COSTA, MARIA MARGARITA,
An Italian poetess, whose works were published at Paris, was born at Rome, in 1716. She was a woman of vast erudition, and was successful in different kinds of literature. She wrote tho librettos of several operas.
COSTELLO, LOUISA STUART,
Is an industrious and agreeable writer. Her first work, "Specimens of the Early Poetry of France," shewed research and taste bestowed on a subject which rarely interests any one save a native of Paris. Her next book was a pleasant one—"Summer among the Boccages and the Vines." "She also wrote "A Pilgrimage to Auvergne," "The Queen Mother," and other works. But her most important work is "Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen;" published in 1844, in four volumes, with a number of well-executed portraits. There are, in all, thirty-seven biographies given, including England's proudest names. Mrs. Costello evidently put her heart in this work; it is purely English in its sentiments and turns of thought. Several other works have appeared from the same gifted pen; the last being a poem entitled "The Lay of the Stork," and bearing date 1856.
COSWAY, MARY,
One of the best miniature-painters of Italy, was the daughter of an Englishman of the name of Hadfield, who kept an hotel at Leghorn. Mary was born in the year 1779, and married, when twenty years old, an Englishman of the name of Cosway, who had acquired some celebrity as a painter. He soon discovered the talent of his wife, and aided her in cultivating it. He then went with her to Paris, where she devoted herself altogether to miniature-painting and engraving. Her fame soon extended throughout the country, and people from all parts of the kingdom came to have their likenesses taken by her. Her greatest undertaking, a work which was to contain a copy of the best paintings in the Museum, accompanied with historical notices, remained unfinished on account of the loss of a child, which affected her so much that she became melancholy, and gave up her artistical pursuits. She died, 1804, in a nunnery near Lyons.
COTTIN, SOPHIE,
Whose maiden name was Ristaud, was born at Tonneins, in the department of Lot and Garonne, in 1773. She married M. Cottin, a banker at Bordeaux, and went soon after to reside at Paris, where her husband died. She was then twenty years of age, and was much admired; but she had been tenderly attached to her husband, and never would marry again. To relieve her sorrows, she gave herself up to intellectual pursuits; and thus, in the expression of her thoughts and feelings, she began to write. Her first attempts were small poems, and a story, "Claire d'Albe," which she was induced to publish by the following singular circumstances. Upon the breaking out of the revolution of 1789, Madame Cottin, who did not partake of the popular opinions, adopted the most secluded life possible, devoting herself to study and reading. At the same time she took a lively interest in the misfortunes of those unhappy days, and her heart bled to hear
