COKBKY 



when in 1620 he was made Dean of Christ Church 

 at thirty -Hfvt'ii. In 10*24 he was ippofoted to the 

 ee of Oxford, ami translated in Unit of Norwich 

 in 1 ;:{_'. Urn- he died in lti.V>, ami won buried in 

 In- . at Ill-drill. ('orliet'a poetry reflects the cheer- 

 ful and Denial temper of the man. Hi- longest 

 piece is Iter lioreaie, an account of tlie holiday- 

 lour of four students ; the best, as well as the best 

 k no wn, is the Fairies' Fareioell. Corbet was famous 

 throughout life for his conviviality and wit. 

 Corbey, or CORBIE. See CORVEI. 

 Corbie-steps, or CROW-STEPS, the stepped 

 slopes of gables. This is a Scottish term, derived 



no doubt from 

 \ the corbelled 

 lor projecting 

 / character of 

 the steps, and 

 afterwards 

 corrupted in- 

 to crow-steps 

 from the re- 

 semblance of 

 corbelled to 

 corbie or crow. 

 The origin of 

 this mode of 

 finishing a 

 gable prob- 

 ably arose 

 from the steps 

 used for pass- 

 ing from one 

 side of the 

 roof to another 

 the parapet 



COIMKHJA 



475 



Corbie-steps, from a house formerly 

 in the Castle-wynd, Edinburgh. 



defending the passage being stepped in conformity 

 with the slope of the stairs. Crow-steps were the 

 almost invariable finish of Scottish gables from 

 the 14th to the 17th century, and they were also 

 much used on the Continent, especially in the Low 

 Countries. 



Cor'chqms, a genus of Tiliaceae. C. olitorius 

 is widely diffused in tropical countries, being cul- 

 tivated Iboth as a pot-herb (Jew's Mallow) and 

 on account of its fibre. More important, however, 

 in the latter respect, is the closely allied C. capsu- 

 laris, which has long been cultivated for its fibre 

 in China ( ' Chinese Hemp ' ) ; also in India for 

 making Gunny Bags (q.v. ), and is now of great 

 importance in European manufactures as Jute 

 (q.v.). The Japanese shrub, common in gardens 

 on account of its pretty double yellow flowers, 

 and still frequently called by gardeners C. japoni- 

 cus, really belongs to the Spiraea family or Rosa- 

 ceje, and is correctly known as Kerria japonica. 



Corcyra is the ancient name for Corfu (q.v.). 



Corday d'Armans, MARIE CHARLOTTE, 

 known as CHARLOTTE CORDAY, was born at St 

 Saturnin, near Sees(Orne), 27th July 1768. The 

 descendant of a noble family, with Comeille's blood 

 in her veins, she yet welcomed the Revolution, for 

 from Voltaire she iiad imbibed ' philosophic ' theories, 

 from Plutarch ideas of antique heroism. But she 

 was horrified at the monstrosities of the Jacobin* ; 

 and her hatred of their acts was intensified by 

 converse with a party of proscribed Girondists, 

 who had fled to Caen in Normandy. She resolved 

 to rid her country of one of the heads of the 

 Jacobins, and came with that view to Paris. 

 Whether to slay Robespierre or Marat was 

 an open question ; but while she debated the 

 matter with herself, a demand of the latter for 

 two hundred thousand more victims, marked him 

 out for her weapon. Twice she failed to obtain an 

 audience, but on the evening of 13th July 1793 she 

 was admitted on the plea that she hail important 



news from Caen to communicate. She found Marat 

 in his bath, and her pretended denunciation of the 

 fugitive Girondist*, some of whom were her own 

 friends, called fortli the remark : ' They Khali re- 

 ceive their reward ; I will have them all guillo- 

 tined at Paris.' Straightway she drove her knife 

 to his heart ; he died with a stifled cry. Charlotte 

 was at once arrested, and brought before the Re- 

 volutionary Tribunal, where she gloried in the act. 

 In the Conciergerie she sat to tne artist Ham-r ; 

 on the evening of 17th July she was guillotined. 

 The executioner held up her head to the multitude, 

 and slapped it ; in the sunset the beautiful dead 

 face seemed to blush. See works on her by Vatel 

 (3 vols. 1872), Mrs Van Alstine (1889), and 1C. 

 Focke (1895); also Austin Dobson's Four French- 

 women (1890). 



Cordeliers ('cord-wearers'), the name applied 

 in France to the strictest branch (see UBSERV- 

 ANTISTS) of the Franciscans on account of their 

 wearing a girdle of knotted cord. During the 

 Revolution the name was applied to the members 

 of a political club which was instituted in 1790, and 

 assembled in the chapel of a Franciscan monastery. 

 Its leaders included Danton, Hebert, Camille 

 Desmoulins, and Marat, and for a time it rivalled 

 the more famous club of the Jacobins (q. v. ). The 

 height of its influence was the period of Camille 

 Desmoulins' journal, Le Vieux Cordelier. Soon 

 after the fall of Danton, the Cordelier club lost its 

 influence, and it was insignificant when closed by 

 the Convention in August 1795. 



CorderillS, the Latinised name of Mathurin 

 Cordier, grammarian, born in Normandy in 1478, 

 who tau -lit at Paris (where he had Calvin for a 

 pupil), and, becoming a Protestant, settled at 

 Geneva. There he died, famous as a skilful teacher 

 of youth, on the 8th September 1564. He wrote a 

 long series of grammatical works, of which the 

 best known throughout Europe was the Colloquia 

 Scholastica ( 1564). 



Cordia'ceae are simply drupaceous Boragin- 

 acese. Some species are valued for their fruit, 

 others for their timber. 



Cordierite, DICHROITE, or IOLITE, a natural 

 silicate of magnesia, alumina, and ferric oxide. It 

 crystallises in stout orthorhombic prisms, and is of 

 various shades of blue, sometimes with a tinge of 

 gray or brown. It exhibits the property of dichroism 

 very clearly, often appearing deep blue when 

 viewed in the direction of the vertical axis, but red 

 or yellow when seen by transmitted light at right 

 angles to that direction. 



Cordille'ras (lit. 'chains') a name applied in 

 America to various chains of mountains. The 

 Cordilleras of South America are described under 

 ANDES ; and the Rocky Mountains are the ( '<>r- 

 dilleras of North America. Those of Central 

 America extend from Darien to the north of 

 Mexico. See AMERICA, MEXICO. 



Cordite, a smokeless powder (see GUN-COTTON) 

 invented by Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, and used 

 in the British Army since 1889, is made of a mix- 

 ture of gun-cotton, nitro-glycerine, and vaseline ; 

 and is named from its string-like or cord-like ap- 

 pearance. See RIFLES. 



Cordoba, in Spain. See CORDOVA. 



Cor'doba, a central province of the Argentine 

 Republic, mostly pampa land, rising to the Sierras 

 de Cordoba and de Pocho in the west. Area, 

 55,350 sq. in. ; pop. 380,000. Cattle-raising is the 

 chief industry. The climate is healthy, hut very 

 dry ; the temperature ranges from 18 to 107 F. 

 The capital, Cordoba, lies 246 miles WNW. of 

 Rosario by rail. It has over 10 miles of tramways, 

 a cathedral, a handsome city-hall, the old university 



