CORSICA. 447 CORSSEN. century B.C., the island icinainod fur seven cen- turies under the sway of Konie, until, after re- peated attacks hy tlie Vandals, it finally fell into their hands in 470. After the expul- sion of the Vandals by Belisarius in 533, Corsica was occupied snccessivoly by the Byzan- tine Empire, the Gotlis, Franks, and the Sara- cens. At the beginning of the eleventh cen- tury it came into the possession of the Pisans, by whom it was ceded in 1300 to the Genoese. The rule of the latter was marked by continuous re- volts on the island, and the ruling city found itself compelled on several occasions to ask as- sistance from Austria and France. In 173G a German adventurer, l^aron Theodor von Neuhof, became King of Corsica, but in 1738 he had • to lay down his crown. The uprisings under the leadership of Paoli during the second half of the eighteenth century were of the most se- rious nature. In 1708 Genoa made Corsica over to France. Paoli made an attempt to re- sist the French rule, but the dispatch of 30,000 French troops to the island compelled him to seek safety in England. He returned in 1790, and in 1793 headed a successful rising, in which the British lent assistance to the patriots. In the following year Corsica came under the protection of Great i3ritain, from which it obtained a con- stitutional form of government. Two j'cars later the British were forced by the French to evacu- ate the island, which has ever since remained in the possession of France. Corsica is noted as the birthplace of Napoleon. Consult: Giro- lami-Cordona, GCoqruphie generate de la Corse (Ajaecio, 1893) : Vuillier, The Forgotten Isles (X'ew York. 1800) ; Caird, The History of Cor- sica (London, 1899). CORSICANA, kOr'se-kii'na. A city and county-seat of Navarro County, Tex., 103 miles northeast of Austin ; on the Houston and Texas Central and the Saint Louis Southwestern rail- roads (Map: Texas, F 3). It is the seat of the State Orphan Asylum, and has an Odd Fellows' widows' and orphans' home. Corsicana is a pro- gressive manufacturing centre, among its indus- tries being cotton-compresses and cotton-gins, cottonseed-oil mills, brick-yards, flour-mills, a grain elevator, foundry and machine shops, plan- ing-mills, etc. It is also the seat of an exten- eive oil industry, there being in its vicinity a number of wells which were regarded as extraor- dinary until the discovery of the Beaumont oil- field." Population, in 1890, 0285: in 1900, 9313. COR'SICAN BROTHERS, The, A romantic, drama adapte<l by Boucicault from a French play. Les frrres corses. The twin brothers, Louis and Fabian dei Franchi, arc bound together by a strange sympathy, and each is conscious of the other's actions, though distant from him. The diial part of the brothers is a successful role of Henry Irving. CORSINI, kOr-se'ne. A celebrated Floren- tine family, which from the thirteenth century was prominent in the history of Italy. The most famous was Andee.v (1302-73), Bishop of Fiesole, who was canonized in 1020, He w'as for forty years a monk in Florence, and then was made Bishop of Fiesole. and later legale to Bologna. That towji was in the midst of a civil war, but the eloquence of Corsini was successfiil in subduing it. Austere in his life and ambi- tious only for his Church, he was a type of the mediieval bishop. Lohe.xzo became Pope Clement XII. in 1730. He restored the Corsini l^alace, now containing tlie interesting Corsini Gallery. CORSNED (AS. eorsnwd, from coreii, p,p, of eeostiii, Goth, l-'iiisini, OHG. Iciosan, tier. Ixiescn, to choose + snwd, bit, from snipan, Goth, snei- ian, OHG. snuUm, Ger. schncid^m, to cut) . A form of ordeal in early English law, which con- sisted in administering to the accused a morsel of barley bread, about an oimce in weight, whidi had previously been endowed by execration with the magical power' of exposing his guilt or inno- cence. If the accused was innocent, the bread was readily swallowed ; if guilty, it stuck in his throat and killed him. It was in this way (the chroniclers tell us) that Godwin, Earl of Kent, met his fate in the reign of Edward the Con- fessor when accused of the death of the King's brother. Compare the similar ordeal of the 'water of jealousy,' which, according to the Mosaic law, was administered among the -Tews to a woman charged with adultery (Book of Numbers, chap. v. ) . See Okdeal. Consult Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of Eng- land, bk. iv., p. 345. COR'SO (It., course). A word used to ex- press not only the racing of horses (without riders ) , but also the slow driving in procession of handsome equipages through the principal streets of a town, such as almost always takes place in Italy on festivals. This custom has given the name Corso to the principal streets in almost all the larger towns of Italy. The best known of these is the Corso in Rome, which is the scene of the celebrated diversions of the car- nival (q,v,) and the favorite meeting-place of fashionalde society. COR'SOSr, HiBAM (1828—). An American scholar. He was born in Philadelphia. Novem- ber 0, 1828. He held positions in the Library of Congress and the Library of the Smithsonian In- stitution from 1849 to 1850. and taught after- wards in Girard College, Philadelphia, and Saint John's College, Annapolis, and in 1870 became professor of the English language and literature in Cornell ITniversity. Later, the chair of Eng- lish literature was created for him. He has published Handbook of Anglo-tiaxon and Early English (1871); Introdiiclion to the Study of BroH-ning (1880); Introduction to Shakespeare (1889); Primer of English Verse (1S93); The Aims of Literary Study (1894); Selections from the Canterbury Tales (1890): The Voice and Spiritual Education (1800); Introduction to John Milton (1800). His Shakespearean tex- tual criticism is of the highest value, and his infcrpretation of poets is luminous and sympa- thetic. CORSON, Juliet (1842-97). An American educator and author, born in Boston. She was secretary of the New York Free Training School for Women in 1872-73, and devoted herself to .study and experiments on healthful and econom- ical cookery and dietetics. In 1870 she estab- lished the New York School of Cookery. She wrote several popular books, among them tFif- teen-Cent Dinners for TVorliingmen's Families (1877); Dietary for Schools (1878), prepared at the request of the United States Commis- sioner of Education: and Sanitary Living. CORS'SEN, WiLiiELM (1820-75). A noted German philologist, who devoted himself espe-
