"I do not love you, Dr Fell,
But why, I cannot tell,
But this I know full well,
I do not love you, Dr Fell."[1]
Delinquents, however, were not always treated thus mildly by Fell, and
Acton Cremer, for the crime of courting a wife while only a bachelor of
arts, was set as an imposition the translation into English of the whole
of Scheffer's history of Lapland. As vice-chancellor, Fell himself
visited the drinking taverns and ordered out the students. In the
university elections he showed great energy in suppressing corruption.
Fell's building operations almost rivalled the plans of the great
ecclesiastical architects of the middle ages. In his own college he
completed in 1665 the north side of Wolsey's great quadrangle, already
begun by his father but abandoned during the Commonwealth; he rebuilt in
1672 the east side of the Chaplain's quadrangle "with a straight passage
under it leading from the cloister into the field," occupied now by the
new Meadow Buildings; the lodgings of the canon of the 3rd stall in the
passage uniting the Tom and Peckwater quadrangles (c. 1674); a long
building joining the Chaplain's quadrangle on the east side in
1677-1678; and lastly the great tower gate, begun in June 1681 on the
foundation laid by Wolsey and finished in November 1682, to which the
bell "great Tom," after being recast, was transferred from the cathedral
in 1683. In 1670 he planted and laid out the Broad Walk. He spent large
sums of his own on these works, gave L500 for the restoration of Banbury
church, erected a church at St Oswald's, Worcester, and the parsonage
house at Woodstock at his own expense, and rebuilt Cuddesdon palace.
Fell disapproved of the use of St Mary's church for secular purposes,
and promoted the building of the Sheldonian theatre by Archbishop
Sheldon. He was treasurer during its construction, presided at the
formal opening on the 9th of July 1669, and was nominated with Wren
curator in July 1670. In the theatre was placed the University Press,
the establishment of which had been a favourite project of Laud, which
now engaged a large share of Fell's energy and attention, and which as
curator he practically controlled. "Were it not you ken Mr Dean
extraordinarily well," writes Sir L. Jenkins to J. Williamson in 1672,
"it were impossible to imagine how assiduous and drudging he is about
his press."[2] He sent for type and printers from Holland, declaring
that "the foundation of all success must be laid in doing things well,
which I am sure will not be done with English letters." Many works,
including a Bible, editions of the classics and of the early fathers,
were produced under his direction and editing, and his press became
noted not only in England but abroad. He published annually one work,
generally a classical author annotated by himself, which he distributed
to all the students of his college on New Year's day. On one occasion he
surprised the Press in printing surreptitiously Aretino's _Postures_,
when he seized and destroyed the plates and impressions. Ever "an eager
defender and maintainer of the university and its privileges," he was
hostile to the Royal Society, which he regarded as a possible rival, and
in 1686 he gave an absolute refusal to Obadiah Walker, afterwards the
Roman Catholic master of University College, though licensed by James
II., to print books, declaring he would as soon "part with his bed from
under him" as his press. He conducted it on strict business principles,
and to the criticism that more great works were not produced replied
that they would not sell. He was, however, not free from fads, and his
new spelling (of which one feature was the substitution of _i_ for _y_
in such words as _eies_, _daies_, _maiest_) met with great disapproval.
Fell also did much to encourage learning in the university. While still
a young man at Christ Church he had shown both his zeal and his charity
by reading gratuitously with the poor and neglected students of the
college. He bore himself a high reputation as a Grecian, a Latinist and
a philologist, and he found time, in spite of his great public
employments, to bring out with the collaboration of others his great
edition of St Cyprian in 1682, an English translation of _The Unity of
the Church_ in 1681, editions of _Nemesius of Emesa_ (1671), of _Aratus
and of Eratosthenes_ (1672), _Theocritus_ (1676), _Alcinous on Plato_
(1677), _St Clement's Epistles to the Corinthians_ (1677), _Athenagoras_
(1682), _Clemens Alexandrinus_ (1683), _St Theophilus of Antioch_
(1684), _Grammatica rationis sive institutiones logicae_ (1673 and
1685), and a critical edition of the New Testament in 1675. The first
volumes of _Rerum Anglicarum scriptores_ and of _Historiae Britannicae_,
&c. were compiled under his patronage in 1684. He had the MSS. of St.
