COUP A R- ANGUS 



523 



upon the liberties of hia fellow count i -ymen by 

 Loni- N:i|Mil.-.ni, '.'.I Decemlier 1851. Cmt/i <> //""/< 

 ( ' a stroke of tint hand ' ) is a sudden ami successful 

 attack; rouft tl'iril ('a stroke of the eye') is a 

 summary view of a complicated matter; coup de 

 ttififi-'- i- a trick of the stage. ; and coup de grace is 

 the merciful Mow that puts a victim out of pain. 



Coilpnr-AllKIIN a town of Perthshire (till 1891 

 partly in Forfaramre), near the left hank of the Isla, 

 a tributary of the Tay, 13 miles NNE. of Perth, 

 iiiul 15 N>V. of Dundee. Here are remains of a 

 Roman cam]), within which is the fragment of a 

 Cistercian al>l>ey, founded by Malcolm fV. in 1164, 

 and forming the subject of a monograph by Rogers 

 and Allan (2 vols. 1879-80). Linen is manufac- 

 ture.!. Pop. (1841) 1808; (1881)2154; (1891)2106. 

 See also CUPAR. 



Couped, or CoUP6, in Heraldry, is used to 

 describe the head, or any limb of an animal cut 

 oil in a straight line. It is distinguished from 

 erased Le. forcibly torn off, and therefore ragged 

 and uneven. 



Couple is the name given in statics to a pair of 

 equal forces acting on the same body in opposite 

 and parallel directions. The effect of a couple is 

 to rotate the body about a certain definite line (the 

 axis) perpendicular to the plane in which the forces 

 constituting the couple lie. 



Couplet* Any two lines which rhyme together 

 may be called a couplet ; but the term is more fre- 

 quently used to denote two lines which contain the 

 complete expression of an idea, and are therefore 

 to a certain extent independent of what goes before 

 or what follows. The poetic wits of the age of 

 Queen Anne excelled in this kind of aphoristic 

 versification. Pope, as has been said, reasons in 

 couplets. For example : 



Tis with our judgments as our watches, none 

 Go just alike, yet each believes his own. 



However effectively epigrammatic short aphorisms 

 may be expressed in rhymed couplets, a long poem 

 in this rhythm becomes wearisome to the ear. 

 Not all the alert genius of Pope, nor the sonorous 

 strength of Dryden could avert from their favourite 

 rhythm the damning sin of monotony. 



Coupon ( Fr. , and from couper, ' to cut ' ), a term 

 .signifying any billet, cheque, or other slip of paper 

 cut off from its counterpart. It is, however, applied 

 chiefly to a dividend or interest warrant, which is 

 presented for payment by holders of debentures. 

 Coupons in Great Britain require to be stamped. 

 The term is also applied to one of a series of tickets 

 which are vouchers that certain payments will be 

 made or services be performed, at various times or 

 places, in consideration of money paid. 



(oil rant ( Fr.), the heraldic term for ' running.' 

 Courbet, GUSTAVE, painter, was born at 

 Ornans, Franche-Comte, on the 10th of June 1819. 

 In 1839 he was sent by his father, a well-to-do 

 farmer, to study law in Paris, but all the bent of 

 his singularly strong and self-assertive nature was 

 turned towards art. He made himself acquainted 

 with the Flemish, Florentine, and Venetian 

 schools ; but amid all he was careful to preserve 

 as he phrases it his ' own intelligent and inde- 

 pendent individuality.' In 1841 he took to land- 

 scape work, painting in the forest of Fontainebleau. 

