460 



CORNEILLE CORNELIAN. 



trustful of his talents, Cornel lie now wished to 

 abandon dramatic writing. and applied liimself, for 

 six years, to the translation of the 1>, Imitations Jetu 

 CAriiti, the first book of which lie had |>rr\ -ion-ly 

 finished in verse. At length, Fouquet entreated him 

 to devote his talents again to the stage. (Mdipe, in 

 1659, and Sertoritu. in 1662, were received witli tlie 

 applause which had been given him in his Ite^t days, 

 ami he endeavoured to secure the public favour by 

 accompanying the exhibition of the piece with 

 splendid scenery. But his subsequent pieces Otho, 

 Age'tilaus, Attita, and many others proved the fail- 

 ing | tower of a poet who had formerly shown himself 

 without a rival. 



Of thirty-three pieces which Corneille left, only 

 eight still retain their places on the stage. Time 

 has established his fame, and the French, long 

 ago, surnamed him the Great, though Voltaire, 

 the editor of his works, and La Harpe, who 

 followed in the steps of his great predecessor, 

 do not pronounce an entirely favourable sentence 

 upon his merits. A. W. Schlegel has criticised 

 him in a masterly mode, and Lessing has point- 

 ed out, in a striking manner, the defects in the plots 

 of many of his pieces. It is, indeed, sincerely to be 

 regretted, that his great talents, which were display- 

 ed so brilliantly in the Ciil, should have been so much 

 checked in their development by his inclination to 

 the classic, or, rather, Roman forms. It was owing 

 to the circumstances of the times, that he was induc- 

 ed to take political subjects as materials for tragedy. 

 Voltaire remarked their influence upon the tragedy 

 of Cifimi. and did not fail to see that the interest, in 

 m::ny parts of Folyeucte, must have been increased 

 by the Jansenist controversies, which may, in fact, 

 have given occasion to the passages. 



Corneille had nothing captivating in his manners. 

 His conversation was tedious, and by no means well 

 chosen. Like Turenne, he was, in early years, con- 

 sidered as deficient in talent. In his external ap- 

 pearance, he resembled an inferior tradesman of 

 Rouen, and it is very easy, then, to conceive that 

 with rather rude manners, and a high sense of his 

 merits, he could not feel himself in his proper sphere 

 at court. His profession and talents did not make 

 him rich, and he lived with great frugality. During 

 the year 1647, he was received into the French 

 academy in the place of Maynard, and died Oct. 1, 

 1684, being the oldest member. A descendent of 

 the eldest of his two sons lived till the year 1813, and 

 was as little favoured by fortune as the grandniece of 

 Corneille, to whom Voltaire, by the edition of the 

 works of her great-uncle, discharged the debt of his 

 country. The latest views of the French concerning 

 this great man, who did so much for the establish- 

 ment of their theatre, are found in an Eloge de Cor- 

 neille, par M. Victorin Fabre, which received the 

 prize of the French academy in 1807, and which has 

 since been republished. The most complete and cor- 

 rect edition of his works, enriched by the principal 

 productions of his brother, by Voltaire's commen- 

 taries, and by a selection of Talissot's notes, was pub- 

 lished by Renouard, Paris, 1817, in twelve volumes. 

 Napoleon is described, in the memoirs of Las Cases, 

 as having said, that, had Corneille lived in his time, 

 he would have made him a prince. The emperor 

 was fond of reading the works of this poet during 

 his abode on St Helena, whilst he treated with com- 

 parative neglect several other poets adored by the 

 French nation. 



CORNEILLE, THOMAS, brother of the preced- 

 ing, was born at Rouen, Aug 20, 1625, and lived in 

 the ir.ost friendly union with his brother Peter till 

 uie death of the latter. A comedy, which he wrote 

 in I atin verse, while he was a scholar at the Jesuits' 



college, and which obtained the honour of a repre- 

 sentation, as well as tlie success which attended the 

 works of his brother, determined him to turn his at- 

 trillion to the drama. His first comedy, called Let 

 Engagements du Hasard, \vl\\cl\ appeared in 1647, 

 and was an imitation of Calderon, was successful. 

 Many similar ones soon followed, also borrowed from 

 the Spaniards. Tlie number of his dramatic works 

 is 42 ; yet most of them are now so little known, 

 that even the catalogue of them in the record- of the 

 French academy will be found erroneous and incom- 

 plete. His comedies, however, at the time of their 

 appearance, were received with greater interest, if 

 possible, than those of the great Conieille, in imita- 

 tion of whom Thomas applied himself to tragedy, and 

 his Timocrate, which appeared in 1656, was received 

 with such continual applause, that the actors, weary 

 of repeating it, entreated the audience, from the 

 stage, to permit the representation of something else, 

 otherwise they should forget all their other pieces. 

 Since that time, it lias not been brought upon the 

 'hoards at all. Comma, in 1661, produced an equal 

 sensation. The spectators thronged in such numbers 

 to witness the representation, that scarcely room 

 enough was left for the performers. Of his dramatic 

 works which now merit attention, are Artane, which 

 maintained a competition with Racine's Bajazet ; 

 L'lnconnu, a heroic comedy, in 1675, which, in 1724, 

 was represented at a festival at the Tuileries, with a 

 ballet, in which Louis XV., and the young lords of 

 his court danced ; and, especially, Le Comte d'Esscx, 

 which he produced in 1678. This last piece, as well 

 as Stilicon and Ariane, is sometimes represented at 

 the present day. Thomas, according to the judg- 

 ment of Voltaire, although inferior to his brother, 

 stood second to none but him, and his style is more 

 pure. In 1685, he succeeded his brother in the 

 French academy, by a unanimous vote, and, after 

 his election, immediately undertook the publication 

 of the French Dictionary, which appeared in 1694. 

 He then prefixed notes to Vaugelas's Remarks, and 

 finally added a supplement to the Dictionnaire de 

 I' Academic, iu which he explained the terms of art 

 ; nd science. This may be regarded as the basis of 

 the subsequent Encyclopedic. Thomas Corneille was 

 also admitted into the academy of inscriptions, and 

 was a diligent contributor to the Mercure galant, 

 with his friend De Vise. In old age, he lost his 

 sight, and died, highly honoured by his contempora- 

 ries, and beloved tor his social virtues, at Andelys, 

 Dec. 8, 1709. In his conversation, he was lively 

 and natural. He left two children: and Voltaire 

 united the daughter of his son Francis in marriage 

 with the count de la Tour du Pin. A selection of 

 his dramas is commonly found annexed to the edi- 

 tions of his brother's works, and his remaining pro- 

 ductions, for the most part superseded by better, are 

 not collected. 



CORNELIA, the mother of the Gracchi, daughter 

 of Scipio Africanus the elder, and wife of the consul 

 Gracchus, was a noble-minded Roman matron, who 

 lived about 139 years B. C. To her sons (see Grac- 

 chus) she gave an excellent education, and, being in 

 company with a Roman lady who was displaying her 

 jewels, and desired to see the jewels of Cornelia, 

 presented her sons as her most precious jewels. At 

 her death, the Romans erected a monument to her 

 memory. Cornelia is one of those women for whom 

 the history of Rome is distinguished before all others. 

 In the history of no nation do we find so many ex- 

 amples of mothers and wives remarkable for noble- 

 ness of spirit. 



CORNELIAN; or CARNELIAN, (comaline, 

 Fr. ; corntola, Ital. ; from cameus, or corneas, Lat.) ; 

 a precious stone, of a light-red or flesh-colour, 



