in the "Shipwreck" may be applied to himself and taken to be more than a poetic colouring; and we think no one "condemned reluctant to the faithless sea," would ever have turned out so thorough a sailor, and have spent nearly his whole life afloat. Be this as it may, while yet a boy he was apprenticed on board a merchantman at Leith. Subsequently he went into a ship in which Campbell, the author of Lexiphanes, was purser, who observing his quickness took him as his servant, encouraged and assisted him in studying, and used to boast of having been his teacher. Before Falconer had reached the age of eighteen he obtained the post of second mate in the Britannia, a merchant vessel engaged in the Levantine trade. This vessel was shipwrecked on her voyage from Alexandria to Venice, off Cape Colonna; he and two others of the crew only being saved. The terrible incidents of that scene were deeply impressed on the mind and imagination of the young man, and his marvellous and vivid descriptions of them have conferred on him an enduring fame. Returning to his native city, he made his first essays in authorship. In 1751 he published an elegy on the death of the prince of Wales, and some small pieces, in the Gentleman's Magazine. Other pieces are attributed to him, but without any sufficient warrant. It is stated that Falconer again went to sea in the interval between this and 1760, in the spring of which year he published his poem, the "Shipwreck," and dedicated it to the duke of York, then rear-admiral of the blue. Such a poem from such a man turned the eyes of the literary world upon the author, and the Monthly Review, then the leading exponent of literary criticism, spoke of it in terms of high eulogy. The duke became his patron, and obtained for him in the ensuing summer the post of midshipman in the royal navy, on board the Royal George commanded by Sir Edward George Hawke. Even here the muse found a place. Withdrawing himself at times from the ruder scenes around him, he would sit between the cable-trees and the ship's side and indulge in poetic composition. Thus it was he wrote his "Ode on the Duke of York's second departure from England." In 1763 peace was proclaimed, and Falconer's ship was paid off; but he quickly obtained the post of purser to the Glory, and about the same time married a young lady of the name of Hicks, the daughter of a surgeon at Sheerness. The marriage was a happy one. She was a woman of good sense and strong affection; she soothed and sustained her husband during many a struggle with the trials that beset a poor author, and had the reward in her widowed old age, of deriving a competency from one of her husband's publications. After a time the Glory was laid up in Chatham, but Falconer did not even then leave her. By the kindness of Commissioner Hanway, the captain's cabin was fitted up for the poet, and here he lived and studied, working assiduously at his "Marine Dictionary," a book of great merit and value, which he published in 1769. In the interval, Falconer wrote the "Demagogue," published in 1765, and went to try his fortune in London. He does not appear to have been successful, though in 1768 he received a proposal from Mr. Murray, who was then about to establish the business which in his son's day became so eminent, to join him as a partner. Why this offer was declined is unknown—possibly his appointment to the pursership of the Aurora may account for it. At all events on the 20th September, 1769, he sailed from England—never more to return. The Aurora was never heard of afterwards; whether she foundered in the Mozambique channel, was burned, or cast away on a reef of rocks near Macao—for all these fatalities were conjectured—none can say. No one escaped to tell in verse or prose the horrors of that shipwreck. The fame of Falconer rests on the "Shipwreck," and rests on it securely. While we dissent from the extravagant praise lavished upon it in his own day, we think that it is undervalued in ours. As the production of a half-taught sailor, its diction is surprisingly good, inflated no doubt occasionally, and disfigured with the conventional vice of mythology then prevalent, but now happily extinct; but the wonderful adaptation of naval phraseology to poetic uses, the harmony of its rhythm, and above all, the terrible and minute fidelity of its vivid pictures, entitle the "Shipwreck" to a high place as a poetic composition. A singular commendation is given of it by Clarke. "It is," he says, "of inestimable value to this country, since it contains within itself the rudiments of navigation; if not sufficient to form a complete seaman, it may certainly be considered as the grammar of his professional science. I have heard many experienced officers declare, that the rules and maxims delivered in this poem for the conduct of a ship in the most perilous emergency, form the best, indeed the only opinions which a skilful mariner should adopt." In appearance, Falconer was hard-featured, awkward, and blunt in manners, but his speech was singularly fluent, simple, and impressive; and though educated only in English, he was never at a loss to understand French, Spanish, Italian, or German.—J. F. W.
