Part 4

John, duke of Bedford, styled the “Firebrand of France.”

Drayton, _Polyolbion_ xviii. (1613.)

=Firouz Schah=, son and heir of the king of Persia. One New Year’s Day an Indian brought to the king an enchanted horse, which would convey the rider almost instantaneously anywhere he might wish to go to; and asked as the price thereof, the king’s daughter for his wife. Prince Firouz, mounting the horse to try it, was carried to Bengal, and there fell in love with the princess, who accompanied him back to Persia on the horse. When the king saw his son arrive safe and sound he dismissed the Indian discourteously; but the Indian caught up the princess, and, mounting the horse, conveyed her to Cashmere. She was rescued by the sultan of Cashmere, who cut off the Indian’s head and proposed marriage himself to the princess. To avoid this alliance, the princess pretended to be mad. The sultan sent for his physicians, but they could suggest no cure. At length came one who promised to cure the lady; it was Prince Firouz in disguise. He told the sultan that the princess had contracted enchantment from the horse and must be set on it to disenchant her. Accordingly, she was set on the horse, and while Firouz caused a thick cloud of smoke to rise, he mounted with the lady through the air, saying as he did so, “Sultan of Cashmere, when you would espouse a princess who craves your protection, first learn to obtain her consent.”—_Arabian Nights_ (“The Enchanted Horse”).

=First Gentleman of Europe=, George IV. (1762, 1820-1830).

Louis d’Artois of France was so called also.

The “First Gentleman of Europe” had not yet quite lost his once elegant figure.—E. Yates, _Celebrities_ xvii.

=First Grenadier of France.= Latour d’Auverge was so called by Napoleon (1743-1800.)

=First Love=, a comedy by Richard Cumberland (1796.) Frederick Mowbray’s first love, being dowerless, marries the wealthy Lord Ruby, who soon dies leaving all his fortune to his widow. In the meantime, Frederick goes abroad, and at Padua falls in with Sabina Rosny, who nurses him through a severe sickness, for which he thinks he is bound in honor to marry her. She comes with him to England, and is placed under the charge of Lady Ruby. Sabina tells Lady Ruby she cannot marry Frederick, because she is married already to Lord Sensitive, and even if it were not so, she could not marry him, for all his affections are with Lady Ruby; this she discovers in the delirium of the young man, when his whole talk was about her ladyship. In the end Lord Sensitive avows himself the husband of Sabina, and Frederick marries his first love.

=Fish.=

_He eats no fish_, that is “he is no papist,” “he is an honest man or one to be trusted.” In the reign of Queen Elizabeth papists were the enemies of the government, and hence one who did not eat fish, like a papist, on fast days was considered a Protestant and a friend of the government.

I do profess ... to serve him truly that will put me in trust ... and to eat no fish.—Shakespeare, _King Lear_, act i. sc. 4 (1605).

=Fish and the Ring=.

1. Polycrătês, being too fortunate, was advised to cast away something he most highly prized, and threw into the sea an engraved gem of great value. A few days afterwards a fish came to his table, and in it was this very gem.—_Herodotus_, iii. 40.

2. A certain queen, having formed an illicit attachment to a soldier, gave him a ring which had been the present of her husband. The king, being apprised thereof, got possession of the ring while the soldier was asleep, threw it into the sea, and then asked his queen to bring it him. In great alarm, she went to St. Kentigern and told him everything. The saint went to the Clyde, caught a salmon with the ring in its mouth, and gave it to the queen, who thus saved her character and her husband. This legend is told about the Glasgow arms.

3. The arms of dame Rebecca Berry, wife of Sir Thomas Elton, Stratford-le-Bow, to be seen at St. Dunstan’s Church, Stepney. The tale is that a knight, hearing the cries of a woman in labor, knew that the infant was destined to become his wife. He tried to elude his destiny, and, when the infant had grown to womanhood, threw a _ring_ into the sea, commanding the damsel never to see his face again till she could produce the ring which he had cast away. In a few days a _cod-fish_ was caught, and the ring was found in its mouth. The young woman producing the ring, the marriage was duly solemnized.—_Romance of London_.

