COOPER, THOMAS (1805-1892).—­Chartist poet, was b. at Leicester, and apprenticed to a shoemaker.  In spite of hardships and difficulties, he ed. himself, and at 23 was a schoolmaster.  He became a leader and lecturer among the Chartists, and in 1842 was imprisoned in Stafford gaol for two years, where he wrote his Purgatory of Suicides, a political epic.  At the same time he adopted sceptical views, which he continued to hold until 1855, when he became a Christian, joined the Baptists, and was a preacher among them.  In his latter years he settled down into an old-fashioned Radical.  His friends in 1867 raised an annuity for him, and in the last year of his life he received a government pension.  In addition to his poems he wrote several novels.  Somewhat impulsive, he was an honest and sincere man.

CORBET, RICHARD (1582-1635).—­Poet, s. of a gardener, was ed. at Westminster School and Oxf., and entered the Church, in which he obtained many preferments, and rose to be Bishop successively of Oxf. and Norwich.  He was celebrated for his wit, which not seldom passed into buffoonery.  His poems, which are often mere doggerel, were not pub. until after his death.  They include Journey to France, Iter Boreale, the account of a tour from Oxf. to Newark, and the Farewell to the Fairies.

CORNWALL, BARRY, see PROCTER, B.W.

CORY, WILLIAM JOHNSON (1823-1892).—­Poet, b. at Torrington, and ed. at Eton, where he was afterwards a master.  He was a brilliant writer of Latin verse.  His chief poetical work is Ionica, containing poems in which he showed a true lyrical gift.

CORYATE, or CORYATT, THOMAS (1577-1617).—­Poet, b. at Odcombe, Somerset, and ed. at Westminster and Oxf., entered the household of Prince Henry.  In 1608 he made a walking tour in France, Italy, and Germany, walking nearly 2000 miles in one pair of shoes, which were, until 1702, hung up in Odcombe Church, and known as “the thousand mile shoes.”  He gave an amusing account of this in his Coryate’s Crudities hastily gobbled up (1611), prefixed to which were commendatory verses by many contemporary poets.  A sequel, Coryate’s Crambe, or Colewort twice Sodden followed.  Next year (1612) C. bade farewell to his fellow-townsmen, and set out on another journey to Greece, Egypt, and India, from which he never returned.  He d. at Surat.  Though odd and conceited, C. was a close observer, and took real pains in collecting information as to the places he visited.

COSTELLO, LOUISA STUART (1799-1877).—­Poet and novelist, b. in Ireland, lived chiefly in Paris, where she was a miniature-painter.  In 1815 she pub. The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, etc. (poems).  She also wrote books of travel, which were very popular, as were her novels, chiefly founded on French history.  Another work, pub. in 1835, is Specimens of the Early Poetry of France.