COQUEREL

coquerel, athanase laurent charles (1795-1868), french protestant divine, was born in paris on the 17th of august 1795. he received his early education from his aunt, helen maria williams, an englishwoman, who at the close of the 18th century gained a reputation by various translations and by her _letters from france_. he completed his theological studies at the protestant seminary of montauban, and in 1816 was ordained minister. in 1817 he was invited to become pastor of the chapel of st paul at jersey, but he declined, being unwilling to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles of the church of england. during the following twelve years he resided in holland, and preached before calvinistic congregations at amsterdam, leiden and utrecht. in 1830, at the suggestion of baron georges de cuvier, then minister of protestant worship, coquerel was called to paris as pastor of the reformed church. in the course of 1833 he was chosen a member of the consistory, and rapidly acquired the reputation of a great pulpit orator, but his liberal views brought him into antagonism with the rigid calvinists. he took a warm interest in all matters of education, and distinguished himself so much by his defence of the university of paris against a sharp attack, that in 1835 he was chosen a member of the consistory of the legion of honour. in 1841 appeared his _reponse_ to the _leben jesu_ of strauss. after the revolution of february 1848, coquerel was elected a member of the national assembly, where he sat as a moderate republican, subsequently becoming a member of the legislative assembly. he supported the first ministry of louis napoleon, and gave his vote in favour of the expedition to rome and the restoration of the temporal power of the pope. after the _coup d'etat_ of the 2nd of december 1851, he confined himself to the duties of his pastorate. he was a prolific writer, as well as a popular and eloquent speaker. he died at paris on the 10th of january 1868. a large collection of his sermons was published in 8 vols. between 1819 and 1852. other works were _biographie sacree_ (1825-1826); _histoire sainte et analyse de la bible_ (1839); _orthodoxie moderne_ (1842); _christologie_ (1858), &c. his brother, charles augustin coquerel (1797-1851), was the author of a work on english literature (1828), an _essai sur l'histoire generale du christianisme_ (1828) and a _histoire des eglises du desert, depuis la revocation de l'edit de nantes_ (1841). a liberal in his views, he was the founder and editor of the _annales protestantes_, _le lien_, and the _revue protestante_. coques (or cocx), gonzalez (1614-1684), flemish painter, son of pieter willemsen cocx, a respectable flemish citizen, and not, as his name might imply, a spaniard, was born at antwerp. at the age of twelve he entered the house of pieter, the son of "hell" breughel, an obscure portrait painter, and at the expiration of his time as an apprentice became a journeyman in the workshop of david ryckaert the second, under whom he made accurate studies of still life. at twenty-six he matriculated in the gild of st luke; he then married ryckaert's daughter, and in 1653 joined the literary and dramatic club known as the "retorijkerkamer." after having been made president of his gild in 1665, and in 1671 painter in ordinary to count monterey, governor-general of the low countries, he married again in 1674, and died full of honours in his native place. one of his canvases in the gallery at the hague represents a suite of rooms hung with pictures, in which the artist himself may be seen at a table with his wife and two children, surrounded by masterpieces composed and signed by several contemporaries. partnership in painting was common amongst the small masters of the antwerp school; and it has been truly said of coques that he employed jacob von arthois for landscapes, ghering and van ehrenberg for architectural backgrounds, steenwijck the younger for rooms, and pieter gysels for still life and flowers; but the model upon which coques formed himself was van dyck, whose sparkling touch and refined manner he imitated with great success. he never ventured beyond the "cabinet," but in this limited field the family groups of his middle time are full of life, brilliant from the sheen of costly dress and sparkling play of light and shade, combined with finished execution and enamelled surface. coquet (pronounced cocket), a river of northumberland, draining a beautiful valley about 40 m. in length. it rises in the cheviot hills. following a course generally easterly, but greatly winding, it passes harbottle, near which relics of the stone age are seen, and holystone, where it is recorded that bishop paulinus baptized a great body of northumbrians in the year 627. several earthworks crown hills above this part of the valley, and at cartington, fosson and whitton are relics of medieval border fortifications. the small town of rothbury is beautifully situated beneath the ragged simonside hills. the river dashes through a narrow gully called the thrum, and then passes brinkburn priory, of which the fine transitional norman church was restored to use in 1858, while there are fragments of the monastic buildings. this was an augustinian foundation of the time of henry i. the dale continues well wooded and very beautiful until warkworth is reached, with its fine castle and remarkable hermitage. a short distance below this the coquet has its mouth in alnwick bay (north sea), with the small port of amble on the south bank, and coquet island a mile out to sea. the river is frequented by sportsmen for salmon and trout fishing. no important tributary is received, and the drainage area does not exceed 240 sq. m. coquet (pronounced co-kette), to simulate the arts of love-making, generally from motives of personal vanity, to flirt; in a figurative sense, to trifle or dilly-dally with anything. the word is derived from the french _coqueter_, which originally means, "to strut about like a cock-bird," i.e. when it desires to attract the hens. the french substantive _coquet_, in the sense of "beau" or "lady-killer," was formerly commonly used in english; but the feminine form, _coquette_, now practically alone survives, in the sense of a woman who gratifies her vanity by using her powers of attraction in a frivolous or inconstant fashion. hence "to coquet," the original and more correct form, has come frequently to be written "to coquette." coquetry (fr. _coquetterie_), primarily the art of the coquette, is used figuratively of any dilly-dallying or "coquetting" and, by transference of idea, of any superficial qualities of attraction in persons or things. "coquet" is still also occasionally used adjectivally, but the more usual form is "coquettish"; e.g. we speak of a "coquettish manner," or a "coquettish hat." the crested humming-birds of the genus _lophornis_ are known as coquettes (fr. _coquets_).