Reigned without dispute

Through all the realms of nonsense absolute. Dryden: Mac Flecknoe. Fleda Ringgan. In Warner's Queechy (q.v.).

Fleet Book Evidence. No evidence at all. The books of the Old Fleet prison are not admissible as evidence to prove a marriage.

Fleet Marriages. Clandestine marriages, at one time performed without banns or license by needy chaplains, in Fleet Prison, London. As many as thirty marriages a day were sometimes celebrated in this disgraceful manner; and Malcolm tells us that 2,954 were registered in the four months ending with February 12, 1705. Suppressed and declared null and void in 1774. The Chaplain of the Fleet, by Besant and Rice, contains a good account of the evils connected with Fleet marriages.

Fleet Street (London). Now synony mous with journalism and newspaperdom, Fleet Street was a famous thoroughfare centuries before the first newspaper was published there at the close of the 18th century. It takes its name from the old Fleet River.

Fleetwood, Lord. One of the partners to "the Amazing Marriage" in Meredith's novel of that name. See Amazing Marriage.

Fleming, Henry. The hero of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage (q.v.).

Fleming, Rhoda. Titular heroine of Meredith's novel Rhoda Fleming (q.v.). Dahlia Fleming is an important character in the same novel.

were

Flemish Account. A sum less than that expected. In Antwerp accounts kept in livres, sols, and pence; but the livre or pound was only 12s.; hence, an account of 100 livres Flemish was worth £60 only, instead of £100, to the English creditor.

Flesh-pots. Sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. Hankering for good things no longer at your command. The children of Israel said they wished they had died "when they sat by the flesh-pots of Egypt" (Exod. xvi. 3) rather than embarked on their long sojourn in the wilderness.

Fleshly School, The. In the Contemporary Review for October, 1871, Robert Buchanan published a violent attack on the poetry and literary methods of Swinburne, Rossetti, Morris, O'Shaughnessy,

the heading The Fleshly School of Poetry, and over the signature "Thomas Maitland." The incident created a literary sensation. Buchanan at first denied the authorship but was soon obliged to admit it, and some years later was reconciled to Rossetti, his chief victim. Swinburne's very trenchant reply is to be found in his Under the Microscope (1872).

Flestrin, Quinbus. See Quinbus Flestrin. Fletcher, John (1579-1625). English dramatist. See Beaumont and Fletcher.

Fletcher, John Gould (1886–- ). English poet, one of the outstanding exponents of the Imagist school (q.v.). His best-known volume is Preludes and

Symphonies.

Fletcher, Phineas. An important character in Craik's John Halifax, Gentleman (q.v.).

Fletcherize. To chew one's food long and carefully. The term was popularized in the early years of the 20th century by the lectures of Horace Fletcher, who maintained that such a habit would do away with any dyspeptic tendency and go far toward insuring perfect health.

Fleur Forsyte. In Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga (q.v.).

Fleurs de Mal (Flowers of Evil). The best-known volume of poetry by Charles Baudelaire (Fr. 1821-1867).

Flibbertigibbet. One of the five fiends Shakespeare got the name from Harsnet's that possessed" poor Tom " in King Lear. Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where we are told of forty fiends which the Jesuits cast out, and among the number was "Fliberdigibet." a name which had previously been used by Latimer and others for a mischievous gossip. Shakespeare says he "is the fiend of mopping and mowing, who possesses chambermaids and waiting women (Lear, iv); and, again, that he "begins at curfew and walks till the first cock," where he seems to identify him with the will o' the wisp, giving men pins and needles, squint eyes, harelips, and so on (Lear, iii. 4). Elsewhere the name is apparently a synonym for Puck.

Flint, Trueman. In M. S. Cummins' Lamplighter (q.v.), the old lamplighter who brought up the heroine as his daughter.

Flirt, The. A novel by Booth Tarkington (Am. 1913) analyzing the schemes and maneuvers of the titular heroine, Cora Madison, and their ruinous effect on her

Florence Dombey. See Dombey.
Flore, Flores or Floris. The lover of
Blanchefleur in medieval romance. See
Blanchefleur.

Florent or Florentius. In Gower's
Confessio Amantis (1393), a knight who
promises to wed a hag if she will teach
him to expound a riddle, and thus save
his life. Cp. Wife of Bath's Tale.

Be she foul as was Florentius' lover.- Shakespeare:
Taming of the Shrew, Act. i. 2.

Florestan, Don Fernando. The hero of
Beethoven's opera, Fidelio (q.v.).

Florestan, Prince. A character in Dis-
raeli's political novel Endymion said to be
meant for Napoleon III.

Florian, St. See under Saint.

Floriani, Lucretia. See Lucretia Floriani.
Florida Vervain. In Howells' Foregone
Conclusion (q.v.).

