[1] 8 and 2, which means 80% of one quality and 20% of another.
Sometimes other proportions obtain, while it is not unusual to have
quotations for flaxes containing four different kinds.
FLAXMAN, JOHN (1755-1826), English sculptor and draughtsman, was born on
the 6th of July 1755, during a temporary residence of his parents at
York. The name John was hereditary in the family, having been borne by
his father after a forefather who, according to the family tradition,
had fought on the side of parliament at Naseby, and afterwards settled
as a carrier or farmer, or both, in Buckinghamshire. John Flaxman, the
father of the sculptor, carried on with repute the trade of a moulder
and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street,
Covent Garden, London. His wife's maiden name was See, and John was
their second son. Within six months of his birth the family returned to
London, and in his father's back shop he spent an ailing childhood. His
figure was high-shouldered and weakly, the head very large for the body.
His mother having died about his tenth year, his father took a second
wife, of whom all we know is that her maiden name was Gordon, and that
she proved a thrifty housekeeper and kind stepmother. Of regular
schooling the boy must have had some, since he is reputed as having
remembered in after life the tyranny of some pedagogue of his youth; but
his principal education he picked up for himself at home. He early took
delight in drawing and modelling from his father's stock-in-trade, and
early endeavoured to understand those counterfeits of classic art by the
light of translations from classic literature.
Customers of his father took a fancy to the child, and helped him with
books, advice, and presently with commissions. The two special
encouragers of his youth were the painter Romney, and a cultivated
clergyman, Mr Mathew, with his wife, in whose house in Rathbone Place
the young Flaxman used to meet the best "blue-stocking" society of those
days, and, among associates of his own age, the artists Blake and
Stothard, who became his closest friends. Before this he had begun to
work with precocious success in clay as well as in pencil. At twelve
years old he won the first prize of the Society of Arts for a medal, and
became a public exhibitor in the gallery of the Free Society of Artists;
at fifteen he won a second prize from the Society of Arts and began to
exhibit in the Royal Academy, then in the second year of its existence.
In the same year, 1770, he entered as an Academy student and won the
silver medal. But all these successes were followed by a discomfiture.
In the competition for the gold medal of the Academy in 1772, Flaxman,
who had made sure of victory, was defeated, the prize being adjudged by
the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to another competitor named
Engleheart. But this reverse proved no discouragement, and indeed seemed
to have had a wholesome effect in curing the successful lad of a
tendency to conceit and self-sufficiency which made Thomas Wedgwood say
of him in 1775: "It is but a few years since he was a most supreme
coxcomb."
He continued to ply his art diligently, both as a student in the schools
and as an exhibitor in the galleries of the Academy, occasionally also
attempting diversions into the sister art of painting. To the Academy he
contributed a wax model of Neptune (1770); four portrait models in wax
(1771); a terracotta bust, a wax figure of a child, a figure of History
(1772); a figure of Comedy, and a relief of a Vestal (1773). During
these years he received a commission from a friend of the Mathew family,
for a statue of Alexander. But by heroic and ideal work of this class he
could, of course, make no regular livelihood. The means of such a
livelihood, however, presented themselves in his twentieth year, when he
first received employment from Josiah Wedgwood and his partner Bentley,
as a modeller of classic and domestic friezes, plaques, ornamental
vessels and medallion portraits, in those varieties of "jasper" and
"basalt" ware which earned in their day so great a reputation for the
manufacturers who had conceived and perfected the invention. In the same
year, 1775, John Flaxman the elder moved from New Street, Covent Garden,
to a more commodious house in the Strand (No. 420). For twelve years,
from his twentieth to his thirty-second (1775-1787), Flaxman subsisted
chiefly by his work for the firm of Wedgwood. It may be urged, of the
minute refinements of figure outline and modelling which these
manufacturers aimed at in their ware, that they were not the qualities
best suited to such a material; or it may be regretted that the gifts of
an artist like Flaxman should have been spent so long upon such a minor
and half-mechanical art of household decoration; but the beauty of the
product it would be idle to deny, or the value of the training which the
sculptor by this practice acquired in the delicacies and severities of
modelling in low relief and on a minute scale.