=Fisher= (_Ralph_), assistant of Roland Græme, at Avenel Castle.—Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Fishers_ (_The_). Grandpa and Grandma Fisher live with daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in “The Ark” at Cedar-swamp. Grandpa is a retired sea-captain with a talent for tedious stories and a temper that is occasionally frayed. Grandma’s face has, “besides large physical proportions, generosity, whole-heartedness and a world of sympathy.” Both sleep in church, but grandma wakes up first, and arouses her husband with an adroit pin. He starts and looks guilty. She “opens her eyes at regular intervals,” as though she had merely been closing them to engage in a few moments of silent prayer.—Sally Pratt McLean Green, _Cape Cod Folks_ (1881).

=Fitz-Boo´dle= (_George_), a pseudonym assumed by Thackeray in _Frazer’s Magazine_ (1811-1863).

=Fitz-Fulke= (_Hebe, duchess of_), a “gracious graceful, graceless grace” (canto xvi. 49), staying with Lord and Lady Amundeville (4 _syl._), while Don Juan “the Russian envoy” was their guest. Don Juan fancied he saw in the night the apparition of a monk, which produced such an effect on his looks and behavior as to excite attention. When the cause of his peturbation was known, Lady Adeline sang to him a tale purporting to explain the apparition; but “her frolic grace” at night personated the ghost to carry on the joke. She was, however, discovered by Don Juan, who was resolved to penetrate the mystery. With this discovery the sixteenth and last book of _Don Juan_ ends.—Byron, _Don Juan_ (1824).

=Fitzurse= (_Lord Wildemar_), a baron in the suite of Prince John of Anjou (brother of Richard Cœur de Lion).—Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Five Kings of France=, the five directors (1795).

The five kings of France sit in their curule chairs with their flesh-colored breeches and regal mantles.—_Atalier du Lys_, ii.

=Flaccus=, Horace the Roman poet, whose full name was Quintus Horātius Flaccus (B.C. 65-8).

=Fladdock= (_General_), a friend of the Norris family in America, and, like them, devoted to titles, and aristocracy.—C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Flam´berge= (2 _syl._), the sword which Maugis took from Anthe´nor the Saracen admiral, when he attacked the castle of Oriande la Fée. The sword was made by Weyland, the Scandinavian Vulcan.—_Romance of Maugis d’Aygremont et de Vivian son Frère_.

=Flamborough= (_Solomon_), farmer. A talkative neighbor of Dr. Primrose, vicar of Wakefield. Moses Primrose marries one of his daughters.

_The Misses Flamborough_, daughters of the farmer. Their homeliness contrasts well with the flashy pretenders to fashion introduced by Squire Thornhill.—Goldsmith, _Vicar of Wakefield_ (1766).

=Flame= (_Lord_), Johnson the jester and dramatist, author of _Hurlo-Thrumbo,_ an extravaganza (1729).

=Flammer= (_The Hon. Mr. Frisk_), a Cantab, nephew to Lord Totterly. He is a young gentleman with a vivid imagination, small income, and large debts.—C. Selby, _The Unfinished Gentleman_.

=Flammock= (_Wilkin_), a Flemish soldier and burgess at the Castle of Garde Doloureuse.

_Rose or Roschen Flammock_, daughter of Wilkin Flammock, and attendant on Lady Eveline.—Sir. W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Flanders= (_Moll_), a woman of extraordinary beauty, born in Old Bailey. She was twelve years a harlot, five years a wife, twelve years a thief, and eight years a convict in Virginia; but ultimately she became rich, lived honestly, and died a penitent in the reign of Charles II.—Defoe, _The Fortunes of Moll Flanders_.

