=Freron= (_Jean_), the person bitten by a mad dog, referred to by Goldsmith in the lines: The man recovered of the bite The dog it was that died. _Elegy on a Mad Dog_. Un serpent mordit Jean Freron, eh bien? Le serpent en mourut. Gibbon, _Decline and Fall, etc._, vii. 4 (Milman’s notes). =Freston=, an enchanter, introduced in the romance of _Don Belia´nis of Greece_. _Freston_, the enchanter, who bore Don Quixote especial ill-will. When the knight’s library was destroyed, he was told that some enchanter had carried off the books and the cupboard which contained them. The niece thought the enchanter’s name was Munaton; but the don corrected her, and said, “You mean Freston.” “Yes, yes,” said the niece, “I know the name ended in _ton_.” “That Freston,” said the knight, “is doing me all the mischief his malevolence can invent; but I regard him not.”—Ch. 7. “That cursed Freston,” said the knight, “who stole my closet and books, has transformed the giants into windmills” (ch. 8).—Cervantes, _Don Quixote._ I. i. (1605). =Friars.= The four great religious orders were Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustines, and Car´melites (3 _syl._). Dominicans are called _black_ friars, Franciscans _grey_ friars, and the other two _white_ friars. A fifth order was the Trinitarians or Crutched friars, a later foundation. The Dominicans were furthermore called _Frates Majores_, and the Franciscans _Frates Minores_. (For friars famed in fable or story, see under each respective name or pseudonym.) =Friar= (_Lawrence_). Ecclesiastic, who performs the marriage ceremony between Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s play of that name. =Friar’s Tale= (_The_), by Chaucer, in _The Canterbury Tales_ (1388). An archdeacon employed a sumpnor as his secret spy to find out offenders, with the view of exacting fines from them. In order to accomplish this more effectually, the sumpnor entered into a compact with the devil, disguised as a yeoman. Those who imprecated the devil were to be dealt with by the yeoman-devil, and those who imprecated God were to be the sumpnor’s share. They came in time to an old woman “of whom they knew no wrong,” and demanded twelve pence “for cursing.” She pleaded poverty, when the sumpnor exclaimed, “The foul fiend fetch me if I excuse thee!” and immediately the foul fiend at his side did seize him, and made off with him, too. =Fribble=, a contemptible molly-coddle, troubled with weak nerves. He “speaks like a lady for all the world, and never swears.... He wears nice white gloves, and tells his lady-love what ribbons become her complexion, where to stick her patches, who is the best milliner, where they sell the best tea, what is the best wash for the face, and the best paste for the hands. He is always playing with his lady’s fan, and showing his teeth.” He says when he is married: