, in 846 the Danes appear to have been in possession of the town, for a force was collected to demolish their fortress; and in 1012 Cork again fell in flames. The Danes then appear to have founded the new city on the banks of the Lee as a trading centre. It was anciently surrounded with a wall, an order for the reparation of which is found so late as 1748 in the city council books (which date from 1610). Submission and homage were made to Henry II. on his arrival in 1172, and subsequently the English held the town for a long period against the Irish, by constant and careful watch. Cork showed favour to Perkin Warbeck in 1492, and its mayor was hanged in consequence. In 1649 it surrendered to Cromwell, and in 1689 to the earl of Marlborough after five days' siege, when Henry, duke of Grafton, was mortally wounded. Cork was a borough by prescription, and successive charters were granted to it from the reign of Henry II. onward. By a charter of Edward IV. the lord mayor of Cork was created admiral of the port, and this office is manifested in a triennial ceremony in which the mayor throws a dart over the harbour.

See C. Smith, _Ancient and Present State of the County and City of
Cork_ (1750), edited by R. Day and W. A. Copinger (Cork, 1893); C. B.
Gibson, _History of the City and County of Cork_ (London, 1861); M. F.
Cusack, _History of the City and County of Cork_, 1875.

CORK (perhaps through Sp. _corcha_ from Lat. _cortex_, bark, but possibly connected with _quercus_, oak), the outer layer of the bark of an evergreen species of oak (_Quercus Suber_). The tree reaches the height of about 30 ft., growing in the south of Europe and on the North African coasts generally; but it is principally cultivated in Spain and Portugal. The outer layer of bark in the cork oak by annual additions from within gradually becomes a thick soft homogeneous mass, possessing those compressible and elastic properties upon which the economic value of the material chiefly depends. The first stripping of cork from young trees takes place when they are from fifteen to twenty years of age. The yield, which is rough, unequal and woody in texture, is called virgin cork, and is useful only as a tanning substance, or for forming rustic work in ferneries, conservatories, &c. Subsequently the bark is removed every eight or ten years, the quality of the cork improving with each successive stripping; and the trees continue to live and thrive under the operation for 150 years and upwards. The produce of the second barking is still so coarse in texture that it is only fit for making floats for nets and for similar applications. The operation of stripping the trees takes place during the months of July and August. Two cuts are made round the stem--one a little above the ground, and the other immediately under the spring of the main branches. Between these three or four longitudinal incisions are then made, the utmost care being taken not to injure the inner bark. The cork is thereafter removed in the sections into which it has been cut, by inserting under it the wedge-shaped handle of the implement used in making the incisions. After the outer surface has been scraped and cleaned, the pieces are flattened by heating them over a fire and submitting them to pressure on a flat surface. In the heating operation the surface is charred, and thereby the pores are closed up, and what is termed "nerve" is given to the material. In this state the cork is ready for manufacture or exportation.

Though specially developed in the cork-oak, the substance cork is an almost universal product in the stems (and roots) of woody plants which increase in diameter year by year. Generally towards the end of the first year the original thin protective layer of a stem or branch is replaced by a thin layer of "cork," that is a layer of cells the living contents of which have disappeared while the walls have become thickened and toughened as the result of the formation in them of a substance known as suberin. Fresh cork is formed each season by an active formative layer below the layer developed last season, which generally peels off. Where the formation is extensive and persistent as in the cork-oak, a thick covering of cork is formed. In some cases, as on young shoots of the cork-elm, the development is irregular and wing-like outgrowths of cork are formed. In northern Russia a similar method to that used for obtaining cork from the cork-oak is employed with the birch.

Cork possesses a combination of properties which peculiarly fits it for many and diverse uses, for some of which it alone is found applicable. The leading purpose for which it is used is for forming bungs and stoppers for bottles and other vessels containing liquids. Its compressibility, elasticity and practical imperviousness to both air and water so fit it for this purpose that the term cork is even more applied to the function than to the substance. Its specific lightness, combined with strength and durability, recommend it above all other substances for forming life-buoys, belts and jackets, and in the construction of life-boats and other apparatus for saving from drowning. On account of its lightness, softness and non-conducting properties it is used for hat-linings and the soles of shoes, the latter being a very ancient application of cork. It is also used in making artificial limbs, for lining entomological cases, for pommels in leather-dressing, and as a medium for making architectural models. Chips and cuttings are ground up and mixed with india-rubber to form kamptulicon floor-cloth, or "cork-carpet." The inner bark of the cork-tree is a valuable tanning material.

