Chapter French Leave to Friar's Tale of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

French Leave to Friar's Tale

French Leave To take French leave. To take without asking leave or giving any equivalent. The allusion is to the French soldiers, who in their invasions take what they require, and never wait to ask permission of the owners or pay any price for what they take.
   The French retort this courtesy by calling a creditor an Englishman (un Anglais), a term in vogue in the sixteenth century, and used by Clement Marot. Even to the present hour, when a man excuses himself from entering a café or theatre, because he is in debt, he says: "Non, non! je suis Anglé ' ("I am cleared out").

"Et aujourd'huy je faictz soliciter
Tous me angloys."
Guillaume Creton (1520).

   French leave. Leaving a party, house, or neighbourhood without bidding goodbye to anyone; to slip away unnoticed.

French of Stratford atte Bowe English-French.

"And French, she [the nun] spak ful, faire and fetysly,
After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For French of Parys was to hire unknowe."
Chaucer: Canterbury Tales (The Prologue).

Frenchman Done like a Frenchman, turn and turn again (1 Henry VI., iii. 4). The French are usually satirised by mediæval English authors as a fickle, wavering nation. Dr. Johnson says he once read a treatise the object of which was to show that a weathercock is a satire on the word Gallus (a Gaul or cock).
   Frenchman. The nickname of a Frenchman is "Crapaud" (q.v.), "Johnny" or "Jean," "Mossoo," "Robert Macaire" (q.v.); but of a Parisian "Grenouille" (Frog). (See Brissotins.)

"They stand erect, they dance whene'er they walk;
Monkeys in action, parroquets in talk."
Gay: Epistle III.

   French Canadian, "Jean Baptiste."
   French Peasantry, "Jacques Bonhomme."
   French Reformers, "Brissotins" (q.v.).

Fresco-painting means fresh-painting, or rather paint applied to walls while the plaster is fresh and damp. Only so much plaster must be spread as the artist can finish painting before he retires for the day. There are three chambers in the Pope's palace at Rome done in fresco by Raphael Urbino and Julio Romano; at Fontainebleau there is a famous one, containing the travels of Ulysses in sixty pieces, the work of several artists, as Bollame'o, Martin Rouse, and others.

"A fading frescoe here demands a sigh."
Pope.

Freshman at college, is a man not salted. It was anciently a custom in the different colleges to play practical jokes on the new-comers. One of the most common was to assemble them in a room and make them deliver a speech. Those who acquitted themselves well had a cup of caudle; those who passed muster had a caudle with salt water; the rest had the salt water only. Without scanning so deeply, "fresh-man" may simply mean a fresh or new student. (See Bejan.)

Freston An enchanter introduced into the romance of Don Belianis of Greece.

"Truly I can't tell whether it was Freston or Friston; but sure I am that his name ended in `ton.' " - Don Quixote.

Frey Son of Niörd, the Van. He was the Scandinavian god of fertility and peace, and the dispenser of rain. Frey was the patron god of Sweden and Iceland, he rode on the boar Gullinbursti, and his sword was self-acting. (See Gerda.)
   Niörd was not of the Æsir. He, with his son and daughter, presided over the sea, the clouds, the air, and water generally. They belonged to the Vanir.

Freyja Daughter of Niörd, goddess of love. She was the wife of Odin, who deserted her because she loved finery better than she loved her husband. Her chariot was drawn by two cats, and not by doves like the car of Venus. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Friar A curtal Friar. (See Curtal .)

Friar in printing. A part of the sheet which has failed to receive the ink, and is therefore left blank. As Caxton set up his printing-press in Westminster Abbey, it is but natural to suppose that monks and friars should give foundation to some of the printers' slang. (See Monk.)