Augustine in the Bodleian and other libraries at Oxford generously
collated for the use of the Benedictines at Paris, then preparing a new
edition of the father.
Fell spent such large sums in his building, in his noble patronage of
learning, and in charities, that sometimes there was little left for his
private use. Occasionally in his schemes he showed greater zeal than
prudence. He was the originator of a mission to India which was warmly
taken up by the East India Company. He undertook himself to train as
missionaries four scholars at Oxford, procured a set of Arabic types,
and issued from these the Gospels and Acts in the Malay language in
1677. But this was scarcely the best method of communicating the gospel
to the natives of India, and the mission collapsed. He affected to
despise public opinion, and was masterful and despotic in his dealings
with others, especially with those upon whom he was conferring favours.
Having generously undertaken at his own charge to publish a Latin
version of Wood's _History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford_,
with the object of presenting the history of the university in a manner
worthy of the great subject to European readers, and of extending its
fame abroad, he arrogated to himself the right of editing the work. "He
would correct, alter, dash out what he pleased.... He was a great man
and carried all things at his pleasure." In particular he struck out all
the passages which Wood had inserted in praise of Hobbes, and
substituted some disparaging epithets. He called the philosopher's
_Leviathan_ "monstrosissimus" and "publico damno notissimus." To the
printed remonstrance of Hobbes, Fell inserted an insulting reply in the
_History_ to "irritabile illud et vanissimum Malmesburiense animal," and
to the complaint of Wood at this usage answered only that Hobbes "was an
old man, had one foot in the grave; that he should mind his latter end,
and not trouble the world any more with his papers." In small things as
in great he loved to rule and direct. "Let not Fell," writes R. South to
R. Bathurst, "have the fingering and altering of them (i.e. his Latin
verses), for I think that, bating the want of _siquidems_ and
_quinetiams_, they are as good as his Worship can make." Wood styles him
"a valde vult person." He was not content with ruling his own college,
but desired to govern the whole university. He prevented Gilbert
Ironside, who "was not pliable to his humour," from holding the office
of vice-chancellor. He "endeavoured to carry all things by a high hand;
scorn'd in the least to court the Masters when he had to have anything
pass'd the convocation. Severe to other colleges, blind as to his own,
very partiall and with good words, and flatterers and tell-tales could
get anything out of him." According to Bishop Burnet, who praises his
character and his administration, Fell was "a little too much heated in
the matter of our disputes with the dissenters." "He had much zeal for
reforming abuses, and managed it perhaps with too much heat and in too
peremptory a way." "But," he adds, "we have so little of that among us
that no wonder if such men are censured by those who love not such
patterns nor such severe task-masters." And Wood, whose adverse
criticism must be discounted a little on account of the personal
dispute,--after declaring that Fell "was exceeding partial in his
government even to corruption; went thro' thick and thin; grasped at all
yet did nothing perfect or effectually; cared not what people said of
him, was in many things very rude and in most pedantic and
pedagogical,"--concludes with the acknowledgment, "yet still aimed at
the public good." Roger North, who paid Fell a visit at Oxford, speaks
of him in terms of enthusiasm:--"The great Dr Fell, who was truly great
in all his circumstances, capacities, undertakings and learning, and
above all for his superabundant public spirit and goodwill.... O the
felicity of that age and place when his authority swayed!"
In November 1684, at the command of the king, Fell deprived Locke, who
had incurred the royal displeasure by his friendship with Shaftesbury,
and was suspected as the author of certain seditious pamphlets, of his
studentship at Christ Church, summarily and without hearing his defence.
Fell had in former years cultivated Locke's friendship, had kept up a
correspondence with him, and in 1663 had written a testimonial in his
favour; and the ready compliance of one who could on occasion offer a
stout resistance to any invasion of the privileges of the university has
been severely criticised. It must, however, be remembered in extenuation
that the legal status of a person on the foundation of a collegiate body
had not then been decided in the law-courts. With regard to the justice
of the proceeding Fell had evidently some doubts, and he afterwards
expressed his regret for the step which he was now compelled to take.