Certain of the properties and uses of cork were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the latter, we find by Horace (_Odes_ iii. 8), used it as a stopper for wine-vessels:--

"corticem adstrictum pice dimovebit
amphorae"--

It appears, however, that cork was not generally used for stopping bottles till so recent a period as near the end of the 17th century, and bottles themselves were not employed for storing liquids till the 15th century. Many substitutes have been proposed for cork as a stoppering agent; but except in the case of aerated liquids none of these has recommended itself in practice. For aerated water bottles several successful devices have been introduced. The most simple of these is an india-rubber ball pressed upwards into the narrow of the bottle neck by the force of the gas contained in the water; and in another system a glass ball is similarly pressed against an india-rubber collar inserted in the neck of the bottle. By analogy the term "to cork" is used of any such devices for sealing up a bottle or aperture.

CORK AND ORRERY, MARY, COUNTESS OF (Mary Monckton) (1746-1840), was born on the 21st of May 1746, the daughter of the first Viscount Galway. From her early years she took a keen interest in literature, and through her influence her mother's house in London became a favourite meeting-place of literary celebrities. Dr Johnson was a frequent guest. According to Boswell, Miss Monckton's "vivacity enchanted the sage, and they used to talk together with all imaginable ease." Sheridan, Reynolds, Burke and Horace Walpole were among her constant visitors, and Mrs Siddons was her closest friend. In 1786 she married the seventh earl of Cork and Orrery, who died in 1798. As Lady Cork, her love of social "lions" became more pronounced than ever. Among her regular guests were Canning and Castlereagh, Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Theodore Hook and Sydney Smith. She is supposed to have been the original of Lady Bellair in Disraeli's _Henrietta Temple_, and Dickens is believed to have drawn on her for some of the peculiarities of Mrs Leo Hunter in _Pickwick_. Lady Cork had a remarkable memory, and was a brilliant conversationalist. She died in London on the 30th of May 1840. She was then ninety-four, but within a few days of her death had been either dining out or entertaining every night. There is a fine portrait of her by Reynolds.

CORLEONE (Saracen, _Korliun_), a town of Sicily, in the province of Palermo, 42 m. S. of Palermo by rail and 21 m. direct, 1949 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 14,803. The town was a Saracen settlement, but a Lombard colony was introduced by Frederick II. Two medieval castles rise above the town, and there are some churches of interest.

CORMENIN, LOUIS MARIE DE LA HAYE, VICOMTE DE (1788-1868), French jurist and political pamphleteer, was born at Paris on the 6th of January 1788. His father and his grandfather both held the rank of lieutenant-general of the admiralty. At the age of twenty he was received advocate, and about the same time he gained some reputation as a writer of piquant and delicate poems. In 1810 he received from Napoleon I. the appointment of auditor to the council of state; and after the restoration of the Bourbons he became master of requests. During the period of his connexion with the council he devoted himself zealously to the study of administrative law. He was selected to prepare some of the most important reports of the council. Among his separate publications at this time are noted,--_Du conseil d'etat envisage comme conseil et comme juridiction dans notre monarchie constitutionnelle_ (1818), and _De la responsabilite des agents du gouvernement_. In the former he claimed, for the protection of the rights of private persons in the administration of justice, the institution of a special court whose members should be irremovable, the right of oral defence, and publicity of trial. In 1822 appeared his _Questions de droit administratif_, in which he for the first time brought together and gave scientific shape to the scattered elements of administrative law. These he arranged and stated clearly in the form of aphorisms, with logical deductions, establishing them by proofs drawn from the archives of the council of state. This is recognized as his most important work as a jurist. The fifth edition (1840) was thoroughly revised.

In 1828 Cormenin entered the Chamber of Deputies as member for Orleans, took his seat in the Left Centre, and began a vigorous opposition to the government of Charles X. As he was not gifted with the qualifications of the orator, he seldom appeared at the tribune; but in the various committees he defended all forms of popular liberties, and at the same time delivered, in a series of powerful pamphlets, under the pseudonym of "Timon," the most formidable blows against tyranny and all political and administrative abuses. After the revolution of July 1830, Cormenin was one of the 221 who signed the protest against the elevation of the Orleans dynasty to the throne; and he resigned both his office in the council of state and his seat in the chamber. He was, however, soon re-elected deputy, and now voted with the extreme Left. The discussions on the budget in 1831 gave rise to the publication of his famous series of _Lettres sur la liste civile_, which in ten years ran through twenty-five editions. In the following year he was elected deputy for Belley. In 1834 he was elected by two arrondissements, and sat for Joigny, which he represented till 1846. In this year he lost his seat in consequence of the popular prejudice aroused against him by his trenchant pamphlet _Oui et non_ (1845) against attacks on religious liberty, and a second entitled _Feu! Feu!_ (1845), written in reply to those who demanded a retractation of the former. Sixty thousand copies were rapidly sold.