By 1780 Flaxman had begun to earn something in another branch of his
profession, which was in the future to furnish his chief source of
livelihood, viz. the sculpture of monuments for the dead. Three of the
earliest of such monuments by his hand are those of Chatterton in the
church of St Mary Redcliffe at Bristol (1780), of Mrs Morley in
Gloucester cathedral (1784), and of the Rev. T. and Mrs Margaret Ball in
the cathedral at Chichester (1785). During the rest of Flaxman's career
memorial bas-reliefs of the same class occupied a principal part of his
industry; they are to be found scattered in many churches throughout the
length and breadth of England, and in them the finest qualities of his
art are represented. The best are admirable for pathos and simplicity,
and for the alliance of a truly Greek instinct for rhythmical design and
composition with that spirit of domestic tenderness and innocence which
is one of the secrets of the modern soul.
In 1782, being twenty-seven years old, Flaxman was married to Anne
Denman, and had in her the best of helpmates until almost his life's
end. She was a woman of attainments in letters and to some extent in
art, and the devoted companion of her husband's fortunes and of his
travels. They set up house at first in Wardour Street, and lived an
industrious life, spending their summer holidays once and again in the
house of the hospitable poet Hayley, at Eartham in Sussex. After five
years, in 1787, they found themselves with means enough to travel, and
set out for Rome, where they took up their quarters in the Via Felice.
Records more numerous and more consecutive of Flaxman's residence in
Italy exist in the shape of drawings and studies than in the shape of
correspondence. He soon ceased modelling himself for Wedgwood, but
continued to direct the work of other modellers employed for the
manufacture at Rome. He had intended to return after a stay of a little
more than two years, but was detained by a commission for a marble group
of a Fury of Athamas, a commission attended in the sequel with
circumstances of infinite trouble and annoyance, from the notorious
Comte-Eveque, Frederick Hervey, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry. He
did not, as things fell out, return until the summer of 1794, after an
absence of seven years,--having in the meantime executed another ideal
commission (a "Cephalus and Aurora") for Mr Hope, and having sent home
models for several sepulchral monuments, including one in relief for the
poet Collins in Chichester cathedral, and one in the round for Lord
Mansfield in Westminster Abbey.
But what gained for Flaxman in this interval a general and European fame
was not his work in sculpture proper, but those outline designs to the
poets, in which he showed not only to what purpose he had made his own
the principles of ancient design in vase-paintings and bas-reliefs, but
also by what a natural affinity, better than all mere learning, he was
bound to the ancients and belonged to them. The designs for the _Iliad_
and _Odyssey_ were commissioned by Mrs Hare Naylor; those for Dante by
Mr Hope; those for Aeschylus by Lady Spencer; they were all engraved by
Piroli, not without considerable loss of the finer and more sensitive
qualities of Flaxman's own lines.
During their homeward journey the Flaxmans travelled through central and
northern Italy. On their return they took a house, which they never
afterwards left, in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square. Immediately
afterwards we find the sculptor publishing a spirited protest against
the scheme already entertained by the Directory, and carried out five
years later by Napoleon, of equipping at Paris a vast central museum of
art with the spoils of conquered Europe.
The record of Flaxman's life is henceforth an uneventful record of
private affection and contentment, and of happy and tenacious industry,
with reward not brilliant but sufficient, and repute not loud but
loudest in the mouths of those whose praise was best worth
having--Canova, Schlegel, Fuseli. He took for pupil a son of Hayley's,
who presently afterwards sickened and died. In 1797 he was made an
associate of the Royal Academy. Every year he exhibited work of one
class or another: occasionally a public monument in the round, like
those of Paoli (1798), or Captain Montague (1802) for Westminster Abbey,
of Sir William Jones for St Mary's, Oxford (1797-1801), of Nelson or
Howe for St Paul's; more constantly memorials for churches, with
symbolic Acts of Mercy or illustrations of Scripture texts, both
commonly in low relief [Miss Morley, Chertsey (1797), Miss Cromwell,
Chichester (1800), Mrs Knight, Milton, Cambridge (1802), and many more];
and these pious labours he would vary from time to time with a classical
piece like those of his earliest predilection. Soon after his election
as associate, he published a scheme, half grandiose, half childish, for
a monument to be erected on Greenwich Hill, in the shape of a Britannia
200 ft. high, in honour of the naval victories of his country. In 1800
he was elected full Academician. During the peace of Amiens he went to
Paris to see the despoiled treasures collected there, but bore himself
according to the spirit of protest that was in him. The next event which
makes any mark in his life is his appointment to a chair specially
created for him by the Royal Academy--the chair of Sculpture: this took
place in 1810. We have ample evidence of his thoroughness and
judiciousness as a teacher in the Academy schools, and his professorial
lectures have been often reprinted. With many excellent observations,
and with one singular merit--that of doing justice, as in those days
justice was hardly ever done, to the sculpture of the medieval
schools--these lectures lack point and felicity of expression, just as
they are reported to have lacked fire in delivery, and are somewhat
heavy reading. The most important works that occupied Flaxman in the
years next following this appointment were the monument to Mrs Baring in
Micheldever church, the richest of all his monuments in relief
(1805-1811); that for the Worsley family at Campsall church, Yorkshire,
which is the next richest; those to Sir Joshua Reynolds for St Paul's
(1807), to Captain Webbe for India (1810); to Captains Walker and
Beckett for Leeds (1811); to Lord Cornwallis for Prince of Wales's
Island (1812); and to Sir John Moore for Glasgow (1813). At this time
the antiquarian world was much occupied with the vexed question of the
merits of the Elgin marbles, and Flaxman was one of those whose evidence
before the parliamentary commission had most weight in favour of the
purchase which was ultimately effected in 1816.