But such scruples, however strong, would, with a man of Fell's political
and religious opinions, yield immediately to an order from the
sovereign, who possessed special authority in this case as a visitor to
the college; and such subservience, however strange to modern notions,
would probably only be considered natural and proper at that period.
Fell, who had never married, died on the 10th of July 1686, worn out,
according to Wood, by his overwhelming public duties. He was buried in
the divinity chapel in the cathedral, below the seat which he had so
often occupied when living, where a monument and an epitaph, now moved
elsewhere, were placed to his memory. "His death," writes John Evelyn,
"was an extraordinary losse to the poore church at this time"; but for
himself Fell was fortunate in the time of his departure; for a few
months more of life would have necessitated a choice, most painful to a
man of his character and creed, between fidelity to his sovereign and to
his church. With all his faults, which were the defects which often
attend eminent qualities such as his, Fell was a great man, "the
greatest governor," according to Speaker Onslow, "that has ever been
since his time in either of the universities," and of his own college,
to which he left several exhibitions for the maintenance of poor
scholars, he was a second founder. He was a worthy upholder of the
Laudian tradition at Oxford, an enlightened and untiring patron of
learning, and a man of exemplary morals and great piety which remained
unsullied in the midst of a busy life and much contact with the world. A
sum of money was left by John Cross to perpetuate Fell's memory by an
annual speech in his praise, but the _Felii laudes_ have been
discontinued since 1866. There are two interesting pictures of Fell at
Christ Church, one where he is represented with his two friends
Allestree and Dolben, and another by Vandyck. The statue placed on the
N.E. angle of the Great Quadrangle bears no likeness to the bishop, who
is described by Hearne as a "thin grave man."
Besides the learned works already mentioned Fell wrote the lives of his
friends Dr Henry Hammond (1661), Richard Allestree, prefixed to his
edition of the latter's sermons (1684), and Dr Thomas Willis, in Latin.
His _Seasonable advice to Protestants showing the necessity of
maintaining the Established Religion in opposition to Popery_ was
published in 1688. Some of his sermons, which Evelyn found dull, were
printed, including _Character of the Last Daies_, preached before the
king, 1675, and a _Sermon preached before the House of Peers Dec. 22,
1680_. _The Interest of England stated_ (1659), advocating the
restoration of the king,[3] and _The Vanity of Scoffing_ (1674), are
also attributed to him. Fell probably had some share in the composition
of _The Whole Duty of Man_, and in the subsequent works published under
the name of the author of _The Whole Duty_, which included _Reasons of
the Decay of Christian Piety_, _The Ladies Calling_, _The Gentleman's
Calling_, _The Government of the Tongue_, _The Art of Contentment_, and
_The Lively Oracles given us_, all of which were published in one volume
with notes and a preface by Fell in 1684.
AUTHORITIES.--Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_ and _Fasti_ (ed. Bliss);
Wood's _Life and Times_, ed. by A. Clark; Burnet's _Hist. of His Own
Time_, ed. 1833; J. Welch, _Alumni Westmonasterienses_; Thomas Hearne,
_Collections_, ed. by C.E. Doble and others; _History of the Univ. of
Oxford_ (1814); _Christ Church_, by Rev. H.L. Thompson; _Fortnightly
Review_, lix. 689 (May 1896); _Macmillan's Magazine_ (Aug. 1875); _A
Specimen of the several sorts of Letter given to the University by
Dr J. F(ell)_ (1695); _Notes and Queries_, ser. vi. 2, and ser. vii.
166; _Calendars of State Papers, Dom. Series_ (1660-1675). Fell's
books and papers were bequeathed by his nephew Henry Jones to the
Bodleian library. A few of his letters are to be found in _Add. MSS._
Brit. Mus. 11046, and some are printed in _Life of James II._, by Ch.
J. Fox, _Appendix_; _Gent. Mag._ 77, p. 633; _Academy_, 8, p. 141;
_Athenaeum_ for 1887 (2), p. 311; J. Gutch, _Collectanea Curiosa_, i.
269; and in _Cal. of State Papers, Dom. Series_. (P. C. Y.)