Flor'imel. A character in Spenser's
Faerie Queene typifying the complete
charm of womanhood. She was fair and
chaste and bore the name of Florimel the
Fair. Although she was courted by Sir
Satyrane, Sir Peridure and Sir Calidure,
her love for Marinel was not returned
until after much tribulation and her
seizure by Proteus and imprisonment in a
submarine cell. One day, Marinel and his
mother went to a banquet given by
Proteus to the sea-gods; and as Marinel
was loitering about, he heard the captive
bemoaning her hard fate, and all "for
love of Marinel." His heart was touched;
he resolved to release the prisoner, and
obtained from his mother a warrant of
release, signed by Neptune himself.
Proteus did not dare to disobey; so the
lady was released, and became the happy
bride of her liberator. She was the
possessor of the Cestus (q.v.) of Venus,
the prize of a tournament in which Sir
Salgrane and several others took part,
which could be worn only by the chaste,
and when the False Florimel (who had
been made out of wax by a witch to simu-
late the true one) tried to put it on she
melted away.

Florin'da. In Southey's Roderick, the
Last of the Goths, daughter of Count Julian,
one of the high lords in the Gothic court
of Spain. She was violated by King
Roderick; and the count, in his indigna-
tion, renounced the Christian religion and
called over the Moors, who came to Spain

in large numbers and drove Roderick
from the throne. She appears in other
literary versions of the story. See Roderick.

Flor'isel of Nice'a. A knight whose
exploits and adventures form a supple-
mental part of the Spanish version of
Am'adis of Gaul (q.v.).

Flor'ismart. One of Charlemagne's
paladins, and the bosom friend of Roland.

Florʼizel. Son of Polixenes, king of
Bohemia in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale
(q.v.). In a hunting expedition, he saw
Perdita, the supposed daughter of a
shepherd, fell in love with her, and courted
her under the assumed name of Dor'icles.
Afterwards he learned she was a king's
daughter, and the pair were happily
married.

Flower of Chivalry. (1) Sir William
Douglas, knight of Liddesdale (-1353);
(2) Sir Philip Sidney, statesman, poet, and
soldier (1554-1586); (3) The Chevalier de
Bayard, le Chevalier sans Peur et sans
Reproche (1476-1524).

Flowery Kingdom, The. China. The
Chinese call their kingdom Hwa Kwoh,
which means "The Flowery Kingdom,"
i.e. the flower of kingdoms.

Fluellen. A Welsh captain and great
pedant in Shakespeare's Henry V, who,
amongst other learned quiddities, at-
tempted to draw a parallel between
Henry V and Alexander the Great; but
when he had said that one was born at
Monmouth and the other at Macedon,
both beginning with the same letter, and
that there was a river in both cities, he
had exhausted his parallelisms.

His parallel is, in all essential circumstances, as in-
correct as that which Fluellen drew between Macedon
and Monmouth. Lord Macaulay.

-

Flute. In Shakespeare's Midsummer
Night's Dream, the bellows-mender, who
in the travesty of Pyramus and Thisbe
had to take the part of Thisbe.

Flute: What is Thisbe? a wandering knight?
Quince: It is the lady Pyramus must love.
Flute: Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have
a beard coming. Act i. sc. 1.

Flute, The Magic. See Magic Flute.
Fly. An insect (plural flies)

It is said that no fly was ever seen in
Solomon's temple; and according to
Mohammedan legend, all flies shall perish
except one, and that is the bee-fly.

The god or lord of flies. In the temple
of Actium the Greeks used annually to
sacrifice an ox to Zeus, who, in this cap-
acity, was surnamed Apomyios, the averter
of flies. Pliny tells us that at Rome
sacrifice was offered to flies in the temple
of Hercules Victor, and the Syrians

Pretty! in amber, to observe the forms

Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs or worms,
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

Pope: Ep. to Arbuthnot, 169-72.

The fly in the ointment. The trifling
cause that spoils everything; a biblical
phrase.

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary
to send forth a stinking savour; so doth a little
folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.
Eccles. x. 1.

The fly on the coach-wheel. One who
fancies himself of mighty importance,
but who is in reality of none at all. The
allusion is to Esop's fable of a fly sitting
on a chariot-wheel and saying, "See what
a dust I make!" See also La Fontaine's
Fables, vii. 9.

There are no flies on him. He's all right;
he's very alert.

Fly-by-night. One who defrauds his
creditors by decamping at night-time;
also the early name of a sedan-chair, and
later a horsed vehicle (hence Fly, a cab)
designed in 1809 for speed.