After his Roman period he produced for a good many years no outline
designs for the engraver except three for Cowper's translations of the
Latin poems of Milton (1810). Other sets of outline illustrations drawn
about the same time, but not published, were one to the _Pilgrim's
Progress_, and one to a Chinese tale in verse, called "The Casket,"
which he wrote to amuse his womenkind. In 1817 we find him returning to
his old practice of classical outline illustrations and publishing the
happiest of all his series in that kind, the designs to Hesiod,
excellently engraved by the sympathetic hand of Blake. Immediately
afterwards he was much engaged designing for the goldsmiths--a
testimonial cup in honour of John Kemble, and following that, the great
labour of the famous and beautiful (though quite un-Homeric) "Shield of
Achilles." Almost at the same time he undertook a frieze of "Peace,
Liberty and Plenty," for the duke of Bedford's sculpture gallery at
Woburn, and an heroic group of Michael overthrowing Satan, for Lord
Egremont's house at Petworth. His literary industry at the same time is
shown by several articles on art and archaeology contributed to Rees's
_Encyclopaedia_ (1819-1820).
In 1820 Mrs Flaxman died, after a first warning from paralysis six years
earlier. Her younger sister, Maria Denman, and the sculptor's own
sister,, Maria Flaxman, remained in his house, and his industry was
scarcely at all relaxed. In 1822 he delivered at the Academy a lecture
in memory of his old friend and generous fellow-craftsman, Canova, then
lately dead; in 1823 he received from A.W. von Schlegel a visit of which
that writer has left us the record. From an illness occurring soon after
this he recovered sufficiently to resume both work and exhibition, but
on the 3rd of December 1826 he caught cold in church, and died four days
later, in his seventy-second year. Among a few intimate associates, he
left a memory singularly dear; having been in companionship, although
susceptible and obstinate when his religious creed--a devout
Christianity with Swedenborgian admixtures--was crossed or slighted, yet
in other things genial and sweet-tempered beyond most men, full of
modesty and playfulness and withal of a homely dignity, a true friend
and a kind master, a pure and blameless spirit.
Posterity will doubt whether it was the fault of Flaxman or of his age,
which in England offered neither training nor much encouragement to a
sculptor, that he is weakest when he is most ambitious, and most
inspired when he makes the least effort; but so it is. Not merely does
he fail when he seeks to illustrate the intensity of Dante, or to rival
the tumultuousness of Michelangelo--to be intense or tumultuous he was
never made; but he fails, it may almost be said, in proportion as his
work is elaborate and far carried, and succeeds in proportion as it is
partial and suggestive. Of his completed ideal sculptures, the "St
Michael" at Petworth is the best, and is indeed admirably composed from
all points of view; but it lacks fire and force, and it lacks the finer
touches of the chisel; a little bas-relief like the diploma piece of the
"Apollo" and "Marpessa" in the Royal Academy compares with it
favourably. This is one of the very few things which he is recorded to
have executed in the marble entirely with his own hand; ordinarily he
entrusted the finishing work of the chisel to the Italian workmen in his
employ, and was content with the smooth mechanical finish which they
imitated from the Roman imitations (themselves often reworked at the
Renaissance) of Greek originals. Of Flaxman's complicated monuments in
the round, such as the three in Westminster Abbey and the four in St
Paul's, there is scarcely one which has not something heavy and
infelicitous in the arrangement, and something empty and unsatisfactory
in the surface execution. But when we come to his simple monuments in
relief, in these we find almost always a far finer quality. The truth is
that he did not thoroughly understand composition on the great scale and
in the round, but he thoroughly understood relief, and found scope in it
for his remarkable gifts of harmonious design, and tender, grave and
penetrating feeling. But if we would see even the happiest of his
conceptions at their best, we must study them, not in the finished
marble but rather in the casts from his studio sketches (marred though
they have been by successive coats of paint intended for their
protection) of which a comprehensive collection is preserved in the
Flaxman gallery at University College And the same is true of his
