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Charles and Mary Lamb - "The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV"

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The Nuttall Encyclopaedia by Edited by Rev. James Wood

E >> Edited by Rev. James Wood >> The Nuttall Encyclopaedia





FAROE ISLANDS (13), a group of 22 islands of basaltic formation,
about 200 m. NW. of the Shetlands; originally Norwegian, they now belong
to Denmark; agriculture is limited, and fishing and sheep-farming chiefly
engage the natives; there is an export trade in wool, fish, and wild-fowl
leathers. The people, who still speak their old Norse dialect, although
Danish is the language of the schools and law courts, are Lutherans, and
enjoy a measure of self-government, and send representatives to the
Danish _Rigsdag_.


FARQUHAR, GEORGE, comic dramatist, born at Londonderry; early famous
for his wit, of which he has given abundant proof in his dramas, "Love
and a Bottle" being his first, and "The Beaux' Stratagem" his last,
written on his deathbed; died young; he commenced life on the stage, but
threw the profession up in consequence of having accidentally wounded a
brother actor while fencing (1678-1707).


FARR, WILLIAM, statistician, born at Kenley, Shropshire; studied
medicine, and practised in London; obtained a post in the
Registrar-General's office, and rose to be head of the statistical
department; issued various statistical compilations of great value for
purposes of insurance (1807-1883).


FARRAGUT, DAVID GLASGOW, a famous American admiral, of Spanish
extraction, born at Knoxville, Tennessee; entered the navy as a boy; rose
to be captain in 1855, and at the outbreak of the Civil War attached
himself to the Union; distinguished himself by his daring capture of New
Orleans; in 1862 was created rear-admiral, and two years later gained a
signal victory over the Confederate fleet at Mobile Bay; was raised to
the rank of admiral in 1866, being the first man to hold this position in
the American navy (1801-1870).


FARRAR, FREDERICK WILLIAM, a celebrated divine and educationalist,
born at Bombay; graduated with distinction at King's College, London, and
at Cambridge; was ordained in 1854, and became head-master of Marlborough
College; was for some years a select preacher to Cambridge University,
and held successively the offices of honorary chaplain and
chaplain-in-ordinary to the Queen; became canon of Westminster, rector of
St. Margaret's, archdeacon, chaplain to the House of Commons, and dean of
Canterbury; his many works include the widely-read school-tales, "Eric"
and "St. Winifred's," philological essays, and his vastly popular Lives
of Christ and St. Paul, besides the "Early Days of Christianity,"
"Eternal Hope," and several volumes of sermons; in recent years have
appeared "Darkness and Dawn" (1892) and "Gathering Clouds" (1895); _b_.
1831.


FASCES, a bundle of rods bound round the helve of an axe, and borne
by the lictors before the Roman magistrates in symbol of their authority
at once to scourge and decapitate.


FASCINATION, the power, originally ascribed to serpents, of
spell-binding by the eye.


FASTI, the name given to days among the Romans on which it was
lawful to transact business before the praetor; also the name of books
among the Romans containing calendars of times, seasons, and events.


FASTOLF, SIR JOHN, a distinguished soldier of Henry V.'s reign, who
with Sir John Oldcastle shares the doubtful honour of being the prototype
of Shakespeare's Falstaff, but unlike the dramatist's creation was a
courageous soldier, and won distinction at Agincourt and at the "Battle
of the Herrings"; after engaging with less success in the struggle
against Joan of Arc, he returned to England and spent his closing years
in honoured retirement at Norfolk, his birthplace; he figures in the
"Paston Letters" (1378-1459).


FATA MORGANA, a mirage occasionally observed in the Strait of
Messina, in which, from refraction in the atmosphere, images of objects,
such as men, houses, trees, etc., are seen from the coast under or over
the surface of the water.


FATALISM, the doctrine that all which takes place in life and
history is subject to fate, that is is to say, takes place by inevitable
necessity, that things being as they are, events cannot fall out
otherwise than they do.