Flying Dutchman. A legendary spectral
ship, supposed to be seen in stormy
weather off the Cape of Good Hope, and
considered ominous of ill-luck. Scott, in
his note to Rokeby, ii. 11, says she was
originally a vessel laden with precious
metal, but a horrible murder having been
committed aboard, the plague broke out
among the crew, and no port would allow
the vessel to enter. The ill-fated ship still
wanders about like a ghost, doomed to be
sea-tossed, but never more to enjoy rest.
Captain Marryat's novel The Phantom
Ship (1839) tells of Philip Vanderdecken's
successful but disastrous search for his
father, the captain of the Flying Dutch-
man. Wagner has an opera called The
Flying Dutchman (Ger. Der Fliegender
Hollander, 1843). According to the legend
it embodies, the old Dutch captain, in the
midst of a struggle with the elements, had
sworn an impious oath to round the Cape
even if it took an eternity to do it. The
curse which is laid on him for centuries
will be lifted if he finds a wife willing to
sacrifice everything for his sake; and the
opera deals with the lifting of the curse by
the Norwegian maiden, Senta.

Fogarty, Phil. Hero of a burlesque of
Lever's military novels by Thackeray,

entitled Phil Fogarty, a Tale of the Onety-
Oneth.

Fogg. (In Dickens' Pickwick Papers.)
See Dodson and Fogg.

Fogg, Phileas. Hero of Jules Verne's
Around the World in Eighty Days (q.v.).

Fo-hi. A hero of ancient Chinese
legend. His mother, Moyë, was walking
one day along a river bank, when she
became suddenly encircled by a rainbow,
and at the end of twelve years gave birth
to Fo-hi. During gestation she dreamed
that she was pregnant with a white ele-
phant: hence, according to some accounts,
the honors paid to this beast throughout

the East.

Foker, Henry. In Thackeray's Penden-
nis, the son of Lady Foker. He marries
Blanche Amory (q.v.).

Follies, The. A species of modern
musical entertainment in which the chief

attractions are color and costume, good
dancing and pretty girls.

Fool. A fool's Paradise. To be in a
fool's paradise is to be in a state of con-
tentment or happiness that rests only on
unreal, fanciful foundations; to believe
and behave as though one were in better
circumstances than one is. Cp. Limbus
Fatuorum.

The Feast of Fools. A kind of Satur-
na'lia, popular in the Middle Ages. Its
chief object was to honor the ass on
which our Lord made His triumphant
entry into Jerusalem. This blasphemous
mummery was held on the Feast of the
Circumcision (Jan. 1st). The office of the
day was chanted in travesty, then a
procession was formed and all sorts of
foolery was indulged in. An ass was an
essential feature, and from time to time
the whole procession imitated braying,
especially in the place of "Amen."

The wisest fool in Christendom. James I
was so called by Henri IV of France, who
learnt the phrase of Sully.

Court Fools. From medieval times till
the 17th century licensed fools or jesters
were commonly kept at court, and fre-
quently in the retinue of wealthy nobles.
Thus we are told that the regent Morton
had a fool, Patrick Bonny; Holbein
painted Sir Thomas More's jester, Patison,
in his picture of the chancellor; and as late
as 1728 Swift wrote an epitaph on Dickie
Pearce, the fool of the Earl of Suffolk,
who died at the age of 63 and is buried in
Berkeley Churchyard, Gloucestershire.
Dagonet, the fool of King Arthur, is also
remembered.

Among the most celebrated court fools

are:

Rayère, of Henry I; Scogan, of Edward
IV; Thomas Killigrew, called "King
Charles' jester" (1611-1682); Archie Arm-
strong (d. 1672), and Thomas Derrie,
jesters in the court of James I.

James Geddes, to Mary Queen of Scots;
his predecessor was Jenny Colquhoun.
Patch, the court fool of Elizabeth, wife
of Henry VII.

Will Somers (d. 1560), Henry VIII's
jester, and Patche, presented to that
monarch by Cardinal Wolsey; and Robert
Grene, jester in the court of Queen
Elizabeth.

The fools of Charles V of France were
Mitton and Thévenin de St. Léger; Hain-
celin Coq belonged to Charles VI, and
Guillaume Louel to Charles VII. Trib'-
oulet was the jester of Louis XII and
François I (1487-1536); Brusquet, of
whom Brantome says "he never had his
equal in repartee," of Henri II; Sibilot and
Chicot, of Henri III and IV; and l'Angély,
of Louis XIII.

The guild "fools" of medieval times
played an important part in the spread
of literature and education. They formed
a branch of the Troubadour organization
- a force which permeated Europe.

Foot. In prosody, a division in verse
consisting of a certain number of syllables
(or pauses) one of which is stressed. The
term, which comes from Greece, refers to
beating time with the foot. The most
common varieties of poetic foot are
iambus, anapest, trochee, dactyl and
spondee. See under those entries; also

Scansion.

Foppington, Lord. An empty coxcomb
in Vanbrugh's Relapse (1677), of which
Sheridan's Trip to Scarborough (1777) is a
modified version. He appears also in
Cibber's Careless Husband (1704).