happiest efforts in the classical and poetical vein, like the well-known
relief of "Pandora conveyed to Earth by Mercury." Nay, going farther
back still among the rudiments and first conceptions of his art, we can
realize the most essential charm of his genius in the study, not of his
modelled work at all, but of his sketches in pen and wash on paper. Of
these the principal public collections are at University College, in the
British Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum; many others are
dispersed in public and private cabinets. Every one knows the excellence
of the engraved designs to Homer, Dante, Aeschylus and Hesiod, in all
cases save when the designer aims at that which he cannot hit, the
terrible or the grotesque. To know Flaxman at his best it is necessary
to be acquainted not only with the original studies for such designs as
these (which, with the exception of the Hesiod series, are far finer
than the engravings), but still more with those almost innumerable
studies from real life which he was continually producing with pen, tint
or pencil. These are the most delightful and suggestive sculptor's notes
in existence; in them it was his habit to set down the leading and
expressive lines, and generally no more, of every group that struck his
fancy. There are groups of Italy and London, groups of the parlour and
the nursery, of the street, the garden and the gutter; and of each group
the artist knows how to seize at once the structural and the spiritual
secret, expressing happily the value and suggestiveness, for his art of
sculpture, of the contacts, intervals, interlacements and balancings of
the various figures in any given group, and not less happily the charm
of the affections which link the figures together and inspire their
gestures.
The materials for the life of Flaxman are scattered in various
biographical and other publications; the principal are the
following:--An anonymous sketch in the _European Magazine_ for 1823;
an anonymous "Brief Memoir," prefixed to _Flaxman's Lectures_ (ed.
1829, and reprinted in subsequent editions); the chapter in Allan
Cunningham's _Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters_, &c., vol.
iii.; notices in the _Life of Nollekens_, by John Thomas Smith; in the
_Life of Josiah Wedgwood_, by Miss G. Meteyard (London, 1865); in the
_Diaries and Reminiscences of H. Crabbe Robinson_ (London, 1869), the
latter an authority of great importance; in the _Lives_ of Stothard,
by Mrs Bray, of Constable, by Leslie, of Watson, by Dr Lonsdale, and
of Blake, by Messrs Gilchrist and Rossetti; a series of illustrated
essays, principally on the monumental sculpture of Flaxman, in the
_Art Journal_ for 1867 and 1868, by Mr G.F. Teniswood; _Essays in
English Art_, by Frederick Wedmore; _The Drawings of Flaxman, in 32
plates, with Descriptions, and an Introductory Essay on the Life and
Genius of Flaxman_, by Sidney Colvin (London, 1876); and the article
"Flaxman" in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. (S. C)
FLEA (0. Eng. _fleah_, or _flea_, cognate with _flee_, to run away from,
to take flight), a name typically applied to _Pulex irritans_, a
well-known blood-sucking insect-parasite of man and other mammals,
remarkable for its powers of leaping, and nearly cosmopolitan. In
ordinary language the name is used for any species of _Siphonaptera_
(otherwise known as _Aphaniptera_), which, though formerly regarded as a
suborder of _Diptera_ (q.v.), are now considered to be a separate order
of insects. All _Siphonaptera_, of which more than 100 species are
known, are parasitic on mammals or birds. The majority of the species
belong to the family _Pulicidae_, of which _P. irritans_ may be taken as
the type; but the order also includes the _Sarcopsyllidae_, the females
of which fix themselves firmly to their host, and the _Ceratopsyllidae_,
or bat-fleas.
Fleas are wingless insects, with a laterally compressed body, small and
indistinctly separated head, and short thick antennae situated in
cavities somewhat behind and above the simple eyes, which are always
minute and sometimes absent. The structure of the mouth-parts is
different from that seen in any other insects. The actual piercing
organs are the mandibles, while the upper lip or labrum forms a sucking
tube. The maxillae are not piercing organs, and their function is to
protect the mandibles and labrum and separate the hairs or feathers of
the host. Maxillary and labial palpi are also present, and the latter,
together with the labrum or lower lip, form the rostrum.
