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

Friar Bungay is an historical character overlaid with legends. It is said that he "raised mists and vapours which befriended Edward IV. at the battle of Barnet."

"[Friar Bungay is] the personification of the charlatan of science in the 15th century." - Lord Lytton [Bulwer Lytton]:The Last of the Barons.

Friar Dominic in Dryden's Spanish Friar, designed to ridicule the vices of the priesthood.

Friar Gerund Designed to ridicule the pulpit oratory of Spain in the eighteenth century; full of quips and cranks, tricks and startling monstrosities. (Joseph Isla: Life of Friar Gerund, 1714-1783.)

Friar John A tall, lean, wide-mouthed, long-nosed friar of Seville, who dispatched his matins with wonderful celerity, and ran through his vigils quicker than any of his fraternity. He swore lustily, and was a Trojan to fight. When the army from Lerne pillaged the convent vineyard, Friar John seized the staff of a cross and pummelled the rogues most lustily. He beat out the brains of some, crushed the arms of others, battered their legs, cracked their ribs, gashed their faces, broke their thighs, tore their jaws, dashed in their teeth, dislocated their joints, that never corn was so mauled by the thresher's flail as were these pillagers by the "baton of the cross." (Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, book i. 27.)

"If a joke more than usually profane is to be uttered, Friar John is the spokesman. ... A mass of lewdness, debauchery, profanity, and valour." - Foreign Quarterly Review.

Friar Laurence, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Rush A house-spirit, sent from the infernal regions in the seventeenth century to keep the monks and friars in the same state of wickedness they were then in. The legends of this roysterer are of German origin. (Brüder Rausch, brother Tipple.)

Friar Tuck Chaplain and steward of Robin Hood. Introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe. He is a pudgy, paunchy, humorous, self-indulgent, and combative clerical Falstaff. His costume consisted of a russet habit of the Franciscan order, a red corded girdle with gold tassel, red stockings, and a wallet. A friar was nicknamed tuck, because his dress was tucked by a girdle at the waist. Thus Chaucer says, "Tucked he was, as is a frere about."

"In this our spacious isle I think there is not one
But he hath heard some talk of Hood and Little John;
Of Tuck, the merry friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and their trade."
Drayton: Polyolbion, s.26.

Friar's Heel The outstanding upright stone at Stonehenge is so called. Geoffrey of Monmouth says the devil bought the stones of an old woman in Ireland, wrapped them up in a wyth, and brought them to Salisbury plain. Just before he got to Mount Ambre the wyth broke, and one of the stones fell into the Avon, the rest were carried to the plain. After the fiend had fixed them in the ground, he cried out, "No man will ever find out how these stones came here." A friar replied, "That's more than thee canst tell," whereupon the foul fiend threw one of the stones at him and struck him on the heel. The stone stuck in the ground, and remains so to the present hour.

Friar's Lanthorn Sir W. Scott calls Jack o'Lantern Friar Rush. This is an error, as Rush was a domestic spirit, and not a field esprit follet. He got admittance into monasteries, and played the monks sad pranks, but is never called "Jack." Sir Walter Scott seems to have considered Friar Rush the same as "Friar with the Rush (light)," and, therefore, Friar with the Lantern or Will o' the Wisp.

"Better we had through mire and bush
Been lanthorn-led by Friar Rush."
Sir Walter Scott: Marmion.

    Milton also (in his L'Allegro) calls Will o' the Wisp a friar, probably meaning Friar Rush:

"She was pinched, and pulled, she said;
And he by Friar's lantern led."

   but "Rush" in this name has nothing to do with the verb rush [about] or rush [light]. It is the German Brüder Rausch, called by the Scandinavians Broder Ruus. (Scandinavian, ruus, intoxication, in German rausch, which shows us at once that Friar Rush was the spirit of inebriety. (See Robin Goodfellow.)