 In 1844 he began to exhibit at the Salon ; and his 

 works created a great sensation when shown in the 

 Salon of 1850. Marred by frequent coarseness, and 

 by defects of drawing, Courbet's works possess fine 

 and powerful colour, and are valuable for their 

 firm Jbasis in actual fact, for their truth to an 

 individual and personal impression of nature. His 

 hunting scenes and animal subjects are especi- 

 ally vigorous and spirited. In 1869 he accepted the 



Cross of the Order of St Michael from the king of 

 Bavaria, and after the revolution of 1870 he was 

 appi lint i-.l Director of the Fine Art*. In the follow- 

 ing year he joined the Commune, and wa concerned 

 in the destruction of the Vend6me Column (16th 

 May), for which, in the following September, he 

 was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, and 

 to be fined for ite restoration, In - pictures lieing 

 sold in 1877 towards that purpose. On his release 

 he retired to Vevey in Switzerland, where he died, 

 31st Deceml>er 1877. An exhibition of nearly two 

 hundred of his works was brought together in the 

 Kcole des Beaux Arts, Paris, in 1882. See the 

 Century for February 1884. 



Courbevoie* a town of France, on the left 

 bank of the Seine, opposite the north-western 

 suburbs of Paris. It has many handsome villas, 

 a large barrack, bleaching-fielus, and a carriage 

 factory. Pop. (1886) 15,937 ; (1891) 16,150. 



Courier, PAUL Louis, one of the most power- 

 ful and brilliant of French writers, was born in 

 Paris on January 4, 1772. His boyhood was spent 

 in Touraine, and he afterwards studied at the 

 College de France and the School of Artillery at 

 Chalons. He then served for some eighteen years 

 in the army, but his interest lay wholly in study, 

 and especially in the study of the Greek language. 

 His military experiences ended in 1809 on the field 

 of Wagram, from which he was carried insensible 

 to Vienna. Thenceforth he devoted himself to 

 letters. He lived for some time at Florence, where 

 he became embroiled with the librarian of the 

 Laurentian Library, in regard to a manuscript of 

 Longus. The quarrel led to the publication of 

 the Lettre d, M. Renouard, in which Courier's 

 incomparable ironic faculty was for the first time 

 revealed. He removed to Paris in 1812, and in 

 1814 settled on his estate in Touraine. In 1816 

 he issued the first of his famous pamphlets, the 

 Petition aux Deux Chambres, a scathing exposure 

 of the wrongs inflicted on the peasantry by the 

 government of the Restoration. The Petition was 

 read by high and low, and its author was thence- 

 forth recognised as a political power in France. 

 Courier continued the attack in a series of admir- 

 ably witty letters in the Censeur, and in 1821 there 

 appeared the inimitable Simple Discours de Paid 

 Louis, Vigneron de la Chavonniere. In this pam- 

 phlet the scheme to purchase the estate of Cnam- 

 tx)rd for the Due de Bordeaux by a 'national 

 offering,' wrung from the peasantry, was merci- 

 lessly derided and laid bare. The Simple Discours 

 is Courier's masterpiece. It was made the subject 

 of a government prosecution, and its author under- 

 went two months' imprisonment in Sainte Pelagie, 

 where he formed the acquaintance of Beranger. 

 On his release he was again tried, but escaped with 

 a reprimand, for his Petition pour les V illageois 

 qn'on empeche de danser. His subsequent writings 

 were published anonymously at Brussels. They 

 comprised Reponses aux Lettres Anonyines, the 

 Gazette du Village, the Li wet de Paul Louis, the 

 Piece Diplomatique an imaginary letter from 

 Louis XVIII. to the king of Spain ami the Pam- 

 phlet des Pamphlets, a vindication of pamphleteer- 

 ing, which appeared in 1824, and which Arniand 

 Carrel called 'the swan-song of Courier.' On 

 Sunday. May 10, 1825, Courier was found shot 

 dead a little before sunset in the grounds of his 

 house at Varet/. 



With the exception of Pascal, Courier is the 

 greatest master of irony in the ranks of French 

 authors. A deadly controversialist, he was at the 

 same time an exquisite artist, whose style is char- 

 acterised by austere simplicity of diction. See the 

 notice of Courier in the edition of his works edited 

 by Arniand Carrel (4 vols. Paris, 1834), and an 



