Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/152

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Dictionary of English Literature

and in 1502 he became first prof. at Camb., where he was also (1505-8) Head of Queen's Coll. He was also instrumental in founding Christ's and St. John's Coll. For opposing the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. he was burned. Made a cardinal in 1535, he was beatified in 1886.


Fiske, John (1842-1901).—Miscellaneous writer, was b. at Hartford, Connecticut. The family name was Green; but this he dropped, and adopted that of his mother's family. After being at Harvard he studied for, and was admitted to, the Bar, but did not practise. He wrote on a variety of subjects, including mythology, history, and evolution. Among his books on these subjects are, Myths and Mythmakers (1872), Cosmic Philosophy, Darwinism, The Idea of God, Origin of Evil. He was also the author of many works on America. These include Old Virginia, New France and New England, The American Revolution, and Discovery of America (1892).


Fitzgerald, Edward (1809-1883).—Translator and letter-writer, was b. near Woodbridge, Suffolk, s. of John Purcell, who took his wife's surname on the death of her f. in 1818. He was ed. at Bury St. Edmunds and Camb. Thereafter he lived in retirement and study with his parents until 1838, when he took a neighbouring cottage. In 1856 he m. a dau. of Bernard Barton, the poet, from whom, however, he soon separated. Afterwards he lived at various places in the East of England, continuing his studies, with yachting for his chief recreation. By this time, however, he had become an author, having written a life of his father-in-law prefixed to his coll. poems (1849), Euphranor, a dialogue on youth (1851), and Polonius, a Collection of Wise Saws and Modern Instances (1852). Becoming interested in Spanish literature, he pub. translations of Six Dramas of Calderon. Thereafter turning his attention to Persian, he produced (1859), anonymously, his famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. He also pub. translations of the Agamemnon of Æschylus, and the Œdipus Tyrannus and Œdipus Coloneus of Sophocles. In his translations F. aimed not so much at a mere literal reproduction of the sense of the original, as at reproducing its effect on the reader, and in this he was extraordinarily successful. In the department of letter-writing also he attained an excellence perhaps unequalled in his day.


Fitzstephen, William (d. 1190).—Was a servant of Thomas à Becket, witnessed his murder, and wrote his biography, which contains an interesting account of London in the 12th century.


Flavel, John (1627-1691).—Divine, b. at Bromsgrove, studied at Oxf., was a Presbyterian, and was settled at Dartmouth, but ejected from his living in 1662, continuing, however, to preach there secretly. He was a voluminous and popular author. Among his works are Husbandry Spiritualised and Navigation Spiritualised, titles which suggest some of his characteristics as an expositor.


Flecknoe, Richard (d. 1678).—Poet, said to have been an Irish priest. He wrote several plays, now forgotten, also miscellaneous poems, some of them sacred, and a book of travels. His name has been preserved in Dryden's satire, MacFlecknoe, as