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
=Four Masters= (_The_). (1) Michael O’Clerighe, (2) Cucoirighe
O’Clerighe; (3) Maurice Conry; (4) Fearfeafa Conry. These four masters
were the authors of the _Annals of Donegal_.
⁂ O’Clerighe is sometimes Anglicized into _Clerkson_, and Cucoirighe
into _Peregrine_.
=Fourberies de Scapin= (_Les_), by Molière (1671). Scapin is the valet
of Lèandre, son of seignior Gèronte (2 _syl._), who falls in love with
Zerbinette, supposed to be a gypsy, but in reality the daughter of
seignior Argante (2 _syl._), stolen by the gypsies in early childhood.
Her brother Octave (2 _syl._) falls in love with Hyacinthe, whom he
supposes to be Hyacinthe Pandolphe of Tarentum, but who turns out to be
Hyacinthe Gèronte, the sister of Lèandre. Now, the gypsies demand £1500
as the ransom of Zerbinette, and Octave requires £80 for his marriage
with Hyacinthe. Scapin obtains both these sums from the fathers under
false pretences, and at the end of the comedy is brought in on a litter,
with his head bound as if on the point of death. He begs forgiveness,
which he readily obtains; whereupon the “sick man” jumps from the litter
to join the banqueters. (See SCAPIN.)
=Fourde´lis=, personification of France, called the true love of Burbon
(_Henri IV._), but enticed away from him by Grantorto (_rebellion_).
Talus (_power_ or _might_) rescues her, but when Burbon catches her by
her “ragged weeds,” she starts back in disdain. However, the knight
lifts her on his steed, and rides off with her,—Spenser, _Faëry Queen_,
v. 2 (1596).
=Fou´rierism=, a communistic system; so called from François Charles
Fourier of Besançon (1772-1837).
=Fourolle= (2 _syl._), a Will-o’-the-wisp, supposed to have the power of
charming sinful human beings into the same form. The charm lasted for a
term of years only, unless it chanced that some good Catholic, wishing
to extinguish the wandering flame, made to it the sign of the cross, in
which case the sinful creature became a fourolle every night, by way of
penance.
=Fourteen=, the name of a young man who could do the work of fourteen
men, but had also the appetite of fourteen men. Like Christoph´erus, he
carried our Lord across a stream, for which service the Saviour gave him
a sack, saying, “Whatever you wish for will come into this sack, if you
only say ‘Artchila murtchila!’” (_i.e._ “come (_or_ go) into my sack”).
Fourteen’s last achievement was this: He went to paradise, and being
refused admission, poked his sack through the keyhole of the door; then
crying out “Artchila murtchila!” (“get into the sack”), he found himself
on the other side of the door, and, of course, in paradise.—Rev. W.
Webster, _Basque Legends_, 195 (1877).
_Fourteen._ This number plays a very conspicuous part in French history,
especially in the reigns of Henri IV. and Louis XIV. For example:
14th May, 1029, the _first_ Henri was consecrated, and 14th May, 1610,
the _last_ Henri was assassinated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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