=Flash= (_Captain_), a blustering, cowardly braggart, “always talking of fighting and wars.” In the Flanders war he pretended to be shot, sneaked off into a ditch, and thence to England. When Captain Loveit met him paying court to Miss Biddy Bellaw, he commanded the blustering coward to “deliver up his sword,” and added:

“Leave this house, change the color of your clothes and fierceness of your looks; appear from top to toe the very wretch thou art!”—D. Garrick, _Miss in Her Teens_ (1753).

=Fla´vius,= the faithful, honest steward of Timon the man-hater.—Shakespeare, _Timon of Athens_ (1600).

=Fle´ance,= in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is the son of Banquo, one of Duncan’s trusted generals, and beloved and honored by Macbeth until the witches’ prophecy promises him the crown for which Macbeth has murdered the king. Macbeth resolves to destroy Banquo and his son, but while the father is murdered the son escapes, and the death-blow is given to Macbeth’s hope of an undisputed succession. Thus far the play; the chronicle makes Fleance become in time the Lord High Steward (Stewart, Stuart) of Scotland, and the ancestor of the House of Stuart which gave James I. to the English throne. James was very proud of this descent from Shakespeare’s Banquo, whose character was evidently drawn to flatter the king, since the Banquo of Holinshed’s Chronicle, from which the main of the play is drawn, is Macbeth’s partner in the murder of Duncan.

=Flecknoe= (_Richard_), poet-laureate to Charles II., author of dramas, poems, and other works. As a poet his name stands on a level with Bavius and Mævius. Dryden says of him:

... he reigned without dispute Thro’ all the realms of nonsense absolute. Dryden, _M’Flecnoe_ (1682).

(It was not Flecknoe but Shadwell that Dryden wished to castigate in this satire. The offence was that Dryden was removed from the post of laureate, and Shadwell appointed in his place. The angry ex-laureate says, with more point than truth, that, “Shadwell never deviates into sense.”)

=Fleda.= A winning child who grows into the lovely heroine of Susan Warner’s novel _Queechy_ (1852). Her simple faith and unaffected piety lead Mr. Carleton, a skeptical Englishman, into the right path. After many years and vicissitudes the two meet again in New York and are married in England.

=Fledge´by= (2 _syl._), an over-reaching, cowardly sneak, who conceals his dirty bill-broking under the trade name of Pubsey and Co. He is soundly thrashed by Alfred Lammle, and quietly pockets the affront.—C. Dickens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).

=Fleecebump´kin= (3 _syl._), bailiff of Mr. Ireby, the country squire.—Sir W. Scott, _The Two Drovers_ (time, George III.).

=Fleece´em= (_Mrs._), meant for Mrs. Rudd, a smuggler, thief, milliner, matchmaker and procuress.—Sam. Foote, _The Cozeners_.

=Fleetwood= or _The New Man of Feeling_, the hero of a novel so named by W. Godwin (1805).

=Flemings= (_The Farmer_). Yeoman-farmer of Kent, dull, honest plodder.

_Dahlia_. Lovely girl, who goes off with _Edward Blancove_, believing herself married to him. Discovering the deception, she returns to the farm, and resumes her old life. When the penitent lover seeks her and would marry her, she refuses. “She has left her heart among the ashes of the fire” that consumed her youth and honor.

_Rhoda._ Devoted sister who seeks Dahlia until she is found, and cherishes her tenderly through life. Rhoda marries a farmer, and Dahlia lives for seven years as her housemate. George Meredith, _Rhoda Fleming_ (1888).

_Flem´ing_ (_Archdeacon_), the clergyman to whom old Meg Murdockson made her confession.—Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

_Fleming_ (_Sir Malcolm_), a former suitor of Lady Margaret de Hautlieu.—Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).

_Fleming_ (_Lady Mary_), one of the maids of honor to Mary Queen of Scots.—Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Fleming_ (_Rose_), niece of Mrs. Maylie. Rose marries her cousin Harry Maylie.

