“She’ll come when she hears it crying, In the shape of an owl or bat, And she’ll bring us our darling Anna In place of her screeching brat.”

The delusion is removed and her senses restored in answer to the prayer of her husband.

“Now, mount and ride, my goodman, As thou lovest thy own soul! Woe’s me if my wicked fancies Be the death of Goodwife Cole!” J.G. Whittier, The Changeling.

W. Bayle Bernard, of Boston, Mass., has a tragedy on the same subject.

=Favori´ta= (La), Leonora de Guzman, “favorite” of Alfonzo XI. of Castile. Ferdinando fell in love with her; and the king, to save himself from excommunication, sanctioned the marriage. But when Ferdinando learned that Leonora was the king’s mistress, he rejected the alliance with indignation, and became a monk. Leonora also became a novice in the same monastery, saw Ferdinando, obtained his forgiveness, and died.—Donizetti, La Favorita (an opera, 1842).

=Faw= (Tibbie), the ostler’s wife, in Wandering Willie’s tale.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

=Faw´nia=, the lady beloved by Dorastus.—R. Greene, Pandosto, The Triumph of Time (1588).

⁂ Shakespeare founded his Winter’s Tale on Greene’s romance.

=Fazio=, a Florentine, who first tried to make a fortune by alchemy, but being present when Bartoldo died, he buried the body secretly, and stole the miser’s money-bags. Being now rich he passed his time with the Marchioness Aldabella in licentious pleasure, and his wife Bianca, out of jealousy, accused him to the duke of being privy to Bartoldo’s death. For this offence Fazio was condemned to die; and Bianca, having tried in vain to save him, went mad with grief, and died of a broken heart.—Dean Milman, Fazio (1815).

=Fea= (Euphane), the old house-keeper of the old udaller at Burgh-Westra. (A “udaller” is one who holds land by allodial tenure.)—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

=Fear Fortress=, near Saragossa. An allegorical bogie fort, conjured up by fear, which vanishes as it is courageously approached and boldly besieged.

If a child disappeared, or any cattle were carried off, the frightened peasants said: “The Lord of Fear Fortress has taken them.” If a fire broke out anywhere, it was the Lord of Fear Fortress who must have lit it. The origin of all accidents, mishaps, and disasters, was traced to the mysterious owner of this invisible castle.—L’Epine, Croquemitaine, iii. 1.

=Fearless= (The), Jean duc de Bourgoigne, called Sans Peur (1371-1419).

=Featherhead= (John), Esq., an opponent of Sir Thomas Kittlecourt, M.P.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

=Fedalina=. Daughter of the gypsy chief and heroine of The Spanish Gypsy, by George Eliot.

=Fee= and =Fairy=. Fee is the more general term, including the latter. The Arabian Nights are not all fairy tales, but they are all fee tales or contes des fées. So again, the Ossianic tales, Campbell’s Tales of the West Highlands, the mythological tales of the Basques, Irish, Scandinavians, Germans, French, etc., may all be ranged under fee tales.

=Feeble= (Francis), a woman’s tailor, and one of the recruits of Sir John Falstaff. Although a thin, starveling yard-wand of a man, he expresses great willingness to be drawn. Sir John compliments him as “courageous Feeble,” and says to him, “Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse.... most forcible Feeble.”—Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. act iii. sc. 2 (1598).

=Feeder= (Mr.), B.A., usher in the school of Dr. Blimber of Brighton. He was “a kind of human barrel-organ, which played only one tune.” He was in the habit of shaving his head to keep it cool. Mr. Feeder married Miss Blimber, the doctor’s daughter, and succeeded to the school.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

=Feenix=, nephew of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton (mother of Edith, Mr. Dombey’s second wife), Feenix was a very old gentleman, patched up to look as much like a young fop as possible.

Cousin Feenix was a man about town forty years ago; but he is still so juvenile in figure and manner that strangers are amazed when they discover latent wrinkles in his lordship’s face, and crow’s feet in his eyes. But cousin Feenix getting up at half-past seven, is quite another thing from cousin Feenix got up.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son, xxxi. (1846).

=Feignwell= (Colonel) the suitor of Anne Lovely, an heiress. Anne Lovely had to obtain the consent of her four guardians before she could marry. One was an old beau, another a virtuoso, a third a broker on ’Change, and the fourth a canting quaker. The colonel made himself agreeable to all, and carried off his prize.—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

=Feinai´gle= (Gregory de), a German mnemonist (1765-1820). He obtained some success by his aids to memory, but in Paris he was an object of ridicule.

Her memory was a mine ... For her Feinaigle’s was a useless art Byron, Don Juan, i. 11 (1819).

