CORNARO, LUIdl. 



CORNEILLE, PIERSE. 



380 



on the ground were exactly conformable to the written instructions 

 which he drew up and to the sketches which accompanied them. 



Subsequently to that time he was employed in inspecting the forti- 

 fications of the kingdom, from the Rhone to Calais ; and, on this 

 occasion, besides a general tract on the manner of fortifying the 

 frontiers of a state, he wrote particular memoirs on the places of 

 Franche Compt<5, Alsace, and the country between the Moselle and 

 Calais. He was afterwards employed in superintending the construc- 

 tions of new works at Strasbourg, Metz, Eitche, and Thionville : at the 

 last of these places he resided, with the rank of Marechal de Camp, 

 and here his useful life terminated. 



Cormontaingne wrote several memoirs relating to fortification and 

 other branches of the military art ; and that which is on the subji ct 

 of the attack of fortresses, is said to have been composed, during the 

 siege at which he served, from notes written in the trenches ami on 

 the breaches, even under the fire of the enemy. None of his writings 

 were published during his life, except one which, without his know- 

 ledge, was printed at the Hague in 1741, under the title of 'Architec- 

 ture Militaire;' and after his death, which occurred on the 20th of 

 October 1752, all his papers were deposited in the Bureau de la 

 Guerre, where they remained above thirty years. Extracts from 

 them were however published, and these served as text-books for 

 the lectures given at the Ecole du Genie, which was established at 

 Mczieres in 1750. The manuscripts were at length obtained by 

 M. Ft. .rcroy from the government offices, and were published at Paris 

 by M. Bayart, capitaine du ge'nie, in three volumes 8vo. The first is 

 entitled 'Memorial pour 1'Attaque des Places' (1806); the second, 

 'Memorial pour la Defense des Places' (1806); and the third, 'Me'mo- 

 rial pour les FoHiSeations permancntes et passageres' (1809). An 

 edition of the first of these works had been published by Bousmard 

 at Berlin iu 1803. Cormontaingne did not profess to invent a system 

 of fortification ; but, by certain variations in the constructions, and 

 by additional works, he obviated many defects which are conceived 

 to exist in the systems of Vauban. 



(Bousmard's account of Courmontaingne in the Preface to the 

 Memorial pour tAttaque da Place* ; Biographic Unirertelle, <kc.) 



CORNA'RO, LU1GI, a Venetian nobleman, celebrated for the 

 successful care he took of bis health, by means of diet, was born about 

 1468. He was originally of a weak constitution, and by the time he 

 had attained mature manhood his intemperate indulgence in eating, 

 drinking, and other pleasures, had brought on so many disorders that 

 life was a burden to him. He informs us, that from his thirty-fifth 

 year to his fortieth, he spent his uL'hts and days in almost unremitted 

 suffering. Haviog tried all their other remedies in vain, hii physicians 

 earnestly recommended a more temperate course of life, and when he 

 was forty he began gradually to diminish the quantity of his food, 

 and to eat and driuk nothing but what nature required. At first he 

 found this severe regimen very disagreeable, and he confesses that he 

 did occasionally relapse to " the flesh-pots of Eirypt." But as each of 

 these relapses brought back his old symptoms, he soon exerted all his 

 resolution, and by a spare and simple diet became a hale man within 

 a year. From temperance he proceeded to abstemiousness, until at 

 last the yolk of au egg was often considered sufficient for a meal. 

 His health and spirits kept improving all the while, and as for enjoy- 

 ment in eating, he says he brought himself to relish dry bread much 

 more than he had ever done the most exquisite dainties of the table. 

 At the same time he carefully avoided heat and cold, over-fatigue, late 

 hours, sexual excesses, and all violent passions of the mind, having 

 fully ascertained that nothing is more destructive, of health and 

 longevity than an indulgence in ambition, envy, hatred, and the like. 

 Melancholy was to be equally avoided, but from this depressing pas- 

 sion his light food and peaceful slumbers kept him wholly free. He 

 recommended, by practice, exercise, riding on horseback, the sports of 

 the field, and those gentle excitements derivable from fine scenery in 

 the country, the contemplation of architectural and other works of 

 art in towns and cities, and the hearing and playing of music. 



He records of himself, that when he was a very old man he used often 

 to sing with his grandchildren, and that too with a voice louder and 

 clearer than when he was a young man. When he was seventy years 

 old he suffered a dreadful accident, by which his head and body were 

 battered, and a leg and arm dislocated. Considering his advanced 

 age, the physicians thought these injuries must speedily prove fatal, 

 but after his limbs had been set, he recovered under the slightest 

 medical treatment, and without experiencing any fever. Hence he 

 inferred that a life of strict temperance is a safeguard against the ill 

 effects that generally follow such accidents. When he was about 

 seventy-eight, the quantity of nourishment he took in the twenty-four 

 hours was, of bread, light meat, yolk of egg, and soup, twelve ounces 

 in all ; of wine, fourteen ounces ; and these were portioned out into 

 four separate meals. By the advice of his medical friends he then 

 added two ounces to his solid food, and two ounces to his wine ; bul 

 thin trifling increase was soon given over, as it destroyed his ease and 

 vivacity, and made him peevish and melancholy. In his eighty. third 

 year he wrote his treatUe 'Of the Advantages of a Temperate Life.' 

 He subsequently added three other discourses on the same subject, the 

 fourth and last being included in a letter to Barbaro, the patriarch o 

 Aquileia, to whom he states, that at the age of ninety-five, he is still 

 in possession of health, vigour, and the perfect use of all his faculties. 



Cornaro died at Padua in 1566, when, according to the best authori- 

 ties, he was ninety-eight years old. His work was very frequently 

 published in Italy, both in the vernacular tongue and in Latin. It 

 has been translated into all the civilised languages of Europe, and was 

 once a most popular book. There are several English translations of 

 it, the best being one which bears the date of 1779. Cornaro's system 

 has had many followers. The best authenticated case we know of its 

 >eing rigorously and successfully pursued iu England is that of 

 Thomas Wood, a miller of Billericay in Essex, to whom a neighbouring 

 clergyman lent the 'Life of Cornaro.' ('Medical Transactions of the 

 College of Physicians.') The old Venetian does not insist on such 

 extreme abstinence as he practised both the quality and the quantity 

 of food, he says, ought to depend on the constitution ; but he ia pro- 

 >ably right iu Muting that men of all constitutions shorten their lives 

 and weaken their enjoyments by over-eating and drinking. 



CORNEILLE, PIERRE, was born in the year 1606, at Rouen, 

 where his father was an advocate. Pierre himself was destined for 

 .he bar, and had begun to practise in that profession, in which how- 

 ever he had but little success. Having been taken by one of his friends 

 ;o see a lady of whom the latter was enamoured, he fell violently in 

 ove with her himself, an incident which furnished him with the 

 jlot of his first comedy, 'Milete,' produced in 1629, which was followed 

 jy the dramas of ' Clitandre,' ' La Veuve," ' La Gulerie du Palais,' and 

 La Place Royale,' all produced between that time and 1636, the year 

 n which Corneille's fame rose at a bound to its height. M. Chalou 

 nad recommended him to study the Spanish dramatists, particularly 

 juillen de Castro ; and it is ou the ' Cid ' of this author that the cele- 

 brated 'Cid' of Corneillc was principally founded. This piece delighted 

 ;lie, Parisians to enthusiasm ; they had seen nothing equal to it, and they 

 iooked on it as a complete miracle. The author had before exhibited 

 some tragic power in a work entitled ' Metle'e,' but it is not till the 

 production of the ' Cid ' that we must look ou him as " le grand 

 :"'' irni'ille." But the admiration was not unanimous. Cardinal Riche- 

 lieu aspired to be the grand arbiter in matters of dramatic taste, and 

 Corneille had deeply wounded his sensitiveness. He had sketched the 

 plan of a comedy, with which Corneille, although a poet patronised by 

 the cardinal, had the hardihood to find fault, and this produced a 

 lasting hostility ou the. part of the priest-prime-iniuister against the 

 dramatist. The French Academy, which was founded by Richelieu, 

 was disposed to abate the general enthusiasm. They (or rather Chape- 

 Lain) wrote an elaborate critique on the ' Cid,' in which they ventured 

 to point out some defects, while they allowed the poet genius of the 

 highest order, and rather fouud fault with the subject of the drama 

 than Corueille's manner of treating it. This critique is in most 

 editions of Corneille's works affixed to the tragedy of the ' Cid,' under 

 the title of ' Sentimeua de I'Acaddmie Frangoise sur la Tragi-Come'die 

 du Cid.' 



Corueille felt himself hurt by an imputation cast upon his inventive 

 powers ; it was hinted that he borrowed his plot from the Spanish, 

 because ha had not imagination enough to contrive a new one. He 

 long sought for a subject which should silence these aspersions of his 

 enemies, and at last turned his attention to Roman history, from 

 which he drew the plots of his tragedies ' Horace ' and ' Cinua,' both 

 produced in 1639. The 'Horace' fully proves his ingenuity in 

 moulding a complicated story out of scanty materials. 



These were followed in 1610 by ' Polyeucte,' founded on the history 

 of the martyr of that name, which by some is reckoned his chef- 

 d'oeuvre, and which is by most regarded as the turning point of his 

 genius. His future was a slow but sure decline. ' La Mort de 

 Pompe"e,' and ' Le Menteur ' (au adaptation of the Spanish comedy 

 ' La Soapechosa Verdad ') succeeded, and weru followed by a train of 

 pieces with varying success till the year 1653, when the tragedy of 

 'Pertharite' was produced, and was decidedly unsuccessful. This 

 misfoitune disgusted Corneille for a time with the stage ; he turned 

 his attention to other kinds of poetry, and began to versify Thomas 

 a Kempis, ' De Imitatione Christi.' Six years wore off his disgust, and 

 he returned to the drama : the success of ' (Edipe/ produced in 1659, 

 encouraged him to go on. He even made an essay at opera-writing, 

 and the ' Toison d'Or ' remains a specimen of what he has done in 

 that species of composition. The success of this piece was decided, 

 but it was only the flame of an expiring lamp ; in vain he wrote fresh 

 tragedies, in vain did his friends laud them to the skies; the public 

 began to suspect that his genius was worn out, and he had ceased to 

 be popular before the production of his last pieces, ' Pulcherie' (1672) 

 and 'Surena' (1674). His latter works have sunk entirely into 

 oblivion. He died in the year 1684, at the age of seventy-eight, 

 having been a member of the Acad^rnie thirty-seven years. In private 

 life he was a quiet domestic man, with a bluntuess of manners that 

 was almost repulsive. If we may trust his biographers, ho had a few 

 small faults, but no vice ; his whole pleasure was centred iu his own 

 family. He and his brother had married two sisters, and resided 

 together in one house, till death separated them. 



It was, we have seen, by the ' Cid,' that Corneille first rose into 

 celebrity ; two or three passages of his ' MecWe ' are occasionally 

 quoted, to show the development of a young poet, but as a whole it is 

 forgotten, and probably would never have been cited, had not its 

 author distinguished himself by his subsequent productions. His 

 early comedies have sunk deservedly into oblivion, beiiig dry, tedious 