FATES, THE, in the Greek mythology the three goddesses who presided
over the destinies of individuals--CLOTHO, LACHESIS, and
ATROPOS (Q. V.). See PARCAE.


FATHER OF COMEDY, ARISTOPHANES (q. v.).


FATHER OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, EUSEBIUS (q. v.).


FATHER OF FRENCH HISTORY, DUCHESNE (q. v.).


FATHER OF GERMAN LITERATURE, LESSING (q. v.).


FATHER OF HISTORY, HERODOTUS (q. v.).


FATHER OF TRAGEDY, ESCHYLUS (q. v.).


FATHER PAUL, PAUL SARPI (q. v.).


FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, the early teachers of Christianity and
founders of the Christian Church, consisting of live _Apostolic
Fathers_--Clement of Home, Barnabas, Hermes, Ignatius, and Polycarp, and
of nine in addition called _Primitive Fathers_--Justin, Theophilus of
Antioch, Irenaeus, Clemens of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Origen,
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Tertullian. The
distinctive title of _Apostolic Fathers_ was bestowed upon the immediate
friends and disciples of the Apostles, while the _patristic_ period
proper may be said to commence with the 2nd century, but no definite date
can be assigned as marking its termination, some closing it with the
deaths of Gregory the Great (601) and John of Damascus (756), while
Catholic writers bring it down as far as the Council of Trent (1542);
discarded among Protestants, the Fathers are regarded by Catholics as
decisive in authority on points of faith, but only when they exhibit a
unanimity of opinion.


FATHOM, a measure of 6 ft. used in taking marine soundings,
originally an Anglo-Saxon term for the distance stretched by a man's
extended arms; is sometimes used in mining operations.


FATHOM, COUNT FERDINAND, a villain in the novel of Smollett so
named.


FATIMA, the last of Bluebeard's wives, and the only one who escaped
being murdered by him; also Mahomet's favourite daughter.


FATIMIDES, a Mohammedan dynasty which assumed the title of caliphs
and ruled N. Africa and Egypt, and later Syria and Palestine, between the
10th and 12th centuries inclusive; they derived their name from the claim
(now discredited) of their founder, Obeidallah Almahdi, to be descended
from Fatima, daughter of Mahomet and wife of Ali; they were finally
expelled by Saladin in 1169.


FAUCHER, LEON, a political economist, brought into notice by the
Revolution of 1830; edited _Le Temps_; opposed Louis Philippe's minister,
M. Guizot; held office under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon, but threw
up office on the _coup d'etat_ of 1851 (1803-1854).


FAUCHET, ABBE, a French Revolutionary, a Girondin; blessed the
National tricolor flag; "a man of _Te Deums_ and public consecrations";
was a member of the first parliament; stripped of his insignia, lamented
the death of the king, perished on the scaffold (1744-1793).


FAUCIT, HELEN, a famous English actress; made her _debut_ in London
(1836), and soon won a foremost place amongst English actresses by her
powerful and refined representations of Shakespeare's heroines under the
management of Macready; she retired from the stage in 1851 after her
marriage with THEODORE MARTIN (q. v.); in 1885 she published a
volume of studies "On Some of Shakespeare's Female Characters"
(1820-1899).


FAUNS, divinities of the woods and fields among the Romans, and
guardians of flocks against the wolf.


FAUNTLEROY, HENRY, banker and forger; in his twenty-third year
became a partner in the bank of Marsh, Sibbald, & Co., London; was put on
trial for a series of elaborate forgeries, found guilty, and hanged; the
trial created a great sensation at the time, and efforts were made to
obtain a commutation of the sentence (1785-1824).


FAUNUS, a god, grandson of Saturn, who figures in the early history
of Latium, first as the god of fields and shepherds, and secondly, as an
oracular divinity and founder of the native religion, afterwards
identified with the Greek Pan.


