Chapter F's to Fair Maid of Perth of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Faggot (Nicholas), clerk to Matthew Foxley, the magistrate who examined Darsie Latimer (i.e. sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet) after he had been attacked by rioters.—Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Faggots and Faggots (Ily a fagots et fagots), all things of the same sort are not equal in quality. In Molière’s Le Mèdecin Malgrè Lui, Sganarelle wants to show that his faggots are better than those of other persons, and cries out “Ay! but those faggots are not equal to mine.”

Il est vrai, messieurs, que je suis le premier homme du monde pour faire des fagots … Je n’y èpargne aucune chose, et les fais d’une façon qu’ll n’y a rien à dire.… Il y a fagots et fagots.—Act i. sc. 6 (1666)

Fagin, an old Jew, who employs a gang of thieves, chiefly boys. These boys he teaches to pick pockets and pilfer adroitly. Fagin assumes a most suave and fawning manner, but is malicious, grasping, and full of cruelty. He is ultimately arrested, tried, and condemned to death.—Dickens: Oliver Twist (1837).

Fainall, cousin by marriage to sir Wilfrid Witwould. He married a young, wealthy, and handsome widow, but the two were cat and dog to each other. The great aim of Fainall was to get into his possession the estates of his wife (settled on herself “in trust to Edward Mirabell”), but in this he failed. In outward semblance, Fainall was plausible enough, but he was a goodly apple rotten at the core, false to his friends, faithless to his wife, overreaching, and deceitful.

Mrs. Fainall. Her first husband was Languish, son of lady Wishfort. Her second husband she both despised and detested.—Congreve: The Way of the World (1700).

Thomas Davies [1710–1785], after a silence of fifteen years, performed the part of “Fainall.” His expression was Garrick’s, with all its fire quenched.—Boaden

Fainasolis, daughter of Craca’s king (the Shetland Isles). When Fingal was quite a young man, she fled to him for protection against Sora, but scarcely had he promised to take up her cause, when Sora landed, drew the bow, and she fell. Fingal said to Sora, “Unerring is thy hand, O Sora, but feeble was the foe.” He then attacked the invader, and Sora fell.—Ossian: Fingal, iii.

Faint Heart never Won Fair Lady, a line in a ballad written to the “Berkshire Lady,” a Miss Frances Kendrick, daughter of sir William Kendrick, second baronet. Sir William’s father was created baronet by Charles II. The wooer was a Mr. Child, son of a brewer at Abingdon, to whom the lady sent a challenge.

Having read this strange relation,
He was in a consternation;
But, advising with a friend,
He persuades him to attend:
“Be of courage and make ready,
Faint heart never won fair lady.”
   —Quarterly Review, cvi. 205–245.

Faint Heart never Won Fair Lady, name of a petit comèdie brought out by Mde. Vestris at the Olympic. Mde. Vestris herself performed the part of the “fair lady.”

Fair Maid of Anjou, Edith Plantagenet (see p. 314).

Fair Maid of Perth (The), a novel by sir W. Scott (1828). The “fair maid” is Catharine Glover (daughter of a glover of Perth), who kisses Henry Smith (the armourer) in his sleep on St. Valentine’s Day. Smith proposes marriage, but Catharine refuses; however, at the close of the novel she becomes his wife. The concurrent plot is the amour of prince James (son of Robert III.) and Louise the Glee-maiden. The prince quarrels with his father, and puts the Glee-maiden under the charge of Smith, whom Bonthron is employed to murder. By mistake he kills Oliver the bonnet-maker instead. Certain persons suspected of the murder are appointed to touch the bier of the dead-body as a test of guilt, but the ceremony is changed for the Ordeal of Battle. Smith, in the combat, defeats the murderer, who confesses his guilt, but declares that he was instigated by the prince. The prince, being arrested, is put under the charge of Bonthron, and is secretly murdered. This leads to the execution of several persons, and then to a battle in which Smith is the victorious hero. He is offered knighthood, but refuses. The Glee-maiden casts