Fleas are oviparous, and undergo a very complete metamorphosis. The
footless larvae are elongate, worm-like and very active; they feed upon
almost any kind of waste animal matter, and when full-grown form a
silken cocoon. The human flea is considerably exceeded in size by
certain other species found upon much smaller hosts; thus the European
_Hystrichopsylla talpae_, a parasite of the mole, shrew and other small
mammals, attains a length of 5-1/2 millimetres; another large species
infests the Indian porcupine. Of the _Sarcopsyllidae_ the best known
species is the "jigger" or "chigoe" (_Dermatophilus penetrans_),
indigenous in tropical South America and introduced into West Africa
during the second half of last century. Since then this pest has spread
across the African continent and even reached Madagascar. The
impregnated female jigger burrows into the feet of men and dogs, and
becomes distended with eggs until its abdomen attains the size and
appearance of a small pea. If in extracting the insect the abdomen be
ruptured, serious trouble may ensue from the resulting inflammation. At
least four species of fleas (including _Pulex irritans_) which infest
the common rat are known to bite man, and are believed to be the active
agents in the transmission of plague from rats to human beings.
(E. E. A.)
FLECHE (French for "arrow"), the term generally used in French
architecture for a spire, but more especially employed to designate the
timber spire covered with lead, which was erected over the intersection
of the roofs over nave and transepts; sometimes these were small and
unimportant, but in cathedrals they were occasionally of large
dimensions, as in the fleche of Notre-Dame, Paris, where it is nearly
100 ft. high; this, however, is exceeded by the example of Amiens
cathedral, which measures 148 ft. from its base on the cresting to its
finial.
FLECHIER, ESPRIT (1632-1710), French preacher and author, bishop of
Nimes, was born at Pernes, department of Vaucluse, on the 10th of June
1632. He was brought up at Tarascon by his uncle, Hercule Audiffret,
superior of the Congregation des Doctrinaires, and afterwards entered
the order. On the death of his uncle, however, he left it, owing to the
strictness of its rules, and went to Paris, where he devoted himself to
writing poetry. His French poems met with little success, but a
description in Latin verse of a tournament (_carrousel, circus regius_),
given by Louis XIV. in 1662, brought him a great reputation. He
subsequently became tutor to Louis Urbain Lefevre de Caumartin,
afterwards _intendant_ of finances and counsellor of state, whom he
accompanied to Clermont-Ferrard (q.v.), where the king had ordered the
_Grands Jours_ to be held (1665), and where Caumartin was sent as
representative of the sovereign. There Flechier wrote his curious
_Memoires sur les Grand Jours tenus a Clermont_, in which he relates, in
a half romantic, half historical form, the proceedings of this
extraordinary court of justice. In 1668 the duke of Montausier procured
for him the post of _lecteur_ to the dauphin. The sermons of Flechier
increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest
pitch by his funeral orations. The most important are those on Madame de
Montausier (1672), which gained him the membership of the Academy, the
duchesse d'Aiguillon (1675), and, above all, Marshal Turenne (1676). He
was now firmly established in the favour of the king, who gave him
successively the abbacy of St Severin, in the diocese of Poitiers, the
office of almoner to the dauphiness, and in 1685 the bishopric of
Lavaur, from which he was in 1687 promoted to that of Nimes. The edict
of Nantes had been repealed two years before; but the Calvinists were
still very numerous at Nimes. Flechier, by his leniency and tact,
succeeded in bringing over some of them to his views, and even gained
the esteem of those who declined to change their faith. During the
troubles in the Cevennes (see HUGUENOTS) he softened to the utmost of
his power the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so indulgent even
to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in
veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. It is right to add,
however, that some authorities consider the accounts of his leniency to
have been greatly exaggerated, and even charge him with going beyond
what the edicts permitted. He died at Montpellier on the 16th of
February 1710. Pulpit eloquence is the branch of belles-lettres in which
Flechier excelled. He is indeed far below Bossuet, whose robust and
sublime genius had no rival in that age; he does not equal Bourdaloue in
earnestness of thought and vigour of expression; nor can he rival the
philosophical depth or the insinuating and impressive eloquence of
Massillon. But he is always ingenious, often witty, and nobody has
carried farther than he the harmony of diction, sometimes marred by an
affectation of symmetry and an excessive use of antithesis. His two
historical works, the histories of Theodosius and of Ximenes, are more
remarkable for elegance of style than for accuracy and comprehensive
insight.
The last complete edition of Flechier's works is by J.P. Migne (Paris,
1856); the _Memoires sur les Grands Jours_ was first published in 1844
by B. Gonod (2nd ed. as _Mem. sur les Gr. J. d'Auvergne_, with notice
by Sainte-Beuve and an appendix by M. Cheruel, 1862). His chief works
are: _Histoire de Theodose le Grand_, _Oraisons funebres_, _Histoire
du Cardinal Ximenes_, _Sermons de morale_, _Panegyriques des saints_.
