Chapter Feeder to Ferda of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Feeder to Ferda

Feeder (Mr.), B.A., usher in the school of Dr. Blimber of Brighton. He was “a kind of human barrel- organ, which played only one tune.” Mr. Feeder was in the habit of shaving his head to keep it cool. He married Miss Blimber, the doctor’s daughter, and succeeded to the school.—Dickens: Dombey and Son (1846).

Feenix, nephew of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton (mother of Edith, Mr. Dombey’s second wife). Feenix was a very old gentleman, patched up to look as much like a young fop as possible.

Cousin Feenix was a man about town forty years ago; but he is still so juvenile in figure and manner that strangers are amazed when they discover latent wrinkles in his lordship’s face, and crows’ feet in his eyes. But cousin Feenix getting up at half-past seven, is quite another thing from cousin Feenix got up.—Dickens: Dombey and Son, xxxi. (1846).

Feignwell (Colonel), the suitor of Anne Lovely, an heiress. Anne Lovely had to obtain the consent of her four guardians before she could marry. One was an old beau, another a virtuoso, a third a broker on ’Change, and the fourth a canting quaker. The colonel made himself agreeable to all, and carried off his prize.—Mrs. Centlivre: A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

Andrew Cherry [1769–1812]. His first character was “colonel Feignwell,” an arduous task for a boy of 17; but he obtained great applause, and the manager of the sharing company, after passing many encomiums on his exertions, presented him with tenpence half-penny, as his dividend of the profits of the night’s performance.—Percy: Anecdotes.

Feinaigle (Gregory de), a German mnemonist (1765–1820). He obtained some success by his aids to memory, but in Paris he was an object of ridicule.

Her memory was a mine …
For her Feinaigle’s was a useless art.
   —Byron: Don Juan, i. 11 (1819).

Felice or Phelis, wife of sir Guy earl of Warwick, said to have “the same high forehead as Venus.”

Felician (Father), the catholic priest and schoolmaster of Grand Pré, in Acadia (now called Nova Scotia). He accompanied Evangeline in part of her wanderings to find Gabriel her affianced husband.—Longfellow: Evangeline (1849).

Felicians (The), the happy nation. The Felicians live under a free sovereignty, where the laws are absolute. Felicia is the French “Utopia.”—Mercier de la Rivière: L’Heureuse Nation (1767).

Feliciano de Sylva, don Quixote’s favourite author. The two following extracts were in his opinion unsurpassed and unsurpassable:—

The reason, most adored one, of your unreasonable unreasonableness hath so unreasonably unseated my reason, that I have no reasonable reason for reasoning against such unreasonableness.

The bright heaven of your divinity that lifts you to the stars, most celestial of women, renders you deserving of every desert which your charms so deservedly deserve.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, 1. i. 8 (1605).

Felix, a monk who listened to the singing of a milk-white bird for a hundred years; which length of time seemed to him “but a single hour,” so enchanted was he with the song.—Longfellow: The Golden Legend. (See Hildesheim.)

Felix (Don), son of don Lopez. He was a Portuguese nobleman, in love with Violante; but Violante’s father, don Pedro, intended to make her a nun. Donna Isabella, having fled from home to avoid a marriage disagreeable to her, took refuge with Violante; and when colonel Briton called at the house to see Isabella, her brother don Felix was jealous, believing that Violante was the object of his visits. Violante kept “her friend’s secret,” even at the risk of losing her lover; but ultimately the mystery was cleared up, and a double marriage took place.—Mrs. Centlivre: The Wonder (1714).