Cormenin was an earnest advocate of universal suffrage before the revolution of February 1848, and had remorselessly exposed the corrupt practices at elections in his pamphlet--_Ordre du jour sur la corruption electorale_. After the revolution he was elected by four departments to the Constituent Assembly, and became one of its vice-presidents. He was also member and president of the constitutional commission, and for some time took a leading part in drawing up the republican constitution. But the disputes which broke out among the members led him to resign the presidency. He was soon after named member of the council of state and president of the _comite du contentieux_. It was at this period that he published two pamphlets--_Sur l'independance de l'Italie_. After the _coup d'etat_ of December 2, 1851, Cormenin, who had undertaken the defence of Prince Louis Napoleon after his attempt at Strassburg, accepted a place in the new council of state of the empire. Four years later, by imperial ordinance, he was made a member of the Institute. One of the most characteristic works of Cormenin is the _Livre des orateurs_, a series of brilliant studies of the principal parliamentary orators of the restoration and the monarchy of July, the first edition of which appeared in 1838, and the eighteenth in 1860. In 1846 he published his _Entretiens de village_, which procured him the Montyon prize, and of which six editions were called for the same year. His last work was _Le Droit de tonnage en Algerie_ (1860). He died at Paris, on the 6th of May 1868. Two volumes of his _Reliquiae_ were printed in Paris in the same year.

CORMON, FERNAND (1845- ), French painter, was born in Paris. He became a pupil of Cabanel, Fromentin and Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. At an early age he attracted attention by the better class of sensationalism in his art, although for a time his powerful brush dwelled with particular delight on scenes of bloodshed, such as the "Murder in the Seraglio" (1868) and the "Death of Ravara, Queen of Lanka" at the Toulouse Museum. The Luxembourg has his "Cain flying before Jehovah's Curse"; and for the Mairie of the fourth arrondissement of Paris he executed in grisaille a series of Panels: "Birth," "Death," "Marriage," "War," &c. "A Chief's Funeral," and pictures having the Stone Age for their subject, occupied him for several years. He was appointed to the Legion of Honour in 1880. Subsequently he also devoted himself to portraiture.

CORMONTAINGNE, LOUIS DE (c. 1697-1752), French military engineer, was born at Strassburg. He was present as a volunteer at the sieges of Freiburg and Landau in the later years of the War of the Spanish Succession, and in 1715 he entered the engineers. After being stationed for some years at Strassburg he became captain, and was put in charge (at first in a subordinate capacity, and subsequently as chief engineer) of the new works, Forts Moselle and Bellecroix, at Metz, which he built according to his own system of fortification. He was present at the siege of Philipsburg in 1733, and as a lieutenant-colonel took part in most of the sieges in the Low Countries during the War of the Austrian Succession. He attained the rank of brigadier and finally that of _marechal de camp_, and was employed in fortification work until his death. His _Architecture militaire_, written in 1714, was long kept secret by order of the authorities, but, an unauthorized edition having appeared at the Hague in 1741, he himself prepared another version called _Premier memoire sur la fortification_, which from 1741 onwards was followed by others. His ideas are closely modelled on those of Vauban (q.v.), and in his lifetime he was not considered the equal of such engineers as d'Asfeld and Filley. It was not until twenty years after his death that his system became widely known. Fourcroy de Rainecourt, then chief of engineers, searching the archives for valuable matter, chose the numerous memoirs of Cormontaingne for publication amongst engineer officers in 1776. Even then they only circulated privately, and it was not until the engineer Bousmard published Cormontaingne's _Memorial de l'attaque des places_ (Berlin, 1803) that Fourcroy, and after him General La Fitte de Clave, actually gave to the general public the _OEuvres posthumes de Cormontaingne_ (Paris, 1806-1809).

His system of fortification was not marked by any great originality of thought, which indeed could not be expected of a member of the _corps du genie_, the characteristics of which were a close caste spirit and an unquestioning reverence for the authority of Vauban. Forts Moselle and Bellecroix are still in existence.

See Von Brese-Winiari, _Uber Entstehen etc. der neueren
Befestigungsmethode_ (Berlin, 1844); Prevost du Vernois, _De la
fortification depuis Vauban_ (Paris, 1861); Cosseron de Villenoisy,
_Essai historique sur la fortification_ (Paris, 1869).

CORMORANT (from the Lat. _corvus marinus_,[1] through the Fr., in some _patois_ of which it is still "cor marin"; in certain Ital. dialects are the forms "corvo marin" or "corvo marino"), a large sea-fowl belonging to the genus _Phalacrocorax_[2] (_Carbo_, _Halieus_ and _Graculus_ of some ornithologists), and that group of the Linnaean order _Anseres_, now partly generally recognized by Illiger's term _Steganopodes_, of which it with its allies forms a family _Phalacrocoracidae_.