"The shoemaker in the Relapse tells Lord Foppington
that his lordship is mistaken in supposing that his shoe
pinches.' Lord Macaulay.

Forbidden.

The Forbidden Fruit. Figuratively, un-
lawful indulgence, from the fruit eaten by
Adam and Eve in disobedience of God's
commands. According to Mohammedan
tradition the forbidden fruit partaken of
by Eve and Adam was the banana or
Indian fig, because fig-leaves were em-
ployed to cover the disobedient pair
when they felt shame as the result of sin.
The Forbidden Land. Tibet, which still
excludes foreigners.

Ford. In Shakespeare's Merry Wives

of Windsor (q.v.), a gentleman of fortune living at Windsor. Falstaff makes love to his wife, but is the dupe of the situation.

Mrs. Ford. Wife of Mr. Ford. Sir John Falstaff pays court to her, and she pretends to accept his protestations of love, in order to expose and punish him. Her husband assumes for the nonce the name of Brook, and Sir John tells him from time to time the progress of his suit, and how he succeeds in duping her fool of a husband.

Foregone Conclusion, A. A novel by W. D. Howells' (Am. 1875). The scene is laid in Venice. The " foregone conclusion" is a tragic end to the love of the Venetian priest-inventor Don Ippolito for the young American girl, Florida Vervain, to whom he acts for a time as tutor. Ippolito is tormented by scepticism and by his love for this reserved and haughty girl who can at times give way to violent emotion. The priest's confidant is Ferris, the United States consul, a man of honor, but himself secretly in love with Florida.

Forest City. Cleveland. See under City. Forest Lovers, The. A romance by Maurice Hewlett (Eng. 1898). The hero, Prosper le Gai, marries out of pity a waif who turns out to be Countess Isoult of Morgraunt.

Forlorn Hope. This phrase is the Dutch verloren hoop, the lost squad or troop, and is due to a misunderstanding, as the words are not connected with our forlorn or hope. It is now usually applied to a body of men specially selected for some desperate or very dangerous enterprise.

Forsaken Merman, The. A poem by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), relating the story of a merman whose human wife, Margaret, left him and her children to go back to pray in church and never returned.

Forsyte Saga, The. A series of novels by John Galsworthy (Eng. 1867which appeared separately but were later published in one volume (1922) and which, together with The White Monkey (1924), trace the fortunes of the Forsyte family. The five books of the Forsyte Saga are: The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let, with two interludes,' The Indian Summer of a Forsyte and The Awakening.

The "Man of Property" and the chief character of the entire Saga is Soames Forsyte, the son of the eldest of six Forsyte brothers who are prosperously settled about the London parks. Soames plans to build himself a suitable house

and employs Philip Bosinney, a brilliant young architect who is engaged to June Forsyte, the daughter of Soames' uncle, who is always spoken of in family circles as "Young Jolyon." Desperate at being considered, like everything else in Soames' life, as his "property" to do with as he will, his young wife Irene falls in love with Bosinney. When the two run off together, Soames' rage over his thwarted sense of ownership knows no bounds, and he employs all the means that money and power can give to punish them. Bosinney is killed. Years later, Irene marries Young Jolyon, the only one of the Forsytes who shows any real understanding of other attitudes toward life than that assumed by the Forsytes.

The Indian Summer of a Forsyte is an episode in the life of Old Jolyon, then a very old man; and The Awakening presents a simple story of the childhood of one of the new generation of Forsytes. To Let also is a story of the younger generation. Soames has married a French woman and his latter life is taken up with his devotion to his engaging young daughter, Fleur. To his utter horror, Fleur falls in love with her cousin Jon, the son of Young Jolyon and Irene. Both young people have been kept in ignorance of the past, and when the truth comes out, Jon chooses to give Fleur up and remain loyal to his mother. In the White Monkey Fleur marries Michael Mont, a young publisher. This last novel deals with after-the-war conditions in England.

Perhaps the best expression of the Forsyte attitude toward life is given by Young Jolyon when he ironically warns the artistic young Bosinney of the new world he is about to enter when he plans to marry June:

Art, literature, religion survive by virtue of the few cranks who really believe in such things and the many Forsytes who make a commercial use of them. The Forsytes are the middlemen, the commercials, the pillars of society, the corner-stones of convention, everything that is admirable My people are not very extreme, and they have their own private peculiarities like every other family, but they possess in a remarkable degree those two qualities which are the real tests of a Forsyte the power of never being able to give yourself up to anything soul and body, and the 'sense of property.

Of Soames, Galsworthy says in his Preface to The Forsyte Saga:

He, too [the author] pities Soames, the tragedy of whose life is the very simple, uncontrollable tragedy of being unlovable without quite a thick enough skin to be thoroughly unconscious of the fact.

For'tinbras. Prince of Norway in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Fortuna. In classic mythology, the goddess of good fortune or chance. She