FAURE, FRANCOIS FELIX, President of the French Republic, born in
Paris; carried on business in Touraine as a tanner, but afterwards
settled in Havre and became a wealthy shipowner; he served with
distinction as a volunteer in the Franco-German War; entered the Assembly
in 1881, where he held office as Colonial and Commercial Minister in
various Cabinets; was elected President in 1895 (1841-1899).


FAUST, JOHANNES. See FUST.


FAUST, or DOCTOR FAUSTUS, a reputed professor of the black art,
a native of Germany, who flourished in the end of the 15th century and
the beginning of the 16th century, and who is alleged to have made a
compact with the devil to give up to him body and soul in the end,
provided he endowed him for a term of years with power to miraculously
fulfil all his wishes. Under this compact the devil provided him with a
familiar spirit, called Mephistopheles, attended by whom he traversed the
world, enjoying life and working wonders, till the term of the compact
having expired, the devil appeared and carried him off amid display of
horrors to the abode of penal fire. This myth, which has been subjected
to manifold literary treatment, has received its most significant
rendering at the hands of Goethe, such as to supersede and eclipse every
other attempt to unfold its meaning. It is presented by him in the form
of a drama, in two parts of five acts each, of which the first, published
in 1790, represents "the conflicting union of the higher nature of the
soul with the lower elements of human life; of Faust, the son of Light
and Free-Will, with the influences of Doubt, Denial, and Obstruction, or
MEPHISTOPHELES (q. v.), who is the symbol and spokesman of
these; and the second, published in 1832, represents Faust as now
elevated, by the discipline he has had, above the hampered sphere of the
first, and conducted into higher regions under worthier circumstances."


FAUSTA, the wife of Constantino the Great.


FAUSTINA, ANNIA GALERI, called Faustina, Senior, wife of Antoninus
Pius, died three years after her husband became emperor (105-141).


FAUSTINA, ANNIA, JUNIOR, wife of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
daughter of the preceding. Both she and her mother are represented by
historians as profligate and unfaithful, and quite unworthy the affection
lavishly bestowed upon them by their husbands.


FAUSTULUS, the shepherd who, with his wife Laurentia, was the
foster-parent of Romulus and Remus, who, as infants, had been exposed on
the Palatine Hill.


FAVART, CHARLES SIMON, French dramatist, born at Paris, where he
became director of the Opera Comique; was celebrated as a vivacious
playwright and composer of operas; during a temporary absence from Paris
he established his Comedy Company in the camp of Marshal Saxe during the
Flanders campaign; his memoirs and correspondence give a bright picture
of theatrical life in Paris during the 18th century (1710-1792).


FAVONIUS, the god of the favouring west wind.


FAVRE, JULES CLAUDE GABRIEL, a French Republican statesman, born at
Lyons; called to the Paris bar in 1830; a strong Republican, he joined
the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848; held office as Minister of the Interior
in the New Republic, and disapproving of the _coup d'etat_, resumed
practice at the bar; defended the Italian conspirator ORSINI (q. v.),
and in 1870, on the dissolution of the Empire, became Minister of
Foreign Affairs; mistakes in his negotiations with Bismarck led to his
resignation and resumption of his legal practice (1809-1880).


FAWCETT, HENRY, statesman and political economist, born at
Salisbury; though blind, it was his early ambition to enter the arena of
politics, and he devoted himself to the study of political economy, of
which he became professor at Cambridge; entering Parliament, he became
Postmaster-General under Mr. Gladstone in 1880; he wrote and published
works on his favourite study (1832-1884).


FAWKES, GUY, a notorious English conspirator, born of a respected
Yorkshire family; having spent a slender patrimony, he joined the Spanish
army in Flanders; was converted to the Catholic faith; and on his return
to England allied himself with the conspirators of the GUNPOWDER
PLOT (q. v.), and was arrested in the cellars of the House of
Commons when on the point of firing the explosive; was tried and executed
(1570-1606).


FAY, ANDREAS, Hungarian dramatist and novelist, born at Kohany;
studied law, but the success of a volume of fables confirmed him in his
choice of literature in preference; wrote various novels and plays; was
instrumental in founding the Hungarian National Theatre; was a member of
the Hungarian Diet (1786-1804).


FAYAL (26), a fruit-bearing island among the AZORES (q. v.),
exports wine and fruits; Horta, with an excellent bay, is its chief town.


FAYYUM (160), a fertile province of Central Egypt, lies W. of the
Nile, 65 miles from Cairo, is in reality a southern oasis in the Libyan
desert, irrigated by means of a canal running through a narrow gorge to
the Nile valley; its area is about 840 sq. m., a portion of which is
occupied by a sheet of water, the Birket-el-Kern (35 m. long), known to
the ancients as Lake Moeris, and by the shores of which stood one of the
wonders of the world, the famous "Labyrinth."


FEASTS, JEWISH, OF DEDICATION, a feast in commemoration of the
purification of the Temple and the rebuilding of the altar by Judas
Maccabaeus in 164 B.C., after profanation of them by the Syrians: OF THE
PASSOVER, a festival in April on the anniversary of the exodus from
Egypt, and which lasted eight days, the first and the last days of solemn
religious assembly: OF PENTECOST, a feast celebrated on the fiftieth
day after the second of the Passover, in commemoration of the giving of
the law on Mount Sinai; both this feast and the Passover were celebrated
in connection with harvest, what was presented in one in the form of a
sheaf being in the other presented as a loaf of bread: OF PURIM, a
feast in commemoration of the preservation of the Jews from the wholesale
threatened massacre of the race in Persia at the instigation of Haman:
OF TABERNACLES, a festival of eight days in memory of the wandering
tentlife of the people in the wilderness, observed by the people dwelling
in bowers made of branches erected on the streets or the roofs of the
house; it was the Feast of Ingathering as well.


FEBRUARY, the second month of the year, was added along with January
by Numa to the end of the original Roman year of 10 months; derived its
name from a festival offered annually on the 15th day to Februus, an
ancient Italian god of the nether world; was assigned its present
position in the calendar by Julius Caesar, who also introduced the
intercalary day for leap-year.


FECAMP (13), a seaport in the dep. of Seine-Inferieure, 25 m. NE. of
Havre; has a fine Gothic Benedictine church, a harbour and lighthouse,
hardware and textile factories; fishing and sugar refineries also
flourish; exports the celebrated Benedictine liqueurs.


FECHNER, GUSTAV THEODOR, physicist and psychophysicist, born at
Gross-Saerchen, in Lower Lusatia; became professor of Physics in Leipzig,
but afterwards devoted himself to psychology; laid the foundations of the
science of psychophysics in his "Elements of Pyschophysics"; wrote
besides on the theory of colour and galvanism, as well as poems and
essays (1801-1887).


FECHTER, CHARLES ALBERT, a famous actor, born in London, his father
of German extraction and his mother English; made his _debut_ in Paris at
the age of 17; after a tour through the European capitals established
himself in London as the lessee of the Lyceum Theatre in 1863; became
celebrated for his original impersonations of Hamlet and Othello; removed
to America in 1870, where he died (1824-1879).


FECIALES, a college of functionaries in ancient Rome whose duty it
was to make proclamation of peace and war, and confirm treaties.


FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, in modern parlance is the political system which
a number of independent and sovereign States adopt when they join
together for purposes of domestic and especially International policy;
local government is freely left with the individual States, and only in
the matter of chiefly foreign relations is the central government
paramount, but the degree of freedom which each State enjoys is a matter
of arrangement when the contract is formed, and the powers vested in the
central authority may only be permitted to work through the local
government, as in the German Confederation, or may bear directly upon the
citizens throughput the federation, as in the U.S. of America, and since
1847 in Switzerland.


FEDERALIST, a name in the United States for a supporter of the Union
and its integrity as such; a party which was formed in 1788, but
dissolved in 1820; has been since applied to a supporter of the integrity
of the Union against the South in the late Civil War.


FEDERATION, THE CHAMPS-DE-MARS, a grand fete celebrated in the
Champs-de-Mars, Paris, on July 14, 1790, the anniversary of the taking of
the Bastille, at which deputies from the newly instituted departments
assisted to the number of 80,000, as well as deputies from other nations,
"Swedes, Spaniards, Polacks, Turks, Chaldeans, Greeks, and dwellers in
Mesopotamia," representatives of the human race, "with three hundred
drummers, twelve hundred wind-musicians, and artillery planted on height
after height to boom the tidings all over France, the highest recorded
triumph of the Thespian art." Louis XVI. too assisted at the ceremony,
and took solemn oath to the constitution just established in the interest
of mankind. See Carlyle's "French Revolution."


FEHMGERICHT. See VEHMGERICHTE.


FEITH, a Dutch poet, born at Zwolle, where, after studying at
Leyden, he settled and died; his writings include didactic poems, songs,
and dramas; had a refining influence on the literary taste of his
countrymen (1753-1824).


FELICITE, ST., a Roman matron, who with her seven sons suffered
martyrdom in 164. Festival, July 10.


FELIX, the name of five popes: F. I., ST., Pope from 269 to
274, said to have been a victim of the persecution of Aurelius; F.
II., Pope from 356 to 357, the first anti-pope having been elected in
place of the deposed Liberius who had declined to join in the persecution
of ATHANASIUS (q. v.), was banished on the restoration of
Liberius; F. III., Pope from 483 to 492, during his term of office
the first schism between the Eastern and Western Churches took place; F.
IV., Pope from 526 to 530, was appointed by Theodoric in face of the
determined opposition of both people and clergy; F. V., Pope from
1439 to 1449. See AMADEUS VIII..


FELIX, CLAUDIUS, a Roman procurator of Judaea in the time of Claudius
and Nero; is referred to in Acts xxiii. and xxiv. as having examined the
Apostle Paul and listened to his doctrines; was vicious in his habits,
and formed an adulterous union with Drusilla, said by Tacitus to have
been the granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra; was recalled in A.D. 62.


FELIX HOLT, a novel of George Eliot's, written in 1866.


FELL, JOHN, a celebrated English divine; Royalist in sympathy, he
continued throughout the Puritan ascendency loyal to the English Church,
and on the Restoration became Dean of Christ Church and a royal chaplain;
was a good man and a charitable, and a patron of learning; in 1676 was
raised to the bishopric of Oxford; was the object of the well-known
epigram, "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, The reason why I cannot tell"
(1625-1686).


FELLAH, the name applied contemptuously by the Turks to the
agricultural labourer of Egypt; the Fellahin (pl. of Fellah) comprise
about three-fourths of the population; they are of good physique, and
capable of much toil, but are, despite their intelligence and sobriety,
lazy and immoral; girls marry at the age of 12, and the children grow up
amidst the squalor of their mud-built villages; their food is of the
poorest, and scarcely ever includes meat; tobacco is their only luxury;
their condition has improved under British rule.


FELLOWS, SIR CHARLES, archaeologist, born at Nottingham; early
developed a passion for travel; explored the Xanthus Valley in Asia
Minor, and discovered the ruins of the cities Teos and Xanthus, the
ancient capital of Lycia (1838); returned to the exploration of Lycia in
1839 and again in 1841, discovering the ruins of 13 other ancient cities;
accounts of these explorations and discoveries are fully given in his
various published journals and essays; was knighted in 1845 (1799-1861).


