Chapter Foss to Fourteen of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

The German writers tell us, “the water was to be drawn before sunrise—down stream, silently, and usually on Easter Sunday.”—Grimm: Teutonic Mythology, p. 586.

Referunt in Borucca insula, quæ ab Hispaniola orbis novi MCC. passuum millibus distat, fontem in vertice montis esse qui senes restituat, non tamen canos mutet, nec tollat jam contractas rugas. Cujus rei præter perseverantum famam locuples testis Petrus Martyr Angerius Mediolanensis, a secretis Regis olim Hispaniarum, in suis decadibus orbis nuper inventi. Cardanus, De Subtilitate, lib. De Elementis.—Beyerlinck, Lit. F., 658 B.

Sir John Mandeville asserted that he had himself drunk of the fountain; but, if so, it certainly did not confer on him “perpetual youth.”

Virgil says that Venus “breathed” on Æneas the rosy blush of youth.

… lumenque juventæ
Purpureum et lætos oculis adflarat honores.
   —Æneid, bk. i.

Four Kings (The) of a pack of cards are Charlemagne (the Franco-German king), David (the Jewish king), Alexander (the Macedonian king), and Cæsar (the Roman king). These four kings are representatives of the four great monarchies.

Four Masters (The). (1) Michael O’Clerighe; (2) Cucoirighe O’Clerighe; (3) Maurice Conry; (4) Fearfeafa Conry. These four masters were the authors of the Annals of Donegal.

(O’Clerighe is sometimes Anglicized into Clerkson, and Cucoirighe into Peregrine.)

Four Stones marked the extent of a tumulus. With the body of a hero was buried his sword and the heads of twelve arrows; while on the surface of the tumulus was placed the horn of a deer.

Four stones rise on the grave of Câthba, … Câthba, son of Torman, thou wert a sunbeam in Erin.—Ossian: Fingal, i.

Fourberies de Scapin (Les), by Molière (1671). Scapin is the valet of Léa ndre, son of seignior Géronte , who falls in love with Zerbinette, supposed to be a gipsy, but in reality the daughter of seignior Argante , stolen by the gipsies in early childhood. Her brother Octave falls in love with Hyacinthe, whom he supposes to be Hyacinthe Pandolphe of Tarentum, but turns out to be Hyacinthe Géronte, the sister of Léandre. Now, the gipsies demand £1500 as the ransom of Zerbinette, and Octave requires £80 for his marriage with Hyacinthe. Scapin obtains both these sums from the fathers under false pretences, and at the end of the comedy is brought in on a litter, with his head bound as if on the point of death. He begs forgiveness, which he readily obtains; whereupon the “sick man” jumps from the litter to join the banqueters. (See Scapin.)

Fourdelis, personification of France, called the true love of Burbon (Henri IV.), but enticed away from him by Grantorto (rebellion). Talus (power or might) rescues her, but when Burbon catches her by her “ragged weeds,” she starts back in disdain. However, the knight lifts her on his steed, and rides off with her.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, v. 2 (1596).

Fourierism, a communistic system; so called from Charles Fourier of Besançon (1772–1837).

Fourolle , a Will-o’-the-wisp, supposed to have the power of charming sinful human beings into the same form. The charm lasted for a term of years only, unless it chanced that some good catholic, wishing to extinguish the wandering flame, made to it the sign of the cross, in which case the sinful creature became a fourolle every night, by way of penance.

She does not know the way; she is not honest, Mons. Do you not know—I am afraid to say it aloud. … she is—a fourolle?—Temple Bar (“Beside the Rille,” i.).