class. In 1578 appeared his "First-Fruits," followed in 1591 by a "Second-Fruits"—both of them elementary books for learners of the Italian language. In 1580 he published an English translation of a French version of a book of voyaging, the original of which had appeared in the Italian collection of Ramusio. Warton states that the first edition of his afterwards celebrated Italian dictionary was published in 1595. The earliest edition that we have seen is dated 1598, and is entitled "A World of Wordes, &c., or most copious and exacte dictionarie in Italian and English, collected by John Florio." An address to the reader attacks in plain-spoken Elizabethan fashion a carper at his labours, and is signed "Resolute John Florio"—the style of self-definition which the lexicographer commonly affected. This edition is dedicated to three members of the aristocracy—one of whom. Lord Southampton, lives in literary history as the patron of Shakspeare—"the Right Honourable Patrons of Virtue, Patterns of Honour, Roger, Earle of Rutland; Henrie, Earle of Southampton; Lucie, Countess of Bedford." Lord Southampton is singled out in the rather high-flown and euphuistic dedication as a special patron, and addressed as "Your bounteous Lordship, most Noble, most Honourable Earle of Southampton, in whose paie and patronage I have lived some yeeres"—a circumstance which has escaped the notice both of Anthony Wood and of Wood's vigilant editor, Bliss. In 1603 appeared Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays—the earliest English version of one of the world's classics, and dedicated to "Lucie, Countess of Bedford, and to her mother, Ladie Anne Harrington." "You and your husband's hand, most courteous Ladie Harrington," exclaims the grateful dedicator, "have been still open, and your hospitable house my retreate in storms, my relief in need." To the translation of Montaigne are prefixed some commendatory verses by Samuel Daniel the poet, whose brother-in-law Florio was, the latter having married the sister of the former. Daniel was appointed "gentleman extraordinary, and afterwards one of the grooms of the privy chamber," to Anne of Denmark, the consort of James VI. of Scotland and I. of England; and it may have been through his introduction that, on the accession of James to the English throne, Florio was made Italian and French tutor to Prince Henry, the heir-apparent, "and at length," says Wood, "one of the privy chamber and clerk of the closet to Queen Anne, to whom he was a tutor also." "Queen Anne," it is recorded by her biographer, Miss Strickland, "spoke Italian fluently." In honour of his royal patroness Florio re-named his Italian and English dictionary—in the expanded edition of it published in 1611—"Queen Anna's new World of Wordes," which, according to Wood, "for the variety of words, was far more copious than any extant in the world at that time." Still further augmented and improved by his successors, Florio's was long the standard Italian dictionary of this country. He seems to have retained his position at court until his death, which happened about the same time as that of his royal mistress' husband, James I., in the spring of 1625. "Retiring," says Wood, "to Fulham in Middlesex to avoid the plague, he was overtaken by it in his old age, and died in 1625." "He was," adds old Anthony, "a very useful man in his profession, zealous in the religion he professed, and much devoted to the English nation." We have been thus particular in detailing the few facts known in the biography of Florio, because his name, however slightly, is twice associated with that of Shakspeare. Florio, it has been supposed, was the original of Holofernes, the pedantic schoolmaster of Love's Labour Lost. Further, the only book which still survives, bearing the autograph of Shakspeare, and with tolerable evidence of genuineness, is a copy of Florio's translation of Montaigne, now in the library of the British museum. One ingenious critic has even attempted to deduce certain traits in the character, and expressions in the language of Hamlet, from hints and phrases familiar to Shakspeare, through his perusal of Florio's translation of Montaigne. However this may be, it is certain that a portion of the speech, descriptive of a happy Utopia, put into the mouth of Gonzago in the "Tempest," is a most palpable blank-verse reading of a passage in Florio's "Montaigne." Those curious on the subject may consult the disquisition by Sir Frederick Madden, keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, Observations on an Autograph of Shakspeare, published in 1838. The pros and cons on the question of the identity of Florio and Holofernes will be found in the notes to Love' Labour Lost, in Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakspeare; and the weight of evidence is decidedly against the theory, first broached by Warburton, that Shakspeare ridiculed on the stage a fellow protege of his own patron, Lord Southampton. We may add that Florio's "Italian-English Dictionary" has been turned to useful account by Shaksperean critics in the elucidation of obscure words in the great dramatist's plays.—F. E.