She was past 17. Cast in so slight and exquisite a mould, so mild and gentle, so pure and beautiful, that earth seemed not her element, nor its rough creatures her fit companions. The very intelligence that shone in her deep blue eye ... seemed scarcely ... of the world, and yet the changing expression of sweetness and good-humor, the thousand lights that played about the face ... above all the smile, the cheerful, happy smile, were made for home and fireside peace and happiness.—C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_, xxix. (1837).

=Flemish School= (_The_), a school of painting commencing in the fifteenth century, with the brothers Van Eyck. The chief _early_ masters were Memling, Van der Weyden, Matsys, and Mabuse. The chief of the _second_ period were Rubens, Vandyck, Snyders, Jordæns, Gaspar de Crayer and the younger Teniers.

=Flemming= (_Paul_), scholarly hero of Longfellow’s _Hyperion_. Among the storied ruins of the Old World, he wins his bride by weaving to her stories from his own imagination (1839).

=Fleshly School= (_The_), a class of British poets of which Swinburne, Rossetti, Morris, etc., are exponents; so called from the sensuous character of their poetry.

⁂ It was Thomas Maitland [_i.e._ R. W. Buchanan] who first gave them this appellation in the _Contemporary Review_.

=Fletcher= (_Dick_), one of the crew of a pirate vessel.—Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

_Fletcher_ (_Philip_), fine gentleman, suitor of Christie, in Louisa M. Olcot’s novel “_Work_.”

=Fleur de Marie=, the betrothed of Captain Phœbus.—Victor Hugo, _Notre Dame de Paris_ (1831).

=Fleurant=, an apothecary. He flies into a rage because Bérald (2 _syl._) says to his brother, “Remettez cela à une fois, et demeurez un peu en repos.” The apothecary flares out, “De quoi vous mêlez vous de vous opposer aux ordonnance de la medicine ... je vais dire à Monsieur Purgon comme on m’a empêché d’executer ses ordres.... Vous verrez, vous verrez.”—Molière, _La Malade Imaginaire_ (1673).

=Flib´bertigib´bet=, the fiend that gives man the squint eye and harelip, sends mildews and blight, etc.

This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet ... he gives the web and the pin [_diseases of the eye_], squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white heat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.—_King Lear_, act iii. sec. 4 (1605).

⁂ Shakespeare got this name from bishop Harsnett’s _Declaration of Popish Impostures_, where Flibberdigibet is one of the fiends which the Jesuits cast out of Mr. Edmund Peckham.

_Flib´bertigib´bet_, or “Dickie Sludge,” the dwarf grandson of Gammer Sludge (landlady of Erasmus Holiday, the schoolmaster in the vale of Whitehorse). In the entertainment given by the earl of Leicester to Queen Elizabeth, Dickon Sludge acts the part of an imp.—Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Flint= (_Lord_), chief minister of state to one of the sultans of India. He had the enviable faculty of a very short memory when he did not choose to recollect. “My people know, no doubt, but I cannot recollect,” was his stock phrase. Mrs. Inchbald, _Such Things Are_ (1786).

_Flint_, jailer in _The Deserter_, a musical drama by Dibdin (1770).

_Flint_ (_Sir Clement_), a very kind-hearted, generous old bachelor, who “trusts no one,” and though he professes his undoubted belief to be “that self is the predominant principle of the human mind,” is never so happy as when doing an unselfish and generous act. He settles £2000 a year on the young Lord Gayville, his nephew, that he may marry Miss Alton, the lady of his choice; and says, “To reward the deserving, and make those we love happy, is self-interest in the extreme.”—General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_ (1781).

=Flint Jack=, Edward Simpson, who used to tramp the kingdom, vending spurious flint arrow-heads, celts, and other imitation antiquities. In 1867 he was imprisoned for theft.

=Flippan´ta=, an intriguing lady’s-maid. Daughter of Mrs. Cloggit. She is in the service of Clarissa, and aids her in all her follies.—Sir John Vanbrugh, _The Confederacy_ (1695).

