Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
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Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
⁂ The two best drinking songs in the language were both by clergymen.
The other is, _I Cannot Eat but Little Meat_, by John Still, bishop of
Bath and Wells (1534-1607).
=Filome´na= (_Santa_). At Pisa the church of San Francisco contains a
chapel lately dedicated to Santa Filomena. Over the altar is a picture
by Sabatelli, which represents Filomena as a nymph-like figure floating
down from heaven, attended by two angels bearing the lily, the palm, and
a javelin. In the fore-ground are the sick and maimed, healed by her
intercession.
Nor ever shall be wanting here
The palm, the lily, and the spear:
The symbols that of yore
St. Filomena bore
Longfellow, _St. Filomena_.
⁂ Longfellow calls Florence Nightingale “St. Filomena” (born at
Florence, 1820).
=Finality John,= Lord John Russell (afterwards “Earl Russell”), who
maintained that the Reform Bill of 1832 was a _finality_ (1792-1878).
=Finch= (_Margaret_), queen of the gypsies, who died aged 109, a.d.
1740. She was born at Sutton, in Kent, and was buried at Beckenham, in
the same county.
_Finch_ (_Lucilla_). Blind girl whose sight is restored for a little
while. The man she has loved while blind has received injuries that make
him repulsive to the eye. His crafty brother contrives that the girl
shall mistake him for her betrothed. A series of complications has a
climax in the return of Miss Finch’s blindness, after which matters
resume the former course and she marries the right man.—Wilkie Collins,
_Poor Miss Finch_.
=Fine-ear,= one of the seven attendants of Fortunio. He could hear the
grass grow, and even the wool on the sheep’s back.—Comtesse D’Aunoy,
_Fairy Tales_ (“Fortunio,” 1682).
⁂ In Grimm’s _Goblin’s_ is the same fairy tale (“Fortunio”).
=Fin´etor,= a necromancer, father of the Enchantress Damsel.—Vasco de
Lobeira, _Amadis de Gaul_ (thirteenth century).
=Finetta,= “the cinder girl,” a fairy tale by the Comtesse D’Aunoy
(1682). This is merely the old tale of Cinderella slightly altered.
Finetta was the youngest of three princesses, despised by them, and put
to all sorts of menial work. The two sisters went to balls, and left
Finetta at home in charge of the house. One day she found a gold key,
which opened a wardrobe full of most excellent dresses; so arraying
herself in one, she followed her sisters to the ball, but she was so
fine that they knew her not, and she ran home before them. This occurred
two or three times, but at last, in running home, she lost one of her
slippers. The young prince resolved to marry her whose foot fitted the
slipper, and Finetta became his wife. Finetta was also called Auricula
or “Fine-ear.”
=Fingal= (or _Fion na Gael_).
His _father_ was Comhal or Combal, and his _mother_ Morna.
(Comhal was the son of Trathal, king of Morven, and Morna was the
daughter of Thaddu.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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