The cormorant (_P. carbo_) frequents almost all the sea-coast of Europe, and breeds in societies at various stations, most generally on steep cliffs, but occasionally on rocky islands as well as on trees. The nest consists of a large mass of sea-weed, and, with the ground immediately surrounding it, generally looks as though bespattered with whitewash, from the excrement of the bird, which lives entirely on fish. The eggs, from four to six in number, are small, and have a thick, soft, calcareous shell, bluish-white when first laid, but soon becoming discoloured. The young are hatched blind, and covered with an inky-black skin. They remain for some time in the squab-condition, and are then highly esteemed for food by the northern islanders, their flesh being said to taste as well as a roasted hare's. Their first plumage is of a sombre brownish-black above, and more or less white beneath. They take two or three years to assume the fully adult dress, which is deep black, glossed above with bronze, and varied in the breeding-season with white on the cheeks and flanks, besides being adorned by filamentary feathers on the head, and further set off by a bright yellow gape. The old cormorant looks nearly as big as a goose, but is really much smaller; its flesh is quite uneatable.

Taken when young from the nest, this bird is easily tamed and can be trained to fish for its keeper, as was of old time commonly done in England, where the master of the cormorants was one of the officers of the royal household. Nowadays the practice is nearly obsolete. When taken out to furnish sport, a strap is fastened round the bird's neck so as, without impeding its breath, to hinder it from swallowing its captures.[3] Arrived at the waterside, it is cast off. It at once dives and darts along the bottom as swiftly as an arrow in quest of its prey, rapidly scanning every hole or pool. A fish is generally seized within a few seconds of its being sighted, and as each is taken the bird rises to the surface with its capture in its bill. It does not take much longer to dispose of the prize in the dilatable skin of its throat so far as the strap will allow, and the pursuit is recommenced until the bird's gular pouch, capacious as it is, will hold no more. It then returns to its keeper, who has been anxiously watching and encouraging its movements, and a little manipulation of its neck effects the delivery of the booty. It may then be let loose again, or, if considered to have done its work, it is fed and restored to its perch. The activity the bird displays under water is almost incredible to those who have not seen its performances, and in a shallow river scarcely a fish escapes its keen eyes, and sudden turns, except by taking refuge under a stone or root, or in the mud that may be stirred up during the operation, and so avoiding observation (see Salvin and Freeman, _Falconry_, 1859).

Nearly allied to the cormorant, and having much the same habits, is the shag, or green cormorant of some writers (_P. graculus_). The shag (which name in many parts of the world is used in a generic sense) is, however, about one-fourth smaller in linear dimensions, is much more glossy in plumage, and its nuptial embellishment is a nodding plume instead of the white patches of the cormorant. The easiest diagnostic on examination will be found to be the number of tail-feathers, which in the former are fourteen and in the shag twelve. The latter, too, is more marine in the localities it frequents, scarcely ever entering fresh or indeed inland waters.

In the south of Europe a much smaller species (_P. pygmaeus_) is found. This is almost entirely a fresh-water bird, and is not uncommon on the lower Danube. Other species, to the number perhaps of thirty or more, have been discriminated from other parts of the world, but all have a great general similarity to one another. New Zealand and the west coast of northern America are particularly rich in birds of this genus, and the species found there are the most beautifully decorated of any. All, however, are remarkable for their curiously-formed feet, the four toes of each being connected by a web, for their long stiff tails, and for the absence, in the adult, of any exterior nostrils. When gorged, or when the state of the tide precludes fishing, they are fond of sitting on an elevated perch, often with extended wings, and in this attitude they will remain motionless for a considerable time, as though hanging themselves out to dry. It was perhaps this peculiarity that struck the observation of Milton, and prompted his well-known similitude of Satan to a cormorant (_Parad. Lost_, iv. 194); but when not thus behaving they themselves provoke the more homely comparison of a row of black bottles. Their voracity is proverbial. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Some authors, following Caius, derive the word from _corvus
vorans_ and spell it corvorant, but doubtless wrongly.

[2] So spelt since the days of Gesner; but possibly _Phalaracorax_
would be more correct.

[3] According to Willoughby it was formerly the custom to carry the
cormorant hooded till it was required; in modern practice the bearer
wears a face-mask to protect himself from its beak.

CORN (a common Teutonic word; cf. Lat. _granum_, seed, grain), originally meaning a small hard particle or grain, as of sand, salt, gunpowder, &c. It thus came to be applied to the small hard seed of a plant, as still used in the words barley-corn and pepper-corn. In agriculture it is generally applied to the seed of the cereal plants. It is often locally understood to mean that kind of cereal which is the leading crop of the district; thus in England it refers to wheat, in Scotland and Ireland to oats, and in the United States to maize (Indian corn). See GRAIN TRADE; CORN LAWS; AGRICULTURE; WHEAT; MAIZE; &c.

The term "corned" is given to a preparation of meat (especially beef) on account of the original manner of preserving it by the use of salt in grains or "corns."