=Flite= (_Miss_), a poor crazed, good-hearted woman, who has lost her wits through the “law’s delay.” She is always haunting the Courts of Chancery with “her documents,” hoping against hope that she will receive a judgment.—C. Dickens, _Bleak House_, iv. (1852).

=Flock´hart= (_Widow_), landlady of the lodgings in the Canongate where Waverley and M’Ivor dine with the baron of Bradwardine (3 _syl._).—Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Flogged by Deputy.= The Marquis de Leganez forbade the tutor of his son to use rigor or corporal punishment of any kind, so the tutor hit upon this device to intimidate the boy: he flogged a lad named Raphael, brought up with young Leganez as a playmate, whenever that young nobleman deserved punishment. This produced an excellent effect; but Raphael did not see its justice and ran away.—Lesage, _Gil Blas_, v. i. (1724).

=Flollo= or =Flollio=, a Roman tribune, who held the province of Gaul under the Emperor Leo. When King Arthur invaded Gaul, the tribune fled to Paris, which Arthur besieged, and Flollo proposed to decide the quarrel by single combat. To this Arthur agreed, and cleft with his sword Caliburn both the helmet and head of his adversary. Having made himself master of all Gaul, King Arthur held his court at Paris.—Geoffrey, _British History_, ix. 11 (1142).

And after these ... At Paris, in the lists [_Arthur_] with Flollio fought; The emperor Leon’s power to raise his siege that brought. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

=Flor and Blancheflor=, the title of a minnesong by Conrad Fleck, at one time immensely popular. It is the story of two children who fall in love with each other. There is a good deal of grace and tenderness in the tale, with an abundance of trash. Flor, the son of Feinix, a pagan king, is brought up with Blancheflor (an _enfant volé_). The two children love each other, but Feinix sells Blancheflor to some Eastern merchants. Flor goes in quest of Blancheflor, whom he finds in Babylon, in the palace of the sultan, who is a sorcerer. He gains access to the palace, hidden in a basket of roses; but the sultan discovers him, and is about to cast both into the flames, when, touched with human gentleness and love, he sets them free. They then return to Spain, find Feinix dead, and marry (fourteenth century).

=Flo´ra=, goddess of flowers. In natural history all the flowers and vegetable productions of a country and locality are called its flora, and all its animal productions its fauna.

_Flora_, the waiting-woman of Donna Violante. In love with Lissado, the valet of Don Felix.—Mrs. Centlivre, _The Wonder_ (1714).

Mrs. Mattocks’s was the most affecting theatrical leave taking we ever witnessed. The part she chose was “Flora,” to Cook’s “Don Felix,” which she played with all the freshness and spirit of a woman in her prime.—_The New Monthly_ (1826).

_Flora_, the niece of old Farmer Freehold. She is a great beauty, and captivates Heartwell, who marries her. The two are so well assorted that their “best love is after their espousals.”—John Philip Kemble, _The Farm-house_.

=Floranthe= (_Donna_), a lady beloved by Octavian. Octavian goes mad because he fancies Floranthê is untrue to him, but Roque, a blunt, kind-hearted servitor, assures him he is mistaken, and persuades him to return home.—G. Colman, _Octavian_ (1824).

=Flor´delice= (3 _syl._), the mistress of Bran´dimart (king of the Distant Islands).—Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Flordespi´na=, daughter of Marsiglio.—Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Florence= (_Vane_). The lost love eulogized in Philip Pendleton Cooke’s poem of that name.

“Thou wast lovelier than the roses In their prime; Thy voice excelled the closes Of sweetest rhyme; Thy heart was as a river Without a main. Would I had loved thee never, Florence Vane!” (185-).

=Florence=, Mrs. Spenser Smith, daughter of Baron Herbert, the Austrian ambassador in England. She was born at Constantinople, during her father’s residence in that city. Byron made her acquaintance in Malta, but Thomas Moore thinks his devotion was more imaginary than real. In a letter to his mother, his lordship says, he “finds her [_Florence_] very pretty, very accomplished, and extremely eccentric.”

