Chapter Corinne to Corn-Law Rhymer of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Corinne to Corn-Law Rhymer

Corinne , the heroine and title of a novel by Mde. de Staël. Her lover proved false, and the maiden gradually pined away.

Corinth. ’Tis not every one who can afford to go to Corinth, “’Tis not every one who can afford to indulge in very expensive licentiousness.” Aristophanês speaks of the unheard-of sums (amounting to £200 or more) demanded by the harlots of Corinth.—Plutarch: Parallel Lives, i. 2.

Non cuivis hominum contingit adire Corinthum.
   —Horace: I. Epistles, xvii. 36.

Corinthian (A), a rake, a “fast man.” Prince Henry says (I Henry IV. act ii. sc. 4), “[They] tell me I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle.”

Corinthianism, harlotry.

To Corinthianize, to live an idle, dissipated life.

To act the Corinthian, to become a fille publique. Corinth was called the nursery of harlots, in consequence of the temple of Venus, which was a vast and magnificent brothel. Strabo says (Georgics, vii.), “There were no fewer than a thousand harlots in Corinth.”

Corinthians (Epistles to the). Two epistles written by Paul (the apostle) to the Corinthians. The first may be divided into three parts: chaps. i.–xiv., in which the writer reproves the Corinthians for their ill practices; chap. xv. treats of the resurrection; and the rest of the epistle contains practical instructions.

The second epistle was written from Macedonia, and, like the first, may be divided into three parts: chaps. i.–vii., in which the writer justifies the charges made in the former epistle; chaps. vii.–ix., in which he exhorts the Corinthians to make a liberal collection for the poor of Jerusalem; the rest being mainly a narrative of what he has suffered for Christ’s sake.

Corinthian Brass, a mixture of gold, silver, and brass, which forms the best of all mixed metals. When Mummius set fire to Corinth, the heat of the conflagration was so great that it melted the metal, which ran down the streets in streams. The three mentioned above ran together, and obtained the name of “Corinthian brass.”

I think it may be of “Corinthian brass,”
Which was a mixture of all metals, but
The brazen uppermost.
   —Byron: Don Juan, vi. 56 (1821).

Corinthian Tom, “a fast man,” the sporting rake in Pierce Egan’s Life in London. The companion of Tom was Jerry [Hawthorne] (1824).

Coriolanus (Caius Marcius), called Coriolanus from his victory at Corioli. His mother was Veturia (not Volumnia), and his wife Volumnia (not Virgilia). Shakespeare has a drama so called. La Harpe has also a drama entitled Coriolan, produced in 1781.—Livy, Annals, ii. 40.

(Malone places Shakespeare’s play of Coriolanus under the year 1610. The first folio was printed in 1623.)

I remember her [Mrs. Siddons] coming down the stage in the triumphal entry of her son Coriolanus, when her dumb-show drew plaudits that shook the house. She came alone, marching and beating time to the music, rolling…from side to side, swelling with the triumph of her son. Such was the intoxication of joy which flashed from her eye and lit up her whole face, that the effect was irresistible.—C. M. Young.

Corisande (Lady), who by her charms wins over a young nobleman from popery to become a member of the Church of England.—Disraeli (lord Beaconsfield) (1871).