FLORIS, Frans, a Flemish painter, born at Antwerp in 1520. His father, Cornelis de Vriend (Floris' family name), was a sculptor, and Frans was brought up to the same profession; but, preferring painting, he became the scholar of Lambert Lombardus at Liege, who had acquired the Italian taste in design. Floris adopted the same taste, and studied some years in Italy, especially at Rome, where he earned from Vasari the title of the Flemish Raphael. He established a great school at Antwerp after his return, and but for his dissipated habits would have obtained the patronage of the Emperor Charles V. and Philip II. of Spain, as he was the most able master of his time in the Netherlands. He was a habitual drunkard. He died at Antwerp in 1570. A Nativity by Floris in the cathedral at Antwerp is much praised by Reynolds. Many of his works have perished, but there are still some in the principal European galleries.—(Van Mander, Leven der Schilders.)—R. N. W.
FLORIS, Peters Williamson, was born at Dantzic, and died at London in 1615. He went to Holland, where he engaged in the East India trade, and subsequently entered the service of the English East India Company. Embarking on the 2nd January, 1610, in the Globe, he sailed for India, in the capacity of factor, and during the following four or five years displayed great vigour and adroitness in his transactions with the native princes, and with such Europeans as he found already trading in that country. He returned to London in the year of his death, worn out with the labours and anxieties of his perilous enterprise. He left a most valuable account of his travels in Dutch, which was soon afterwards translated into French and English (by Purchas).—R. M., A.
FLORUS, Drepanius, deacon of the church of Lyons, and author of various epistles, poems, commentaries, and theological treatises, particularly one on predestination in opposition to the tenets of Erigena, is supposed to have died about the year 860.—J. B. J.
FLORUS, Gessius or Cestius, the Festus of scripture, was born at Clazomenæ. By the influence of Cleopatra, his wife, with the Empress Poppæa, he obtained, as successor to Albinus, the procuratorship of Judea, which he held from 64 to 66. His treachery, cruelty, and extortion were the direct cause of the last Jewish rebellion; unless, as Tacitus and Josephus affirm, he excited it himself, in order to destroy all traces of his misgovernment. At the passover feast in 65, three millions of Jews petitioned Cestius Gallus, the proconsul, for his removal, but in vain. It is doubtful whether or not Florus perished in the rebellion which broke out the following year.—R. B.
FLORUS, Lucius Annæus: his country and the dates of his birth and death are unknown. He is known by his "Epitome de Gestis Romanorum," a narrative which extends from the founding of the city to the time of Augustus. The epitomes to the books of Livy have been ascribed to him. The editio princeps of Florus was printed at the Sorbonne, 1471.—J. A., D.
* FLOTOW, Friedrich von, a musician, was born at Tautendorf in Mecklenburg in 1811. Of noble family, Flotow studied as a recreation the art which his graceful talent has abundantly adorned, and he follows it as a profession, rather for the pleasure than the profit it yields him. He was a pupil of Reicha in Paris; and he has spent much of his time in the French capital, where many of his operas were first produced. His first dramatic essay, "Pierre et Colombine," appeared in 1832, and was followed at intervals by "Rob Roy," and "La Duchesse de Guise." In 1838 "La Naufrage de la Méduse" was given at the Théatre de Rénaissance. "Le Forestier" was brought out in 1840; "L'Esclave de Camoens" in 1843; "Alesandro Stradella" in 1844, which opera was given in English at Drury Lane theatre, with little success, in 1846; "L'Ame en Peine" in 1846, an English version of which, called "Leoline," was produced at the Princess' theatre in 1848; "Martha" (adapted from the ballet of Lady Henriette, which also furnished the subject of Balfe's Maid of Honour) in 1848, which was played in London by a German company in 1849, given in Italian in Paris in 1858, and transplanted to our royal Italian opera in the same year, where it established its composer's reputation in this country; "Die Matrosen" about 1852; "Albin"