CORN (from Lat. _cornu_, horn), in pathology (technically _clavus_), a localized outgrowth of the epidermic layer of the skin, most commonly of the toe, with a central ingrowth of a hard horny plug. The underlying papillae are atrophied, causing a cup-shaped hollow, whilst the surrounding papillae are hyper-trophied. The condition is mainly caused by badly fitting boots, though any undue pressure, of insufficient power to give rise to ulceration, may be the cause of a corn. Corns may be hard or soft. The hard corn usually occurs on one of the toes, is a more or less conical swelling and may be extremely painful at times. If suppuration occurs around the corn, it is apt to burrow, and if unattended to may give rise to arthritis or even necrosis. The best treatment is to soften the corn with hot water, pare it very carefully with a sharp knife, and then paint it with a solution of salicylic acid in collodion. The painting must be repeated three times a day for a week or ten days. The soft corn occurs between the toes and is usually a more painful condition. Owing to the absorption of sweat its surface may become white and sodden in appearance. The treatment is much the same, but spirits of camphor should be painted on each night, and a layer of cotton wool placed between the toes during the daytime.

CORNARO, CATERINA (1454-1510), queen of Cyprus, was the daughter of Marco Cornaro, a Venetian noble, whose brother Andrea was an intimate friend of James de Lusignan, natural son of King John II. of Cyprus. In the king's death in 1458 the succession was disputed, and James, with the help of the sultan of Egypt, seized the island. But several powers were arrayed against him--the duke of Savoy, who claimed the island on the strength of the marriage of his son Louis to Charlotte, the only legitimate daughter of John II.,[1] the Genoese, and the pope. It was important that he should make a marriage such as would secure him powerful support. Andrea Cornaro suggested his niece Caterina, famed for her beauty, as that union would bring him Venetian help. The proposal was agreed to, and approved of by Caterina herself and the senate, and the contract was signed in 1468. But further intrigues caused delay, and it was not until 1471 that James's hesitations were overcome. Caterina was solemnly adopted by the doge as a "daughter of the Republic" and sailed for Cyprus in 1472 with the title of queen of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. But she only enjoyed one year of happiness, for in 1473 her husband died of fever, leaving his kingdom to his queen and their child as yet unborn. Enemies and rival claimants arose on all sides, for Cyprus was a tempting bait. In August the child James III. was born, but as soon as the Venetian fleet sailed away a plot to depose him in favour of Zarla, James's illegitimate daughter, broke out, and Caterina was kept a prisoner. The Venetians returned, and order was soon restored, but the republic was meditating the seizure of Cyprus, although it had no valid title whatever, and after the death of Caterina's child in 1474 it was Venice which really governed the island. The poor queen was surrounded by intrigues and plots, and although the people of the coast towns loved her, the Cypriot nobles were her bitter enemies and hostile to Venetian influence. In 1488 the republic, fearing that Sultan Bayezid II. intended to attack Cyprus, and having also discovered a plot to marry Caterina to King Alphonso II. of Naples, a proposal to which she seemed not averse, decided to recall the queen to Venice and formally annex the island. Caterina at first refused, for she clung to her royalty, but Venice was a severe parent to its adopted daughter and would not be gainsaid; she was forced to abdicate in favour of the republic, and returned to Venice in 1489. The government conferred on her the castle and town of Asolo for life, and there in the midst of a learned and brilliant little court, of which Cardinal Bembo (q.v.) was a shining light, she spent the rest of her days in idyllic peace. She died in July 1510. Titian's famous portrait of her is in the Uffizi gallery in Florence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A. Centelli, _Caterina Cornaro e il suo regno_ (Venice,
1892); S. Romanin, _Storia documentata di Venezia_, vol. iv. (Venice,
1855), and his _Lezioni di storia Veneta_ (Florence, 1875); L. de Mas
Latrie, _Histoire de l'ile de Chypre_ (Paris, 1852-1861); and Horatio
Brown's essay in his _Studies in Venetian History_ (London, 1907),
which gives the best sketch of the queen's career and a list of
authorities. (L. V.*)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Whence the kings of Italy derive their title of kings of Cyprus
and Jerusalem.

CORNARO, LUIGI (1467-1566), a Venetian nobleman, famous for his treatises on a temperate life. In his youth he lived freely, but after a severe illness at the age of forty, he began under medical advice gradually to reduce his diet. For some time he restricted himself to a daily allowance of 12 oz. of solid food and 14 oz. of wine; later in life he reduced still further his bill of fare, and found he could support his life and strength with no more solid meat than an egg a day. At the age of eighty-three he wrote his treatise on _The Sure and Certain Method of Attaining a Long and Healthful Life_, the English translation of which went through numerous editions; and this was followed by three others on the same subject, composed at the ages of eighty-six, ninety-one and ninety-five respectively. The first three were published at Padua in 1558. They are written, says Addison (_Spectator_, No. 195), "with such a spirit of cheerfulness, religion and good sense, as are the natural concomitants of temperance and sobriety." He died at Padua at the age of ninety-eight.