He left a _portrait_ or _caractere_ of himself, addressed to one of
his friends. The _Life of Theodosius_ has been translated into English
by F. Manning (1693), and the "Funeral Oration of Marshal Turenne" in
H.C. Fish's _History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence_ (ii., 1857).
On Flechier generally see Antonin V.D. Fabre, _La Jeunesse de
Flechier_ (1882), and Adolphe Fabre, _Flechier, orateur_ (1886); A.
Delacroix, _Hist, de Flechier_ (1865).
FLECKEISEN, CARL FRIEDRICH WILHELM ALFRED (1820-1899), German
philologist and critic, was born at Wolfenbuttel on the 23rd of
September 1820. He was educated at the Helmstedt gymnasium and the
university of Gottingen. After holding several educational posts, he was
appointed in 1861 to the vice-principalship of the Vitzthum'sches
Gymnasium at Dresden, which he held till his retirement in 1889. He died
on the 7th of August 1899. Fleckeisen is chiefly known for his labours
on Plautus and Terence; in the knowledge of these authors he was
unrivalled, except perhaps by Ritschl, his life-long friend and a worker
in the same field. His chief works are: _Exercitationes Plautinae_
(1842), one of the most masterly productions on the language of Plautus;
"Analecta Plautina," printed in _Philologus_, ii. (1847); _Plauti
Comoediae_, i., ii. (1850-1851, unfinished), introduced by an _Epistula
critica ad F. Ritschelium_; _P. Terenti Afri Comoediae_ (new ed., 1898).
In his editions he endeavoured to restore the text in accordance with
the results of his researches on the usages of the Latin language and
metre. He attached great importance to the question of orthography, and
his short treatise _Funfzig Artikel_ (1861) is considered most valuable.
Fleckeisen also contributed largely to the _Jahrbucher fur Philologie_,
of which he was for many years editor.
See obituary notice by G. Gotz in C. Bursian's _Biographisches
Jahrbuch fur Altertumskunde_ (xxiii., 1901), and article by H. Usener
in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ (where the date of birth is given
as the 20th of September).
FLECKNOE, RICHARD (c. 1600-1678?), English dramatist and poet, the
object of Dryden's satire, was probably of English birth, although there
is no corroboration of the suggestion of J. Gillow (_Bibliog. Dict. of
the Eng. Catholics_, vol. ii., 1885), that he was a nephew of a Jesuit
priest, William Flecknoe, or more properly Flexney, of Oxford. The few
known facts of his life are chiefly derived from his _Relation of Ten
Years' Travels in Europe, Asia, Affrique and America_ (1655?),
consisting of letters written to friends and patrons during his travels.
The first of these is dated from Ghent (1640), whither he had fled to
escape the troubles of the Civil War. In Brussels he met Beatrix de
Cosenza, wife of Charles IV., duke of Lorraine, who sent him to Rome to
secure the legalization of her marriage. There in 1645 Andrew Marvell
met him, and described his leanness and his rage for versifying in a
witty satire, "Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome." He was probably,
however, not in priest's orders. He then travelled in the Levant, and in
1648 crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, of which country he gives a
detailed description. On his return to Europe he entered the household
of the duchess of Lorraine in Brussels. In 1645 he went back to England.
His royalist and Catholic convictions did not prevent him from writing a
book in praise of Oliver Cromwell, _The Idea of His Highness Oliver_ ...
(1659), dedicated to Richard Cromwell. This publication was discounted
at the restoration by the _Heroick Portraits_ (1660) of Charles II. and
others of the Stuart family. John Dryden used his name as a stalking
horse from behind which to assail Thomas Shadwell in _Mac Flecknoe_
(1682). The opening lines run:--
"All human things are subject to decay.
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long;
In prose and verse was owned, without dispute,
Throughout the realms of nonsense, absolute."
Dryden's aversion seems to have been caused by Flecknoe's affectation of
contempt for the players and his attacks on the immorality of the
English stage. His verse, which hardly deserved his critic's sweeping
condemnation, was much of it religious, and was chiefly printed for
private circulation. None of his plays was acted except _Love's
Dominion_, announced as a "pattern for the reformed stage" (1654), that
title being altered in 1664 to _Love's Kingdom_, with a _Discourse of
the English Stage_. He amused himself, however, by adding lists of the
actors whom he would have selected for the parts, had the plays been
staged. Flecknoe had many connexions among English Catholics, and is
said by Gerard Langbaine, to have been better acquainted with the
nobility than with the muses. He died probably about 1678.