FALCONET, Camille, a French physician, was born at Lyons in 1671, and died in 1762. After completing his curriculum he settled at Lyons, whence in 1707 he went to Paris, where he became one of the king's consulting physicians, &c. He was received into the medical faculty in 1709, and seven years afterwards was chosen a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres. Falconet had made an immense collection of books, and bequeathed about eleven thousand volumes to the bibliothéque du roi. He devoted much of his leisure time to literary pursuits, and published a number of works.—R. M., A.
FALCONET, Etienne-Maurice, was born at Vivay, Switzerland, in 1716, and died at Paris, January 24, 1791. Falconet studied sculpture under Lemoine of Paris. His early works, whether classical in subject, religious, or monumental, are marked by the naturalistic style then prevalent, and may be called picturesque, rather than sculpturesque. At the age of fifty he removed to St. Petersburg, on the invitation of the Empress Catherine II., in order to execute the colossal equestrian statue of Peter the Great. This work occupied him twelve years, the casting of the statue, and the removal and erecting of the enormous granite block which forms its pedestal, having, no less than the modelling of the statue, to be superintended by the sculptor himself. This is Falconet's greatest work, and though open to criticism, it is perhaps the most impressive work of its class erected in the eighteenth century. In 1778 he returned to Paris, but thenceforward devoted himself rather to the literature than the practice of his art. In 1783 he was struck with paralysis, as he was about to set out on a journey to Italy. He survived eight years, retaining his mental powers unimpaired. Falconet wrote "Réflexions sur la Sculpture," which have been translated into English and German; a commentary on books 34-36 of Pliny, republished in 2 vols. 8vo, 1772, with notes on the sculpture and painting of the ancients, &c. His collected writings were published in 6 vols. 8vo, Lausanne, 1782; and again, with his life prefixed, in 3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1808. Few examples of his sculpture are in this country, but casts of his group of "Milon of Crotona," and one or two other works, are in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. His grand work, "The Assumption," in the church of St. Roch at Paris, and some others in the churches of that city, were destroyed during the first revolution.—J. T—e.
FALCONIA, Proba, a Latin poetess of the fourth century, was born at Hortanum in Etruria. She is said to have been the wife of the proconsul Adelphius; and though considerable obscurity rests upon her history, it seems certain that she was not the Proba who was accused of opening the gates of Rome to the invading Goths. The work which she composed under the title of "Cento Virgilianus," was a version of the gospel history in Latin verse, ingeniously fabricated of words and phrases culled out of the writings of Virgil. It has been published by Wolfius in his Mulierum Græcarum Fragmenta.—W. B.
FALEIRO, Ruy, a Portuguese geographer, born towards the end of the fifteenth century; died in 1523. He had already attained distinction as a mathematician when he became associated with Magellan, and, like him, forsook the court of Portugal and offered his services to Charles V. He conceived the idea of reaching the Moluccas by a new route, and in the convention entered into with the emperor, he was placed on the same footing with Magellan himself, receiving the distinction of the order of St. Jago. But before the expedition sailed, a misunderstanding arose between the two commanders, and (whether as cause or consequence of this is uncertain) his reason became impaired. After Magellan had sailed Faleiro returned to Portugal, where he was thrown into prison. He afterwards returned to Spain, and died in an asylum for lunatics.—F. M. W.
FALETTI, Geronimo. See Falletti.
FALIERI or FALETRI, one of the most ancient of the noble families of Venice. One Falieri was of the number of the twelve electors who chose the first doge, Paulus Lucas Anafestus, in the year 697. Several members of this house were subsequently raised to the highest dignities in the state