FELLOWSHIP, a collegiate term for a status in many universities
which entitles the holder (a Fellow) to a share in their revenues, and in
some cases to certain privileges as regards apartments and meals in the
college, as also to a certain share in the government; formerly
Fellowships were usually life appointments, but are now generally for a
prescribed number of years, or are held during a term of special
research; the old restrictions of celibacy and religious conformity have
been relaxed.


FELO-DE-SE, in English law the crime which a man at the age of
discretion and of a sound mind commits when he takes away his life.


FELONY, "a crime which involves a total forfeiture of lands or goods
or both, to which capital or other punishment may be superadded,
according to the degree of guilt."


FELTON, CORNELIUS CONWAY, American scholar, born at West Newbury,
Massachusetts; graduated at Harvard in 1827, and became professor of
Greek there, rising to the Presidency of the same college in 1860; edited
Greek classics, and made translations from the German; most important
work is "Greece, Ancient and Modern," in 2 vols. (1807-1862).


FELTON, JOHN, the Irish assassin of the Duke of Buckingham in 1628.


FEMMES SAVANTES, a comedy in five acts by Moliere, and one of his
best, appeared in 1672.


FENELLA, a fairy-like attendant of the Countess of Derby, deaf and
dumb, in Scott's "Peveril of the Peak," a character suggested by Goethe's
Mignon in "Wilhelm Meister."


FENELON, FRANCOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE, a famous French prelate
and writer, born in the Chateau de Fenelon, in the prov. of Perigord; at
the age of 15 came to Paris, and, having already displayed a remarkable
gift for preaching, entered the Plessis College, and four years later
joined the Seminary of St. Sulpice, where he took holy orders in 1675;
his directorship of a seminary for female converts to Catholicism brought
him into prominence, and gave occasion to his well-known treatise "De
l'Education des Filles"; in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes, he conducted a mission for the conversion of the Huguenots of
Saintonge and Poitou, and four years later Louis XIV. appointed him tutor
to his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, an appointment which led to his
writing his "Fables," "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of the
Ancient Philosophers"; in 1694 he became abbe of St. Valery, and in the
following year archbishop of Cambrai; soon after this ensued his
celebrated controversy with BOSSUET (q. v.) regarding the
doctrines of QUIETISM (q. v.), a dispute which brought him into
disfavour with the king and provoked the Pope's condemnation of his
"Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie interieure"; the
surreptitious publication of his most famous work "Telemache," the MS. of
which was stolen by his servant, accentuated the king's disfavour, who
regarded it as a veiled attack on his court, and led to an order
confining the author to his own diocese; the rest of his life was spent
in the service of his people, to whom he endeared himself by his
benevolence and the sweet piety of his nature; his works are extensive,
and deal with subjects historical and literary, as well as philosophical
and theological (1651-1715).


FENIANS, an Irish political organisation having for its object the
overthrow of English rule in Ireland and the establishment of a republic
there. The movement was initiated in the United States soon after the
great famine in Ireland of 1846-47, which, together with the harsh
exactions of the landlords, compelled many Irishmen to emigrate from
their island with a deeply-rooted sense of injustice and hatred of the
English. The Fenians organised themselves so far on the model of a
republic, having a senate at the head, with a virtual president called
the "head-centre," and various "circles" established in many parts of the
U.S. They collected funds and engaged in military drill, and sent agents
to Ireland and England. An invasion of Canada in 1866 and a rising at
home in 1867 proved abortive, as also the attack on Clerkenwell Prison in
the same year. Another attempt on Canada in 1871 and the formation of the
_Skirmishing Fund_ for the use of the _Dynamitards_ and the institution
of the _Clan-na-Gael_ leading to the "Invincibles," and the Phoenix Park
murders (1882) are later manifestations of this movement. The Home Rule
and Land League movements practically superseded the Fenian. The name is
taken from an ancient military organisation called the Fionna Eirinn,
said to have been instituted in Ireland in 300 B.C.