CORNBRASH, in geology, the name applied to the uppermost member of the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic formation in England. It is an old English agricultural name applied in Wiltshire to a variety of loose rubble or "brash" which, in that part of the country, forms a good soil for growing corn. The name was adopted by William Smith for a thin band of shelly limestone which, in the south of England, breaks up in the manner indicated. Although only a thin group of rocks (10-25 ft.), it is remarkably persistent; it may be traced from Weymouth to the Yorkshire coast, but in north Lincolnshire it is very thin, and probably dies out in the neighbourhood of the Humber. It appears again, however, as a thin bed in Gristhorpe Bay, Cayton Bay, Wheatcroft, Newton Dale and Langdale. In the inland exposures in Yorkshire it is difficult to follow on account of its thinness, and the fact that it passes up into dark shales in many places--the so-called "clays of the Cornbrash," with _Avicula echinata_.

The Cornbrash is a very fossiliferous formation; the fauna indicates a transition from the Lower to the Middle Oolites, though it is probably more nearly related to that of the beds above than to those below. Good localities for fossils are Radipole near Weymouth, Closworth, Wincanton, Trowbridge, Cirencester, Witney, Peterborough and Sudbrook Park near Lincoln. A few of the important fossils are: _Waldheimia lagenalis_, _Pecten levis_, _Avicula echinata_, _Ostrea flabelloides_, _Myacites decurtatus_, _Echinobrissus clunicularis_; _Macrocephalites macrocephalus_ is abundant in the midland counties but rarer in the south; belemnites are not known. The remains of saurians (_Steneosaurus_) are occasionally found. The Cornbrash is of little value for building or road-making, although it is used locally; in the south of England it is not oolitic, but in Yorkshire it is a rubbly, marly, frequently ironshot oolitic limestone. In Bedfordshire it has been termed the Bedford limestone.

See JURASSIC; also H. B. Woodward, "The Jurassic Rocks of Britain,"
vol. iv. (1894); and C. Fox Strangways, vol. i.; both _Memoirs of the
Geological Survey_. (J. A. H.)

CORNEILLE, PIERRE (1606-1684), French dramatist and poet, was born at Rouen, in the rue de la Pie, on the 6th of June 1606. The house, which was long preserved, was destroyed not many years ago. His father, whose Christian name was the same, was _avocat du roi a la Table de Marbre du Palais_, and also held the position of _maitre des eaux et forets_ in the _vicomte_ (or _bailliage_, as some say) of Rouen. In this latter office he is said to have shown himself a vigorous magistrate, suppressing brigandage and plunder without regard to his personal safety. He was ennobled in 1637 (it is said not without regard to his son's distinction), and the honour was renewed in favour of his sons Pierre and Thomas in 1669, when a general repeal of the letters of nobility recently granted had taken place. There appears, however, to be no instance on record of the poet himself assuming the "de" of nobility. His mother's name was Marthe le Pesant.

After being educated by the Jesuits of Rouen, Corneille at the age of eighteen was entered as _avocat_, and in 1624 took the oaths, as we are told, four years before the regular time, a dispensation having been procured. He was afterwards appointed advocate to the admiralty, and to the "waters and forests," but both these posts must have been of small value, as we find him parting with them in 1650 for the insignificant sum of 6000 livres. In that year and the next he was _procureur-syndic des Etats de Normandie_. His first play, _Melite_, was acted in 1629. It is said by B. le B. de Fontenelle (his nephew) to have been inspired by personal experiences, and was extremely popular, either because or in spite of its remarkable difference from the popular plays of the day, those of A. Hardy. In 1632 _Clitandre_, a tragedy, was printed (it may have been acted in 1631); in 1633 _La Veuve_ and the _Galerie du palais_, in 1634 _La Suivante_ and _La Place Royale_, all the last-named plays being comedies, saw the stage. In 1634 also, having been selected as the composer of a Latin elegy to Richelieu on the occasion of the cardinal visiting Rouen, he was introduced to the subject of his verses, and was soon after enrolled among the "five poets." These officers (the others being G. Colletet, Boisrobert and C. de l'Etoile, who in no way merited the title, and J. de Rotrou, who was no unworthy yokefellow even of Corneille) had for task the more profitable than dignified occupation of working up Richelieu's ideas into dramatic form. No one could be less suited for such work than Corneille, and he soon (it is said) incurred his employer's displeasure by altering the plan of the third act of _Les Thuileries_, which had been entrusted to him.

Meanwhile the year 1635 saw the production of _Medee_, a grand but unequal tragedy. In the next year the singular extravaganza entitled _L'Illusion comique_ followed, and was succeeded about the end of November by the _Cid_, based on the _Mocedades del Cid_ of Guillem de Castro. The triumphant success of this, perhaps the most "epoch-making" play in all literature, the jealousy of Richelieu and the Academy, the open attacks of Georges de Scudery and J. de Mairet and others, and the pamphlet-war which followed, are among the best-known incidents in the history of letters. The trimming verdict of the Academy, which we have in J. Chapelain's _Sentiments de l'Academie francaise sur la tragi-comedie du Cid_ (1638), when its arbitration was demanded by Richelieu, and not openly repudiated by Corneille, was virtually unimportant; but it is worth remembering that no less a writer than Georges de Scudery, in his _Observations sur le Cid_ (1637), gravely and apparently sincerely asserted and maintained of this great play that the subject was utterly bad, that all the rules of dramatic composition were violated, that the action was badly conducted, the versification constantly faulty, and the beauties as a rule stolen! Corneille himself was awkwardly situated in this dispute. The _esprit bourru_ by which he was at all times distinguished, and which he now displayed in his rather arrogant _Excuse a Ariste_, unfitted him for controversy, and it was of vital importance to him that he should not lose the outward marks of favour which Richelieu continued to show him. Perhaps the pleasantest feature in the whole matter is the unshaken and generous admiration with which Rotrou, the only contemporary whose genius entitled him to criticise Corneille, continued to regard his friend, rival, and in some sense (though Rotrou was the younger of the two) pupil. Finding it impossible to make himself fairly heard in the matter, Corneille (who had retired from his position among the "five poets") withdrew to Rouen and passed nearly three years in quiet there, perhaps revolving the opinions afterwards expressed in his three _Discours_ and in the _Examens_ of his plays, where he bows, somewhat as in the house of Rimmon, to "the rules." In 1639, or at the beginning of 1640, appeared _Horace_ with a dedication to Richelieu. The good offices of Madame de Combalet, to whom the _Cid_ had been dedicated, and perhaps the satisfaction of the cardinal's literary jealousy, had healed what breach there may have been, and indeed the poet was in no position to quarrel with his patron. Richelieu not only allowed him 500 crowns a year, but soon afterwards, it is said, though on no certain authority, employed his omnipotence in reconciling the father of the poet's mistress, Marie de Lamperiere, to the marriage of the lovers (1640). In this year also _Cinna_ appeared. A brief but very serious illness attacked him, and the death of his father the year before had increased his family anxieties by leaving his mother in very indifferent circumstances. It has, however, been recently denied that he himself was at any time poor, as older traditions asserted.

In the following year Corneille figured as a contributor to the _Guirlande de Julie_, a famous album which the marquis de Montausier, assisted by all the literary men of the day, offered to his lady-love, Julie d'Angennes. 1643 was, according to the latest authorities (for Cornelian dates have often been altered), a very great year in the dramatist's life. Therein appeared _Polyeucte_, the memorable comedy of _Le Menteur_, which though adapted from the Spanish stood in relation to French comedy very much as _Le Cid_, which owed less to Spain, stood to French tragedy; its less popular and far less good _Suite_,--and perhaps _La Mort de Pompee_. _Rodogune_ (1644) was a brilliant success; _Theodore_ (1645), a tragedy on a somewhat perilous subject, was the first of Corneille's plays which was definitely damned. Some amends may have been made to him by the commission which he received next year to write verses for the _Triomphes poetiques de Louis XIII_. Soon after (22nd of January 1647) the Academy at last (it had twice rejected him on frivolous pleas) admitted the greatest of living French writers. _Heraclius_ (1646), _Andromede_ (1650), a spectacle-opera rather than a play, _Don Sanche d'Aragon_ (1650) and _Nicomede_ (1651) were the products of the next few years' work; but in 1652 _Pertharite_ was received with decided disfavour, and the poet in disgust resolved, like Ben Jonson, to quit the loathed stage. In this resolution he persevered for six years, during which he worked at a verse translation of the _Imitation of Christ_ (finished in 1656), at his three _Discourses on Dramatic Poetry_, and at the _Examens_ which are usually printed at the end of his plays. In 1659 Fouquet, the Maecenas of the time, persuaded him to alter his resolve, and _OEdipe_, a play which became a great favourite with Louis XIV., was the result. It was followed by _La Toison d'or_ (1660), _Sertorius_ (1662) and _Sophonisbe_ (1663). In this latter year Corneille (who had at last removed his residence from Rouen to Paris in 1662) was included among the list of men of letters pensioned at the proposal of Colbert. He received 2000 livres. _Othon_ (1664), _Agesilas_ (1666), _Attila_ (1667), and _Tite et Berenice_ (1670), were generally considered as proofs of failing powers,--the cruel quatrain of Boileau--

"Apres l'_Agesilas_
Helas!
Mais apres l'_Attila_
Hola!"

