Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/481

* CORFE. 411 CORINTH. one of the strongest foi'tiesses in the kingdom. Here King Edward the ilartyr was murdered by his step-mother, Elt'rida, in 979, and King John, during his disputes with liis barons, Icept his i-egalia here for safety. In 1G42 Lady Banlces defended the eastle for six weeks against Charles I. It was dismantled by Fairfax in 1(545. CORFLAM'BO. In Spenser's Faerie Qiieene, a giant re]iresenting licentiousness. COR'FU (Gk. KSpKvpa, Korkyra, or KipKvpa, Kcrkyra, Lat. Corci/ra }. The most northerly of the Ionian Islands kj.v. I. in latitude 39^ 20' to 39" nO' y., longitude 19" 40' to 20° 10' E. It has a length of about .38 miles, with a breadth varying from 3 or 4 to 20 miles. Area, 275 square miles. Population, in 1896, 90,872. Like the rest of the Ionian Islands, it is mountainous, and the mountains are generally naked and dry, the highest summit, Pantokrator. being about 3000 feet above the sea. The valleys, however, are verj' fertile, and yield olive-oil, wine, honey, oranges, figs, etc. Salt is also pi'oduced in some quantity. The climate is generally mild and healthful. The principal town, Corfu, on the east, situated on an elevation, has some good streets, and a fine esplanade. It has about 23,100 inhabitants and a considerable trade. It is the seat of a Greek archbishop and of a Catholic bishop. Tile early history of the island is purely mythical, as the later inhabitants identified it ■with the Homeric Scheria ( Ph:eacia ). About B.C. 734 the Corinthians are said to have colonized the island, which, however, soon attained such wealth and maritime power as to assert its inde- pendence. After the Persian wars, in which Oorcj'ra took no part, a further dispute with Cor- inth led the Corcyreans to ally themselves with Athens, and the intervention of the latter city was one of the factors which contributed to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. Internal dissensions and varying foreign control marked the history of the island until it was taken imder Koman protection in B.C. 229. During the greater ])art of the iliddle Ages it formed part of the Byzantine Empire, and later passed into the possession of the Venetians, who held it in spite of two fierce attacks by the Turks, until 1797. Since that time Corfu has shared the fortimes of the other Ionian Islands. Consult: Kiemaim, Recherches archcologirjiics siir les ties ioniennes, vol. i., Gorfou (Paris, 1879) ; and Partsch, Die Inscl Korfu (Gotha, 1887). CORI, ko're. A city in the Province of Rome, Central Italy. 36 miles southeast of Rome (Map: Italy, G 61. Important to the antiquarian are the huge polygonal blocks that formed the walls of the ancient Cora — a city that was an early member of the Latin League and that had for traditional founder the 'Trojan Dardanus or Coras; also the ruins of a temple of Castor and Pollux and of a so-called temple of Hercules. Population feommime), in 1881, 6300; in 1901, 7363. CO'RIAN'DER (Lat. coriandrum, Gk.KopCav. vov, koriannon, K&piov, korion, coriander, pos- sibly from K6pi,s, koris, bedbug, referring to the emell of the leaves), Coriandrum sativum. An annual or biennial plant of the natural order Umbellifera;, with branching stem, one to two feet high, the lower leaves bipinnate, the upper leaves more compound, divided into very narrow Vol. v.— 27. divisions, and with globo.se fruit. It is a native of the soutli of Europe and of the East, and has long been cultivated for the sake of its fruit. It luis tints Ijccome naturalized in some parts of England and the United States, where its fruit, eoriander-seed. is nuich less used than in Ger- many and some other European countries. The whole i)laiit, when fresh, has a very olVensive smeli, due to an essential oil, but the ripe and perfectly dry fruit has an agreeable aromatic smell and a sweetish aromatic ta.ste. It is used in medicine as a carminative, and in domestic economy as an aromatic, being very often mixed with bread in the north of Europe; spirituous liquors are Ihivored with it; and confectioners cover it with sugar, to make a well-known kind of confection. In the south of England it is com- mon to sow coriander and caraway together, the coriander yielding a crop in the first year, and the caraway in years following. Coriander de- lights in a rich soil and is much cultivated and used in India. It is little used in the United States. CORIGLIANO CALABRO, kO're-lya'no ka- lii'bi'o. A city in the Province of Cosenza, South Italy, four miles from the Gulf of "raranto and 85 miles sotithwest of Taranto (ilap: Italy, L 8). It has a castle and an aqueduct, and markets a higli quality of manna from the ash- trees of the surrounding countrv. Population (commune), in 1881, 13,272; in 1901, 13,320. COR'IN". In Shakespeare's As You Like It, a shepherd who offers his services to Rosalind and Celia as a 'faithful feeder.' CORIN'NA (Gk. Kipiwa, Koriiina). A Greek lyric poetess, nicknamed 'The Fly' Olvla, Alyia ), famous alike for her beauty and for her genius. She was born at Tanagra, in Boeotia. 'i'he date of her birth is not known, but she was an elder contemporary and, according to tradi- tion, a rival of Pindar. .Elian and Suidas speak of her five victories over him, and Pausanias saw at Tanagra a picture of her wearing about her head a fillet of victory, which he supposes she gained in a contest with her younger rival. An anecdote has been preseiwed by Plutareli, re- lating that when Pindar had been advised by her to embellish his poems with mytholog}', he pro- duced a hjann to Thebes in which all Theban mythology was alluded to in the first six verses : whereupon she advised, "Sow with the hand, not with the full sack." Her poems were all in the Boeotian dialect. The fragments are edited by Bergk, Poctw Lyrici Grceci 'CLeipzig, 1900). CORINNA. (1) A name given by Dryden to ^Irs. Elizabeth Thomas, with whom he had a correspondence. She afterwards made the ac- quaintance of Curll, the notorious publisher, and furnished him with a selection of letters inter- changed between herself and Dryden. They were probably fictitious. (2) The daughter of" Gripe in Van Brugh's comedy The Confederacy. CORINNE, OXr L'lTALIE, kS'ren' oo le'- ta'le' (Fr., Corinna. or Italy). The most im- portant novel of Madame de Stael, published in 1807, named from its heroine, who pines and dies after her lover proves false. CORINTH (Ok. K6piveos, Korinthos: said to have been called in early times Ephyra). An ancient city of Greece, situated at the south end of the isthmus connecting the northern division of Greece with the Peloponnesus. Its