=Flock´hart= (Widow), landlady of the lodgings in the Canongate where Waverley and M’Ivor dine with the baron of Bradwardine (3 syl.).—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

=Flogged by Deputy.= The Marquis de Leganez forbade the tutor of his son to use rigor or corporal punishment of any kind, so the tutor hit upon this device to intimidate the boy: he flogged a lad named Raphael, brought up with young Leganez as a playmate, whenever that young nobleman deserved punishment. This produced an excellent effect; but Raphael did not see its justice and ran away.—Lesage, Gil Blas, v. i. (1724).

=Flollo= or =Flollio=, a Roman tribune, who held the province of Gaul under the Emperor Leo. When King Arthur invaded Gaul, the tribune fled to Paris, which Arthur besieged, and Flollo proposed to decide the quarrel by single combat. To this Arthur agreed, and cleft with his sword Caliburn both the helmet and head of his adversary. Having made himself master of all Gaul, King Arthur held his court at Paris.—Geoffrey, British History, ix. 11 (1142).

And after these ... At Paris, in the lists [_Arthur_] with Flollio fought; The emperor Leon’s power to raise his siege that brought. Drayton, Polyolbion, iv. (1612).

=Flor and Blancheflor=, the title of a minnesong by Conrad Fleck, at one time immensely popular. It is the story of two children who fall in love with each other. There is a good deal of grace and tenderness in the tale, with an abundance of trash. Flor, the son of Feinix, a pagan king, is brought up with Blancheflor (an enfant volé). The two children love each other, but Feinix sells Blancheflor to some Eastern merchants. Flor goes in quest of Blancheflor, whom he finds in Babylon, in the palace of the sultan, who is a sorcerer. He gains access to the palace, hidden in a basket of roses; but the sultan discovers him, and is about to cast both into the flames, when, touched with human gentleness and love, he sets them free. They then return to Spain, find Feinix dead, and marry (fourteenth century).

=Flo´ra=, goddess of flowers. In natural history all the flowers and vegetable productions of a country and locality are called its flora, and all its animal productions its fauna.

Flora, the waiting-woman of Donna Violante. In love with Lissado, the valet of Don Felix.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Wonder (1714).

Mrs. Mattocks’s was the most affecting theatrical leave taking we ever witnessed. The part she chose was “Flora,” to Cook’s “Don Felix,” which she played with all the freshness and spirit of a woman in her prime.—The New Monthly (1826).

Flora, the niece of old Farmer Freehold. She is a great beauty, and captivates Heartwell, who marries her. The two are so well assorted that their “best love is after their espousals.”—John Philip Kemble, The Farm-house.

=Floranthe= (Donna), a lady beloved by Octavian. Octavian goes mad because he fancies Floranthê is untrue to him, but Roque, a blunt, kind-hearted servitor, assures him he is mistaken, and persuades him to return home.—G. Colman, Octavian (1824).

=Flor´delice= (3 syl.), the mistress of Bran´dimart (king of the Distant Islands).—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

=Flordespi´na=, daughter of Marsiglio.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

=Florence= (Vane). The lost love eulogized in Philip Pendleton Cooke’s poem of that name.

“Thou wast lovelier than the roses In their prime; Thy voice excelled the closes Of sweetest rhyme; Thy heart was as a river Without a main. Would I had loved thee never, Florence Vane!” (185-).

=Florence=, Mrs. Spenser Smith, daughter of Baron Herbert, the Austrian ambassador in England. She was born at Constantinople, during her father’s residence in that city. Byron made her acquaintance in Malta, but Thomas Moore thinks his devotion was more imaginary than real. In a letter to his mother, his lordship says, he “finds her [_Florence_] very pretty, very accomplished, and extremely eccentric.”

Thou mayst find a new Calypso there Sweet Florence, could another ever share This wayward, loveless heart, it would be thine. Byron, Childe Harold, ii. 30 (1810).

Florence (The German), Dresden, also called “The Florence of the North.”

Florence (Weir). A beautiful girl committed to the care of a young man who expects to meet a child. Although hardly released from an engagement to another girl he falls in love with his charge, when his former flame recalls him, but generously resigns him to her younger rival.—Ellen Olney Kirk, One too Many (1889).

=Florent=, the nephew of “the emperor,” is condemned to death, but is offered his life if he can solve a certain riddle. An old deformed hag promises him the solution if he will agree to marry her afterward. He keeps faith with his deliverer, and on the wedding-night she is transformed into a beautiful woman.—Gower, Confessio Amantis, I.

Chaucer puts this story into the mouth of “The Wife of Bath,” Canterbury Tales. He does not name the hero, but makes him a bachelor of King Artour’s court. The story is much older than Gower, and is found in the legends of several countries, but Chaucer probably borrowed it from him while changing it in details.