=Felice=, wife of Sir Guy Warwick, said to have “the same high forehead as Venus.”

=Felic´ian= (Father), a catholic priest and schoolmaster of Grand Pré, in Acadia (now called Nova Scotia). He accompanied Evangeline in part of her wanderings to find Gabriel, her affianced husband.—Longfellow, Evangeline (1849).

=Felicians= (The), the happy nation. The Felicians live under a free sovereignty, where the laws are absolute. Felicia is the French “Utopia.”—Mercier de la Rivière, L’Heureuse Nation (1767).

=Feliciano de Sylva=, Don Quixote’s favorite author. The two following extracts were, in his opinion, unsurpassed and unsurpassable:—

The reason, most adored one, of your unreasonable unreasonableness hath so unreasonably unseated my reason, that I have no reasonable reason for reasoning against such unreasonableness.

The bright heaven of your divinity that lifts you to the stars, most celestial of women, renders you deserving of every desert which your charms so deservedly deserve.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. i. 8 (1605).

=Félicie=, happy French girl, the daughter of Jean and Gabrielle Waldo. Her mother gives her poison by mistake, from the effects of which she is relieved by John of Lugio, summoned from his home many leagues away, “IN HIS NAME.”—Edward Everett Hale, In His Name (1887).

=Felix=, a monk who listened to the singing of a milk-white bird for a hundred years; which length of time seemed to him “but a single hour,” so enchanted was he with the song.—Longfellow, The Golden Legend. (See also Hildesheim.)

Felix (Don), son of Don Lopez. He was a Portuguese nobleman, in love with Violante; but Violante’s father, Don Pedro, intended to make her a nun. Donna Isabella, having fled from home to avoid a marriage disagreeable to her, took refuge with Violante; and when Colonel Briton called at the house to see Donna Isabella, her brother Don Felix was jealous, believing that Violante was the object of his visits. Violante kept “her friend’s secret,” even at the risk of losing her lover; but ultimately the mystery was cleared up, and a double marriage took place.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Wonder (1714).

Felix Holt (See Holt).

Felix (M. Minucius), a Roman lawyer, who flourished A.D. 230; he wrote a dialogue entitled Octavius, which occupies a conspicuous place among the early Apologies of Christianity.

Like Menucius Felix, she believed that evil demons hid themselves in the marbles [_statues_].—Ouida, Ariadnê, i. 9.

Felix (St.), of Burgundy, who converted Sigbert (Sigebert or Sabert) king of the East Saxons, (A.D. 604).—Ethelwerd, Chronicles, v.

So Burgundy to us three men most reverend bare ... Of which way Felix first, who in th’ East Saxon reign Converted to the faith King Sigbert. Him again Ensueth Anselm ... and Hugh ... [_bishop of Lincoln_]. Drayton Polyolbion, xxiv. (1622).

=Fe´lixmar´te= (4 syl.) of Hyrcania, son of Flo´risan and Martedi´na, the hero of a Spanish romance of chivalry. The curate in Don Quixote condemned this work to the flames.—Melchior de Orteza, Caballera de Ubĕda (1566).

=Felix= (Varian). The Adonis of his circle, who falls in love with a beautiful woman, already the wife of another man. He flies from temptation and does not return until she is the other man’s widow; then woos and weds her.—Miriam Coles Harris, A Perfect Adonis (1875).

=Fell= (Dr.). Tom Brown, being in disgrace, was sent by Dr. Fell, dean of Christ Church (1625-1686), to translate the thirty-third epigram of Martial.

Non amo te, Zabidi, nec possum dicere quare; Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.

Which he rendered thus:

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell— The reason why I cannot tell; But this I know, and know full well, I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.

=Feltham= (Black), a highwayman with Captain Colepepper or Peppercull (the Alsatian bully).—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

=Femmes Savantes= (Les), women who go in for women’s rights, science, and philosophy, to the neglect of domestic duties and wifely amenities. The “blue-stockings” are (1) Philaminte (3 syl.) the mother of Henriette, who discharges one of her servants because she speaks ungrammatically; (2) Armande (2 syl.) sister of Henriette, who advocates platonic love and science; and (3) Bélise, sister of Philaminte, who sides with her in all things, but imagines that every one is in love with her. Henriette, who has no sympathy with these “lofty flights,” is in love with Clitandre, but Philaminte wants her to marry Trissotin, a bel esprit. However, the father loses his property through the “savant” proclivities of his wife, Trissotin retires, and Clitandre marries Henriette, the “perfect” or thorough woman.—Moliere, Les Femmes Savantes (1672).