Thou mayst find a new Calypso there Sweet Florence, could another ever share This wayward, loveless heart, it would be thine. Byron, _Childe Harold_, ii. 30 (1810).

_Florence_ (_The German_), Dresden, also called “The Florence of the North.”

_Florence_ (_Weir_). A beautiful girl committed to the care of a young man who expects to meet a child. Although hardly released from an engagement to another girl he falls in love with his charge, when his former flame recalls him, but generously resigns him to her younger rival.—Ellen Olney Kirk, _One too Many_ (1889).

=Florent=, the nephew of “the emperor,” is condemned to death, but is offered his life if he can solve a certain riddle. An old deformed hag promises him the solution if he will agree to marry her afterward. He keeps faith with his deliverer, and on the wedding-night she is transformed into a beautiful woman.—Gower, _Confessio Amantis_, I.

Chaucer puts this story into the mouth of “The Wife of Bath,” _Canterbury Tales_. He does not name the hero, but makes him a bachelor of King Artour’s court. The story is much older than Gower, and is found in the legends of several countries, but Chaucer probably borrowed it from him while changing it in details.

=Florentine Diamond= (_The_), the fourth largest cut diamond in the world. It weighs 139-1/2 carats, and was the largest diamond belonging to Charles “the Bold,” duke of Burgundy. It was picked up by a Swiss peasant, who sold it to a priest for half a crown. The priest sold it for £200 to Bartholomew May, of Berne. It subsequently came into the hands of Pope Julius II., and the pope gave it to the Emperor of Austria. (See DIAMONDS.)

=Flores= or Isle of Flowers, one of the Azores (2 _syl._). It was discovered in 1439 by Vanderburg, and is especially celebrated because it was near this isle that Sir Richard Grenville, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, fought his famous sea-fight. He had only one ship with a hundred men, and was opposed by the Spanish fleet of fifty-three men-of-war. For some hours victory was doubtful, and when Sir Richard was severely wounded, he wanted to sink the ship; but the Spaniards boarded it, complimented him on his heroic conduct, and he died. As the ship (_The Revenge_) was on its way to Spain, it was wrecked, and went to the bottom, so it never reached Spain after all. Tennyson has a poem on the subject (1878).

_Flo´res_ (2 _syl._), the lover of Blanchefleur.—Boccaccio, _Il Filocopo_ (1340)

⁂ Boccaccio has repeated the tale in his _Decameron_, x. 5 (1352), in which Flores is called “Ansaldo,” and Blanchefleur “Diano´ra.” Flores and Blanchefleur, before Boccaccio’s time, were noted lovers, and are mentioned as early as 1288 by Matfre Ermengaud de Beziers, in his _Breviaire d’Amour_.

Chaucer has taken the same story as the basis of the _Frankeleine’s Tale_, and Bojardo has introduced it as an episode in his _Orlando Innamorato_, where the lover is “Prasildo” and the lady “Tisbina.” (See PRASILDO.)

The chroniclers of Charlemagne, Of Merlin, and the Mort d’Arthure, Mingled together in his brain, With tale of Flores and Blanchefleur. Longfellow.

=Flores´ki= (_Count_), a Pole, in love with Princess Lodois´ka (4 _syl._). At the opening of the play he is travelling with his servant Verbel to discover where the princess has been placed by her father during the war. He falls in with the Tartar chief Kera Khan, whom he overpowers in fight, but spares his life, and thus makes him his friend. Floreski finds the princess in the castle of Baron Lovinski, who keeps her a virtual prisoner, but the castle being stormed by the Tartars the baron is slain, and the princess marries the count.—J.P. Kemble, _Lodoiska_.

=Flo´rez=, son of Gerrard, king of the beggars. He assumes the name of Goswin, and becomes, in Bruges, a wealthy merchant. His mistress is Bertha, the supposed daughter of Vandunke the burgomaster.—Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Beggars’ Bush_ (1622).