A _Discourse of the English Stage_, was reprinted in W.C. Hazlitt's
_English Drama and Stage_ (Roxburghe Library, 1869); Robert Southey,
in his _Omniana_ (1812), protested against the wholesale depreciation
of Flecknoe's works. See also "Richard Flecknoe" (Leipzig, 1905, in
_Munchener Beitrage zur ... Philologie_), by A. Lohr, who has given
minute attention to his life and works.
FLEET, a word in all its significances, derived from the root of the
verb "to fleet," from O. Eng. _fleotan_, to float or flow, which
ultimately derives from an Indo-European root seen in Gr. [Greek:
pleein], to sail, and Lat. _pluere_, to rain; cf. Dutch _vliessen_, and
Ger. _fliessen_. In English usage it survives in the name of many
places, such as Byfleet and Northfleet, and in the Fleet, a stream in
London that formerly ran into the Thames between the bottom of Ludgate
Hill and the present Fleet Street. From the idea of "float" comes the
application of the word to ships, when in company, and particularly to a
large number of warships under the supreme command of a single officer,
with the individual ships, or groups of ships, under individual and
subordinate command. The distinction between a fleet and a squadron is
often one of name only. In the British navy the various main divisions
are or have been called fleets and squadrons indifferently. The word is
also frequently used of a company of fishing vessels, and in fishing is
also applied to a row of drift-nets fastened together. From the original
meaning of the word "flowing" comes the adjectival use of the word,
swift, or speedy; so also "fleeting," of something evanescent or fading
away, with the idea of the fast-flowing lapse of time.
FLEET PRISON, an historic London prison, formerly situated on the east
side of Farringdon Street, and deriving its name from the Fleet stream,
which flowed into the Thames. Concerning its early history little is
known, but it certainly dated back to Norman times. It came into
particular prominence from being used as a place of reception for
persons committed by the Star Chamber, and, afterwards, for debtors, and
persons imprisoned for contempt of court by the court of chancery. It
was burnt down in the great fire of 1666; it was rebuilt, but was
destroyed in the Gordon riots of 1780 and again rebuilt in 1781-1782. In
pursuance of an act of parliament (5 & 6 Vict. c. 22, 1842), by which
the Marshalsea, Fleet, and Queen's Bench prisons were consolidated into
one under the name of Queen's prison, it was finally closed, and in 1844
sold to the corporation of the city of London, by whom it was pulled
down. The head of the prison was termed "the warden," who was appointed
by patent. It became a frequent practice of the holder of the patent to
"farm out" the prison to the highest bidder. It was this custom which
made the Fleet prison long notorious for the cruelties inflicted on
prisoners. One purchaser of the office was of particularly evil repute,
by name Thomas Bambridge, who in 1728 paid, with another, the sum of
L5000 to John Huggins for the wardenship. He was guilty of the greatest
extortions upon prisoners, and, in the words of a committee of the House
of Commons appointed to inquire into the state of the gaols of the
kingdom, "arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into
dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, treating them in the most
barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws
of this kingdom." He was committed to Newgate, and an act was passed to
prevent his enjoying the office of warden or any other office
whatsoever. The liberties or rules of the Fleet were the limits within
which particular prisoners were allowed to reside outside the prison
walls on observing certain conditions.
_Fleet Marriages._--By the law of England a marriage was recognized as
valid, so long as the ceremony was conducted by a person in holy orders,
even if those orders were not of the Church of England. Neither banns
nor licence were necessary, and the time and place were alike
immaterial. Out of this state of the marriage law, in the period of
laxness which succeeded the Commonwealth, resulted innumerable
clandestine marriages. They were contracted at first to avoid the
expenses attendant on the public ceremony, but an act of 1696, which
imposed a penalty of L100 on any clergyman who celebrated, or permitted
another to celebrate, a marriage otherwise than by banns or licence,
acted as a considerable check. To clergymen imprisoned for debt in the
Fleet, however, such a penalty had no terrors, for they had "neither
liberty, money nor credit to lose by any proceedings the bishop might
institute against them." The earliest recorded date of a Fleet marriage
is 1613, while the earliest recorded in a Fleet register took place in
1674, but it was only on the prohibition of marriage without banns or
licence that they began to be clandestine. Then arose keen competition,
and "many of the Fleet parsons and tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood
fitted up a room in their respective lodgings or houses as a chapel,"
and employed touts to solicit custom for them. The scandal and abuses
brought about by these clandestine marriages became so great that they
became the object of special legislation. In 1753 Lord Hardwicke's Act
(26 Geo. ii. c. 33) was passed, which required, under pain of nullity,
that banns should be published according to the rubric, or a licence
obtained, and that, in either case, the marriage should be solemnized in
church; and that in the case of minors, marriage by licence must be by
the consent of parent or guardian. This act had the effect of putting a
stop to these clandestine marriages, so far as England was concerned,
and henceforth couples had to fare to Gretna Green (q.v.).
