Chapter Fielding to Flecknoe of F by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Fielding to Flecknoe

Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768).—Novelist, was the sister of the above, who had a high opinion of her talents. She wrote several novels, including David Simple (1744), The Governess, and The Countess of Dellwyn. She also translated Xenophon’s Memorabilia and Apologia (1762).

Filmer, Sir Robert (died 1653?).—Political writer, son of Sir Edward Filmer, of East Sutton, Kent, was educated at Cambridge He was an enthusiastic Royalist, was knighted by Charles I, and, in 1671, was imprisoned in Leeds Castle, Kent. He is notable as the defender, in its most extreme form, of the doctrine of the divine right of kings, which he expounded in a succession of works, of which the latest and best known, Patriarcha, appeared in 1679. His theory is founded on the idea that the government of a family by the father is the original and method of all government. His doctrines were afterwards attacked by Locke in his Treatise on Government. He was opposed to the persecution of old women for supposed witchcraft.

Finlay, George (1799-1875).—Historian, of Scottish descent, was born at Faversham, Kent, where his father, an officer in the army, was inspector of government powder mills. Intended for the law, he was educated at Glasgow, Göttingen, and Edinburgh, but becoming an enthusiast in the cause of Greece, he joined Byron in the war of independence, and thereafter bought a property near Athens, where he settled and busied himself with schemes for the improvement of the country, which had little success. His History of Greece, produced in sections between 1843 and 1861, did not at first receive the recognition which its merits deserved, but it has since been given by students in all countries, and specially in Germany, a place among works of permanent value, alike for its literary style and the depth and insight of its historical views. It was re-issued in 1877 as A History of Greece from the Roman Conquest to the Present Time (146 B.C. to 1864).

Fisher, John (circa 1469-1535).—Controversialist and scholar, born at Beverley, and educated at Cambridge, entered the Church, and became in 1504 Bishop of Rochester. He wrote in Latin against the doctrines of the Reformation, but was a supporter of the New Learning, and endeavoured to get Erasmus to teach Greek at Cambridge Through his influence the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity were founded at both the University by Margaret Countess of Richmond, and in 1502 he became first professor at Cambridge, where he was also (1505-8) Head of Queen’s College He was also instrumental in founding Christ’s and St. John’s College For opposing the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. he was burned. Made a cardinal in 1535, he was beatified in 1886.

Fiske, John (1842-1901).—Miscellaneous writer, was born at Hartford, Connecticut. The family name was Green; but this he dropped, and adopted that of his mother’s family. After being at Harvard he studied for, and was admitted to, the Bar, but did not practise. He wrote on a variety of subjects, including mythology, history, and evolution. Among his books on these subjects are, Myths and Mythmakers (1872), Cosmic Philosophy, Darwinism, The Idea of God, Origin of Evil. He was also the author of many works on America. These include Old Virginia, New France and New England, The American Revolution, and Discovery of America (1892).

Fitzgerald, Edward (1809-1883).—Translator and letter-writer, was born near Woodbridge, Suffolk, son of John Purcell, who took his wife’s surname on the death of her father in 1818. He was educated at Bury St. Edmunds and Cambridge Thereafter he lived in retirement and study with his parents until 1838, when he took a neighbouring cottage. In 1856 he married a daughter of Bernard Barton, the poet, from whom, however, he soon separated. Afterwards he lived at various places in the East of England, continuing his studies, with yachting for his chief recreation. By this time, however, he had become an author, having written a life of his father-in-law prefixed to his collected poems (1849), Euphranor, a dialogue on youth (1851), and Polonius, a Collection of Wise Saws and Modern Instances (1852). Becoming interested in Spanish literature, he published translations of Six Dramas of Calderon. Thereafter turning his attention to Persian, he produced (1859), anonymously, his famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. He also published translations of the Agamemnon of Æschylus, and the Œdipus Tyrannus and Œdipus Coloneus of Sophocles. In his translations Fitzgerald aimed not so much at a mere literal reproduction of the sense of the original, as at reproducing its effect on the reader, and in this he was