=Florentine Diamond= (The), the fourth largest cut diamond in the world. It weighs 139-1/2 carats, and was the largest diamond belonging to Charles “the Bold,” duke of Burgundy. It was picked up by a Swiss peasant, who sold it to a priest for half a crown. The priest sold it for £200 to Bartholomew May, of Berne. It subsequently came into the hands of Pope Julius II., and the pope gave it to the Emperor of Austria. (See DIAMONDS.)

=Flores= or Isle of Flowers, one of the Azores (2 syl.). It was discovered in 1439 by Vanderburg, and is especially celebrated because it was near this isle that Sir Richard Grenville, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, fought his famous sea-fight. He had only one ship with a hundred men, and was opposed by the Spanish fleet of fifty-three men-of-war. For some hours victory was doubtful, and when Sir Richard was severely wounded, he wanted to sink the ship; but the Spaniards boarded it, complimented him on his heroic conduct, and he died. As the ship (The Revenge) was on its way to Spain, it was wrecked, and went to the bottom, so it never reached Spain after all. Tennyson has a poem on the subject (1878).

Flo´res (2 syl.), the lover of Blanchefleur.—Boccaccio, Il Filocopo (1340)

⁂ Boccaccio has repeated the tale in his Decameron, x. 5 (1352), in which Flores is called “Ansaldo,” and Blanchefleur “Diano´ra.” Flores and Blanchefleur, before Boccaccio’s time, were noted lovers, and are mentioned as early as 1288 by Matfre Ermengaud de Beziers, in his Breviaire d’Amour.

Chaucer has taken the same story as the basis of the Frankeleine’s Tale, and Bojardo has introduced it as an episode in his Orlando Innamorato, where the lover is “Prasildo” and the lady “Tisbina.” (See PRASILDO.)

The chroniclers of Charlemagne, Of Merlin, and the Mort d’Arthure, Mingled together in his brain, With tale of Flores and Blanchefleur. Longfellow.

=Flores´ki= (Count), a Pole, in love with Princess Lodois´ka (4 syl.). At the opening of the play he is travelling with his servant Verbel to discover where the princess has been placed by her father during the war. He falls in with the Tartar chief Kera Khan, whom he overpowers in fight, but spares his life, and thus makes him his friend. Floreski finds the princess in the castle of Baron Lovinski, who keeps her a virtual prisoner, but the castle being stormed by the Tartars the baron is slain, and the princess marries the count.—J.P. Kemble, Lodoiska.

=Flo´rez=, son of Gerrard, king of the beggars. He assumes the name of Goswin, and becomes, in Bruges, a wealthy merchant. His mistress is Bertha, the supposed daughter of Vandunke the burgomaster.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Beggars’ Bush (1622).

=Flor´ian=, the “foundling of the forest,” discovered in infancy by the Count De Valmont, and adopted as his own son. Florian is light-hearted and volatile, but with deep affection, very brave, and the delight of all who know him. He is betrothed to his cousin, Lady Geraldine, a ward of Count De Valmont.—W. Dimond, The Foundling of the Forest.

=Florida= (Vervain), American girl with her mother in Venice. She takes Italian lessons from Don Ippolito, a young priest, who has mistaken his calling. The girl’s pity for him and her desire to see him freed from a false position and in a different profession in America are misunderstood by her lover, Henry Ferris. Separation and sorrow ensue. Ippolito’s death-bed confession to Ferris clears up the mystery.

“If it is a little shocking, it is nevertheless true, and true to human nature that they spoke of Don Ippolito as if he were a part of their love.”—W.D. Howells, A Foregone Conclusion, (1874).

=Flor´imel=, “the Fair,” courted by Sir Sat´yrane, Sir Per´idure, and Sir Cal´idore (each 3 syl.), but she herself “loved none but Mar´inel,” who cared not for her. When Marinel was overthrown by Britomart and was reported to be dead, Florimel resolved to search into the truth of this rumor. In her wanderings, she came weary to the hut of a hag, but when she left the hut the hag sent a savage monster to bring her back. Florimel, however, jumped into a boat and escaped, but fell into the hands of Proteus (2 syl.), who kept her in a dungeon “deep in the bottom of a huge great rock.” One day, Marinel and his mother went to a banquet given by Proteus to the sea-gods; and as Marinel was loitering about, he heard the captive bemoaning her hard fate, and all “for love of Marinel.” His heart was touched; he resolved to release the prisoner, and obtained from his mother a warrant of release, signed by Neptune himself. Proteus did not dare to disobey, the lady was released, and became the happy bride of her liberator.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iii. 4, 8, and iv. 11, 12 (1590-1596).