A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. John W. Cousin
He wrote over 30 novels, of which may be mentioned The Pioneers (1823), The Pilot (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1826), The Red Rover (1831), The Bravo (1840), The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer (1841), The Two Admirals (1842), and Satanstoe (1845). He also wrote a Naval History of the United States (1839). C. was possessed of remarkable narrative and descriptive powers, and could occasionally delineate character. He had the merit of opening up an entirely new field, and giving expression to the spirit of the New World, but his true range was limited, and he sometimes showed a lack of judgment in choosing subjects with which he was not fitted to deal. He was a proud and combative but honest and estimable man.
COOPER, THOMAS (1805–1892).—Chartist poet, was b. at Leicester, and apprenticed to a shoemaker. In spite of hardships and difficulties, he ed. himself, and at 23 was a schoolmaster. He became a leader and lecturer among the Chartists, and in 1842 was imprisoned in Stafford gaol for two years, where he wrote his Purgatory of Suicides, a political epic. At the same time he adopted sceptical views, which he continued to hold until 1855, when he became a Christian, joined the Baptists, and was a preacher among them. In his latter years he settled down into an old-fashioned Radical. His friends in 1867 raised an annuity for him, and in the last year of his life he received a government pension. In addition to his poems he wrote several novels. Somewhat impulsive, he was an honest and sincere man.
CORBET, RICHARD (1582–1635).—Poet, s. of a gardener, was ed. at Westminster School and Oxf., and entered the Church, in which he obtained many preferments, and rose to be Bishop successively of Oxf. and Norwich. He was celebrated for his wit, which not seldom passed into buffoonery. His poems, which are often mere doggerel, were not pub. until after his death. They include Journey to France, Iter Boreale, the account of a tour from Oxf. to Newark, and the Farewell to the Fairies.
CORNWALL, BARRY, see PROCTER, B.W.
CORY, WILLIAM JOHNSON (1823–1892).—Poet, b. at Torrington, and ed. at Eton, where he was afterwards a master. He was a brilliant writer of Latin verse. His chief poetical work is Ionica, containing poems in which he showed a true lyrical gift.
CORYATE, or CORYATT, THOMAS (1577–1617).—Poet, b. at Odcombe, Somerset, and ed. at Westminster and Oxf., entered the household of Prince Henry. In 1608 he made a walking tour in France, Italy, and Germany, walking nearly 2000 miles in one pair of shoes, which were, until 1702, hung up in Odcombe Church, and known as "the thousand mile shoes." He gave an amusing account of this in his Coryate's Crudities hastily gobbled up (1611), prefixed to which were commendatory verses by many contemporary poets. A sequel, Coryate's Crambé, or Colewort twice Sodden followed. Next year (1612) C. bade farewell to his fellow-townsmen, and set out on another journey to Greece, Egypt, and India, from which he never returned. He d. at Surat. Though odd and conceited, C. was a close observer, and took real pains in collecting information as to the places he visited.
COSTELLO, LOUISA STUART (1799–1877).—Poet and novelist, b. in Ireland, lived chiefly in Paris, where she was a miniature-painter. In 1815 she pub. The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, etc. (poems). She also wrote books of travel, which were very popular, as were her novels, chiefly founded on French history. Another work, pub. in 1835, is Specimens of the Early Poetry of France.
COTTON, CHARLES (1630–1687).—Poet and translator, succeeded to an embarrassed estate, which his happy-go-lucky methods did not improve, wrote burlesques on Virgil and Lucian, and made an excellent translation of Montaigne's Essays, also a humorous Journey to Ireland. C. was the friend of Izaak Walton, and wrote a second part of The Complete Angler. He was apparently always in difficulties, always happy, and always a favourite.
COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE (1571–1631).—Antiquary, b. at Denton, Hunts, and ed. at Camb., was a great collector of charters and records throwing light upon English history, and co-operated with Camden (q.v.). Among his works are a history of the Raigne of Henry III. (1627). He was the collector of the Cottonian library, now in the British Museum, and was the author of various political tracts.
COUSIN, ANNE ROSS (CUNDELL) (1824–1906).—Poetess, only dau. of D.R. Cundell, M.D., Leith, m. 1847 Rev. Wm. Cousin, minister of the Free Church of Scotland, latterly at Melrose. Some of her hymns, especially "The Sands of Time are sinking," are known and sung over the English-speaking world. A collection of her poems, Immanuel's Land and Other Pieces, was pub. in 1876 under her initials A.R.C., by which she was most widely known.
COVERDALE, MILES (1488–1568).—Translator of the Bible, b. in Yorkshire, and ed. at Camb. Originally an Augustinian monk, he became a supporter of the Reformation. In 1535 his translation of the Bible was pub., probably at Zurich. It bore the title, Biblia, the Bible: that is the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament faithfully and newly translated out of the Doutche and Latyn into English. C. was made Bishop of Exeter in 1551, but, on the accession of Mary, he was imprisoned for two years, at the end of which he was released and went to Denmark and afterwards to Geneva. On the death of Mary he returned to England, but the views he had imbibed in Geneva were adverse to his preferment. He ultimately, however, received a benefice in London, which he resigned before his death. Besides the Bible he translated many treatises of the Continental Reformers.
COWLEY, ABRAHAM (1618–1667).—Poet, s. of a grocer or stationer in London, where he was b. In childhood he was greatly influenced by reading Spenser, a copy of whose poems was in the possession of his mother. This, he said, made him a poet. His first book, Poetic Blossoms (1633), was pub. when he was only 15. After being at Westminster School he went to Camb., where he was distinguished for his graceful translations. On the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Royalists, was turned out of his college, and in 1646 followed the Queen to Paris, where he remained for 10 or 12 years, during which he rendered unwearied service to the royal family. At the Restoration he wrote some loyal odes, but was disappointed by being refused the Mastership of the Savoy, and retired to the country. He received a lease of Crown lands, but his life in the country did not yield him the happiness he expected. He is said by Pope to have d. of a fever brought on by lying in the fields after a drinking-bout. The drinking-bout, however, is perhaps an ill-natured addition. C.'s fame among his contemporaries was much greater than that which posterity has accorded to him. His poems are marred by conceits and a forced and artificial brilliancy. In some of them, however, he sings pleasantly of gardens and country scenes. They comprise Miscellanies, The Mistress, or Love Poems (1647), Pindaric Odes, and The Davideis, an epic on David (unfinished). He is at his best in such imitations of Anacreon as The Grasshopper. His prose, especially in his Essays, though now almost unread, is better than his verse; simple and manly, it sometimes rises to eloquence. C. is buried in Westminster Abbey near Spenser.
Ed., Grosart (1881), Waller (1903).
COWPER, WILLIAM (1731–1800).—Poet, was the s. of the Rev. John C., Rector of Great Berkhampstead, Herts, and Chaplain to George II. His grandfather was a judge, and he was the grand-nephew of the 1st Earl C., the eminent Lord Chancellor. A shy and timid child, the death of his mother when he was 6 years old, and the sufferings inflicted upon him by a bullying schoolfellow at his first school, wounded his tender and shrinking spirit irrecoverably. He was sent to Westminster School, where he had for schoolfellows Churchill, the poet (q.v.), and Warren Hastings. The powerful legal influence of his family naturally suggested his being destined for the law, and at 18 he entered the chambers of a solicitor, where he had for a companion Thurlow, the future Chancellor, a truly incongruous conjunction; the pair, however, seem to have got on well together, and employed their time chiefly in "giggling and making giggle." He then