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 COUSTOU COVENTRY 437 age (Rennes, 1860) ; Les karmonistes des XII* et XlII e siecles (Lille, 1864); Traites inedits sur la musique au moyen age (1865) ; and Scriptorum, de Musica Medii .^Em nova Series (1865-'7). ' COUSTOU, the name of three French sculp- tors. I. Nicolas, born in 1658, died in 1733. His works were exceedingly numerous, and furnished material for a volume by his biogra- pher, Cousin de Contamine. The most impor- tant of them are a group representing the de- scent from the cross, in the church of Notre Dame at Paris, and two colossal statues rep- resenting the junction of the Seine and the Marne, in the garden of the Tuileries. II. Gnillanme, brother of the preceding, born in 1678, died in 1746. He was distinguished for independence and vigor of style. Among his best works are groups representing the Ocean and the Mediterranean, in the garden of Marly, a colossal statue of the Rhone, at Lyons, and several mythological statues. III. Gnillanme, son of the preceding, born in 1716, died in 1777. His fame rests upon the statues of Mars and Venus, executed for Frederick the Great. COUT1NCES (anc. Constantia Castra), a town of France, in the department of La Manche, 6 in. E. of the sea and 35 m. S. of Cherbourg; pop. in 1866, 8,159. It is the seat of a bishop, and contains an old Gothic cathedral with two spires in front and a large square tower sur- mounting the centre of the cross, a communal college, a public library with 5,000 volumes, and a small theatre. There are manufactories of cutlery and druggets, and a brisk trade is carried on in corn, butter, poultry, flax, hemp, and horses. Near it are the remains of an ancient Roman aqueduct. COUTHON, Georges, a French revolutionist, born near Clermont in 1756, died by the guil- lotine, July 28, 1794. He was a lawyer pre- vious to the revolution, and was noted for ami- ability and probity, giving gratuitous advice to the poor and devoting himself to charitable works. At the opening of the revolution his popularity was enhanced by his manifestation of liberal opinions, and he was elected a muni- cipal officer in Clermont and afterward presi- dent of the tribunal of that city. In 1791, although he had nearly lost the use of his limbs from paralysis brought on by exposure, he was elected a deputy to the legislative assembly. He became at once one of the most revolution- ary of the members, allied himself with the Jacobins, and advocated the strongest measures against the king. The following year he was elected to the convention, and voted for the death of the king. He became a strong parti- san of Robespierre, and formed with him and St. Just the triumvirate which for a short time controlled the government. He moved the resolution which decreed the arrest of the Girondists, and acted as commissioner in Lyons, where his name is connected with many atro- cities, though according to some he endeav- ored to restrain the excesses of his party on that occasion. On his return- to Paris he ac- tively seconded Robespierre in all his projects, and presented to the convention the law of the 22d Prairial, which deprived the accused brought before the revolutionary tribunal of the aid of counsel and of the right to produce witnesses in their defence. He was involved in the fall of Robespierre on the 9th Thermidor, and shared his fate. COUTTS. See BUEDETT-COUTTS. COUTURE, Thomas, a French painter, born in Senlis, Dec. 21, 1815. He was successively a pupil of Gros'and Delaroche, but developed about the age of 25 a style very different from theirs, and distinguished by rich coloring and singular freedom of handling. His first work conspicuous for these qualities was "The Love of Gold," exhibited in 1844; and in 1847 he rose suddenly to great reputation by the pro- duction of his " Romans of the Decadence," a large picture suggested by a distich of Juve- nal, and which gained him a medal of the first class and the cross of the legion of honor. He has never surpassed this effort. His subse- quent works have been produced at irregular intervals, and comprise " The Falconer," " En- rollment of Volunteers," u Return of Troops from the Crimea," and " Baptism of the Prince Imperial," the two latter being commissions from Napoleon III. He has also decorated the chapel of the Virgin at St. Eustache. Couture has educated many pupils, and exercises a con- siderable influence over contemporary art. In 1867 he published an essay on art entitled Entretiens d'atelier, which attracted much at- tention among artists and literary men. COVENANTERS. See C^MERONIANS. COVENTRY, a city and municipal and parlia- mentary borough of Warwickshire, England, on the Sherbourne, 10 m. N. N. E. of Warwick, and 94 m. by railway N. N. W. of London ; pop. in 1871, 39,470. With some adjacent vil- lages it was formed into a separate county by Henry VI., but an act of parliament in 1842 united it with Warwickshire. Its name, a corruption of Contientre, or " convent town," came from a Benedictine priory founded in 1044 by Leofric, lord of Mercia, and his lady Godiva^ of which the cellar, 225 ft. long by 15 ft. wide, still exists. The ancient part of the city has narrow, ill-paved, and crooked streets, built up with antiquated houses; the modern part is well laid out, filled with handsome dwellings, and supplied with gas and water. There are three ancient and three modern churches, and several chapels. Among the educational establishments is a free school, founded in the time of Henry VIII. by John Hales, having an income of 950 per annum, two fellowships at Oxford, one at Cambridge, and six exhibitions at either university. There are six endowed and various private schools, a government school of design, mechanics' in- stitute, two libraries, a convent of the sisters of charity, hospital, dispensary, savings bank, theatre, county hall, drapers' hall, barracks,