The _Fleet Registers_, consisting of "about two or three hundred large
registers" and about a thousand rough or "pocket" books, eventually came
into private hands, but were purchased by the government in 1821, and
are now deposited in the office of the registrar-general, Somerset
House. Their dates range from 1686 to 1754. In 1840 they were declared
not admissible as evidence to prove a marriage.
AUTHORITIES.--J.S. Burn, _The Fleet Registers; comprising the History
of Fleet Marriages, and some Account of the Parsons and Marriage-house
Keepers_, &c. (London, 1833); J. Ashton, _The Fleet: its River, Prison
and Marriages_ (London, 1888).
FLEETWOOD, CHARLES (d. 1692), English soldier and politician, third son
of Sir Miles Fleetwood of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and of Anne,
daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend, Bedfordshire, was admitted into
Gray's Inn on the 30th of November 1638. At the beginning of the Great
Rebellion, like many other young lawyers who afterwards distinguished
themselves in the field, he joined Essex's life-guard, was wounded at
the first battle of Newbury, obtained a regiment in 1644 and fought at
Naseby. He had already been appointed receiver of the court of wards,
and in 1646 became member of parliament for Marlborough. In the dispute
between the army and parliament he played a chief part, and was said to
have been the principal author of the plot to seize King Charles at
Holmby, but he did not participate in the king's trial. In 1649 he was
appointed a governor of the Isle of Wight, and in 1650, as
lieutenant-general of the horse, took part in Cromwell's campaign in
Scotland and assisted in the victory of Dunbar. The next year he was
elected a member of the council of state, and being recalled from
Scotland was entrusted with the command of the forces in England, and
played a principal part in gaining the final triumph at Worcester. In
1652 he married [1] Cromwell's daughter, Bridget, widow of Ireton, and
was made commander-in-chief in Ireland, to which title that of lord
deputy was added. The chief feature of his administration, which lasted
from September 1652 till September 1655, was the settlement of the
soldiers on the confiscated estates and the transplantation of the
original owners, which he carried out ruthlessly. He showed also great
severity in the prosecution of the Roman Catholic priests, and favoured
the Anabaptists and the extreme Puritan sects to the disadvantage of the
moderate Presbyterians, exciting great and general discontent, a
petition being finally sent in for his recall.
Fleetwood was a strong and unswerving follower of Cromwell's policy. He
supported his assumption of the protectorate and his dismissal of the
parliaments. In December 1654 he became a member of the council, and
after his return to England in 1655 was appointed one of the
major-generals. He approved of the "Petition and Advice," only objecting
to the conferring of the title of king on Cromwell, became a member of
the new House of Lords; and supported ardently Cromwell's foreign policy
in Europe, based on religious divisions, and his defence of the
Protestants persecuted abroad. He was therefore, on Cromwell's death,
naturally regarded as a likely successor, and it is said that Cromwell
had in fact so nominated him. He, however, gave his support to Richard's
assumption of office, but allowed subsequently, if he did not instigate,
petitions from the army demanding its independence, and finally
compelled Richard by force to dissolve parliament. His project of
re-establishing Richard in close dependence upon the army met with
failure, and he was obliged to recall the Long Parliament on the 6th of
May 1659. He was appointed immediately a member of the committee of
safety and of the council of state, and one of the seven commissioners
for the army, while on the 9th of June he was nominated
commander-in-chief. In reality, however, his power was undermined and
was attacked by parliament, which on the 11th of October declared his
commission void. The next day he assisted Lambert in his expulsion of
the parliament and was reappointed commander-in-chief. On Monk's
approach from the North, he stayed in London and maintained order. While
hesitating with which party to ally his forces, and while on the point
of making terms with the king, the army on the 24th of December restored
the Rump, when he was deprived of his command and ordered to appear
before parliament to answer for his conduct. The Restoration therefore
took place without him. He was included among the twenty liable to
penalties other than capital, and was finally incapacitated from holding
any office of trust. His public career then closed, though he survived
till the 4th of October 1692.