in the case of these two plays, and the unlucky comparison with Racine in the _Berenice_, telling heavily against them. In 1665 and 1670 some versifications of devotional works addressed to the Virgin had appeared. The part which Corneille took in _Psyche_ (1671), Moliere and P. Quinault being his coadjutors, showed signs of renewed vigour; but _Pulcherie_ (1672) and _Surena_ (1674) were allowed even by his faithful followers to be failures. He lived for ten years after the appearance of _Surena_, but was almost silent save for the publication, in 1676, of some beautiful verses thanking Louis XIV. for ordering the revival of his plays. He died at his house in the rue d'Argenteuil on the 30th of September 1684. For nine years (1674-1681), and again in 1683, his pension had, for what reason is unknown, been suspended. It used to be said that he was in great straits, and the story went (though, as far as Boileau is concerned, it has been invalidated), that at last Boileau, hearing of this, went to the king and offered to resign his own pension if there were not money enough for Corneille, and that Louis sent the aged poet two hundred pistoles. He might, had it actually been so, have said, with a great English poet in like case, "I have no time to spend them." Two days afterwards he was dead.

Corneille was buried in the church of St Roch, where no monument marked his grave until 1821. He had six children, of whom four survived him. Pierre, the eldest son, a cavalry officer who died before his father, left posterity in whom the name has continued; Marie, the eldest daughter, was twice married, and by her second husband, M. de Farcy, became the ancestress of Charlotte Corday. Repeated efforts have been made for the benefit of the poet's descendants, Voltaire, Charles X. and the _Comedie francaise_ having all borne part therein.

The portraits of Corneille (the best and most trustworthy of which is from the burin of M. Lasne, an engraver of Caen), represent him as a man of serious, almost of stern countenance, and this agrees well enough with such descriptions as we have of his appearance, and with the idea of him which we should form from his writings and conduct. His nephew Fontenelle admits that his general address and manner were by no means prepossessing. Others use stronger language, and it seems to be confessed that either from shyness, from pride, or from physical defects of utterance, probably from all three combined, he did not attract strangers. Racine is said to have assured his son that Corneille made verses "cent fois plus beaux" than his own, but that his own greater popularity was owing to the fact that he took some trouble to make himself personally agreeable. Almost all the anecdotes which have been recorded concerning him testify to a rugged and somewhat unamiable self-contentment. "Je n'ai pas le merite de ce pays-ci," he said of the court, "Je n'en suis pas moins Pierre Corneille," he is said to have replied to his friends as often as they dared to suggest certain shortcomings in his behaviour, manner or speech, "Je suis saoul de gloire et affame d'argent" was his reply to the compliments of Boileau. Yet tradition is unanimous as to his affection for his family, and as to the harmony in which he lived with his brother Thomas who had married Marguerite de Lamperiere, younger sister of Marie, and whose household both at Rouen and at Paris was practically one with that of his brother. No story about Corneille is better known than that which tells of the trap between the two houses, and how Pierre, whose facility of versification was much inferior to his brother's, would lift it when hard bestead, and call out "Sans-souci, une rime!" Notwithstanding this domestic felicity, an impression is left on the reader of Corneille's biographies that he was by no means a happy man. Melancholy of temperament will partially explain this, but there were other reasons. He appears to have been quite free from envy properly so called, and to have been always ready to acknowledge the excellences of his contemporaries. But, as was the case with a very different man--Goldsmith--praise bestowed on others always made him uncomfortable unless it were accompanied by praise bestowed on himself. As Guizot has excellently said, "Sa jalousie fut celle d'un enfant qui veut qu'un sourire le rassure contre les caresses que recoit son frere."

Although his actual poverty has been recently denied, he cannot have been affluent. His pensions covered but a small part of his long life and were most irregularly paid. He was no "dedicator," and the occasional presents of rich men, such as Montauron (who gave him a thousand, others say two hundred, pistoles for the dedication of _Cinna_), and Fouquet (who commissioned _OEdipe_), were few and far between, though they have exposed him to reflections which show great ignorance of the manners of the age. Of his professional earnings, the small sum for which, as we have seen, he gave up his offices, and the expression of Fontenelle that he practised "sans gout et sans succes," are sufficient proof. His patrimony and his wife's dowry must both have been trifling. On the other hand, it was during the early and middle part of his career impossible, and during the later part very difficult, for a dramatist to live decently by his pieces. It was not till the middle of the century that the custom of allowing the author two shares in the profits during the first run of the piece was observed, and even then revivals profited him nothing. Thomas Corneille himself, who to his undoubted talents united wonderful facility, untiring industry, and (gift valuable above all others to the playwright) an extraordinary knack of hitting the public fancy, died, notwithstanding his simple tastes, "as poor as Job." We know that Pierre received for two of his later pieces two thousand livres each, and we do not know that he ever received more.