Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/67

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F A W F A W 57 dria, Cornelius Fronto, and Aulus Gellius, with Hadrian himself, he lived on intimate terms. His good humour appears to have been as inexhaustible as his wit, though in his later years he condescended to violent abuse of his rival j Folemon, who divided with him the suffrages of Asia, the Smyrniote faction, pronouncing Polemon to be the greater rhetorician of the two, while that of Ephesus declared for Favorinus. It was Favorinus who, on being silenced by Hadrian in an argument in which the sophist might easily have refuted his adversary, made the subsequent explana tion to his friend that it was foolish to criticize the logic of the master of thirty legions. It was one of his sarcastic boasts that though he had offended Hadrian he still con tinued to live. When the servile Athenians, feigning to share the emperor s displeasure with the sophist, pulled down a statue which they had erected to the latter, Favorinus remarked that if Socrates also had only had a statue at Athens, he might have been spared the hemlock. Of the very numerous works of Favorinus, we possess only a few fragments preserved by Aulus Gellius, Diogenes Laertius, Philostratus, and Suida, the second of whom borrows from his TlavroSaTny Icrropt a. His Iluppwvecoi TpoVot, in ten books, mentioned by Fhilostratus in his Lives of the Sophists, i. 8, 4, appears to have been his chief work. The most modern sources of information regarding the life and work of Favorinus are Fragmcnta Philosopher um Grcecorum, col lected and annotated by F. "W. A. Mullach, Paris, 1857 and I860. See also J. F. Gregor s Commcntatio de Favorino, 1755, and Forsmanu s Disscrtatio de Favorino, 1789. FAWKES, FRANCIS (1721-1777), apoet and translator, was a native of Yorkshire, and was born in the year 1721. After studying at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A., he entered into holy orders, and was suc cessively curate of Bramham, curate of Croydon, vicar of Orpington, and rector of Hayes, and finally was made one of the chaplains to the princess of "Wales. He published Bramham Park, a Poem, in 1745 ; a volume of poems and translations in 1761 ; and Partridge Shooting, a Poem, in 1767. His translations of the minor Greek poets Anacreon, Sappho, Bion and Moschus, Musteus, Theocritus, and Apollonius acquired for him considerable fame, but it may be safely predicted that when they are forgotten Fawkes will be remembered for his fine song, Dear Tom, this brown jug, that now foams with mild ale. He also edited a Family Bible with notes. He died on the 26th August 1777. FAWKES, GUY (1570-1606), the most notorious of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, was born at York, of a gentle family, in the year 1570. His grandfather and father were notaries and proctors of the ecclesiastical courts of York, the former being registrar of the exchequer court of the province, the latter an advocate of the consistory court of the cathedral. It is believed that the family was connected with the ancient house of the Fawkeses of Farnley in York shire, but the evidence of such connexion does not amount to proof. Guy was educated at the free school at the " Horsefayre," just outside the city of York, and had for schoolfellows Thomas Morton, afterwards bishop of Durham, and Thomas, grandson of Sir John Cheke. The school was under the superintendence of the dean and chap ter, and this, and the fact of his immediate ancestors being employed in the ecclesiastical courts, would have led us to conclude that Fawkes was brought up in conformity to the established church. But we have more direct evidence of this, for the names, both of his parents and of his grand mother, occur several times in the list of communicants of the parish of St Michael-le-Belfrey in which they lived. Perhaps the most determinant event in Fawkes s life happened when he was quite young. His father died when he was about eight years old, and before he came of age his mother married again. Her second husband was one Dionis Baynbridge, settled at Scotton near Knaresborough. Baynbridge was connected with several Roman Catholic families. Several families, steadfast in the old faith, were settled near Scotton, among them, that of Sir William Ingilby of Ilipley, whose sister was mother of the Robert, Thomas, and John Winter with whom, later in life, Fawkes was brought into such close contact. For some years he lived under the roof of his stepfather, who, we have every reason to believe, was a Roman Catholic. Guy was the only son and, as there was no will, the sole heir of his father. He said in confession, " My father left me but small living, which I spent." There is, in fact, evidence that when he came of age he sold the little land left him, and soon after, as it appears, enlisted as a soldier of fortune in the army of Flanders, and is said to have been present at the taking of Calais by the Archduke Albert in 1598. He was sent by Sir William Stanley and the Jesuits in Flanders to join Christopher Wright in a mission to the king of Spain im mediately after the death of Elizabeth. Early in 1604 he was again in Flanders and with Stanley. The Catholics in England had hoped much from the accession of James I. To facilitate his passage to the throne, he had given great cause for such hopes, promising that the fines against recusants should not be exacted, and bestow ing honours upon several Roman Catholic gentlemen. Therefore, when, after James was securely seated on the throne, the severe laws of Elizabeth against priests and re cusants were again put into execution, many Roman Catholic gentlemen experienced feelings of deep resentment. Robert Catesby, a man steeped in plots, conspiracies, and secret embassies, but a gentleman of great personal power and fascination, conceived a plan for the remedy of all this. His parents had suffered much for their religion, and he himself had been an incessant plotter among the discon tented Catholics of the later years of Elizabeth s reign, and for joining in Essex s rebellion had been heavily fined. But there is no reason to believe that he, or indeed any of the conspirators, were actuated by selfish motives or feelings of revenge in assenting to that scheme for the carrying out of which they dared and suffered so much. Catesby s own words probably express best the way in which they re garded the matter. " The nature of the disease," lie said, " requires so sharp a remedy." It should also be remem bered that the plot was conceived and entered upon before the more severe execution of the laws against recusants. Catesby s plan was to blow up king, lords, and commons in the Parliament House with gunpowder. Early in 1604 he wrote to his cousin Thomas Winter desiring him to come to London. Winter, after some hesitation, having con sented, found Catesby at Lambeth with John Wright. All three were old plotters and companions in plots and con spiracies. Catesby now broached his new scheme to Winter, who at first wondered at the strangeness of the conception and doubted of success, but finally gave his consent to it or to anything that Catesby should decide to enter upon. Wishing, however, to leave no quiet way untried to obtain their end, it was decided that Winter should go over to- Flauders, to meet Yelasco, the constable of Castile, who was coming to England to negotiate the peace with Spain. Winter was to inform the constable of the state of the Catholics in England, and to entreat him to solicit the king that the penal laws against them might be recalled. Catesby named Fawkes aa a likely man in case this quiet way failed. Winter saw the constable at Bergen, and giv ing up the hope that much would be done by his means, sought out Fawkes, whom he found with Stanley at Ostend. Representing to him that something was in hand to be done in England, they passed together from Gravelines to IX. 8