sermons of Fléchier increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest pitch by his funeral orations. Having been chosen to pronounce that of Madame de Montausier (1672), he displayed so great ability on the occasion that in the following year he was made a member of the French Academy, along with Racine. The funeral oration of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon (1675), and above all, that of Turenne (1676), are, with that of Madame de Montausier, his masterpieces in that branch of literature. The favours of the court now poured in upon Fléchier. The king gave him successively the aibacy of St Leverin, in the diocese of Poitiers, the office of almoner to the dauphiness, and in 1685 the bishopric of Lavaur, from which he was in 1687 promoted to that of Nismes. Here Fléchier had occasion for the daily exercise of his great qualities, gentleness and moderation. The edict of Nantes had been repealed two years before; but the Calvinists were still very numerous at Nismes, and the sincerity of the conversion of such as had made abjuration was at best but doubtful. Fléchier, by his prudent conduct, in which zeal was tempered with charity, succeeded in bring. ing over some of them to his views, and made himself esteemed and beloved even by those who declined to change their faith. During the troubles in the Cévennes, he softened to the utmost of his power the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so sensible of the evils of persecution, and so indulgent even to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. In the famine which succeeded the winter of 1709, he did much to alleviate the prevalent distress, by assisting the poor in his diocese without regard to their religious tenets, declaring that all alike were his children. He died at Montpellier on the 16th February 1710, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. Pulpit eloquence is the branch of belles lettres in which Fléchier excelled. He is indeed far below Bossuet, whose robust and sublime genius had no rival in that age; he does not equal Bourdaloue in earnestness of thought and vigour of expression; nor can he rival the philosophical depth or the insinuating and impressive eloquence of Massillon. But he is always ingenious, often witty, and nobody has carried further than he the harmony of diction,-a quality which is sometimes marred, it must be confessed, by an affectation of symmetry and a love of antithesis at variance with the principles of good taste. His two historical works, the histories of Theodosius and of Ximenes, are more remarkable for elegance of style than for the accuracy and comprehensive insight which are the chief requisites of a historian.

The following is a list of Fléchier's works, in the order of publication:-1. La Vie du Cardinal Commendon, Paris, 1671, 4to (also published in Latin, 1699, 12mo); 2. Histoire de Théodosc-leGrand, Paris, 1679, 4to; 3. De Casibus Virorum Illustrium autore Antonio Maria Gratiano, opera et studio Sp. Flecherii, Paris, 1680, 4to; 4. Oraisons funèbres, Paris, 1681, 4to and 12mo; 5. Pané. gyriques des Saints, Paris, 1690, 4to; 6. Histoire du Cardinal Ximenes, Paris, 1694, 4to; 7. Sermons de morale prêchés devant le Roi, avec des Discours synodaux et les Sermons prêchés par Fléchier ane Etats de Languedoc et dans sa cathédrale, 3 vols. 12mo; 8. Eueres posthumes, contenant ses Harangues, Compliments, Discours, Poesies Latines, Poésies françaises, Paris, 1712, 12mo; 9. Mandements et Lettres pastorales, Paris, 1712, 12mo; 10. Lettres choisies ur divers sujets, Paris, 1715, 2 vols. 12mo. The most complete collection of his works is that of the Abbé Ducreux, canon of Au xerre, Nismes, 1782, 10 vols. 8vo. Another edition, with a noti ce of his life by A. V. Fabre of Narbonne, Paris, 1825--28, 10 vols. 8vo, is very defective. His Mémoires sur les Grands Jours d'Auvergne were published in 1844 (2d edit., with a Notice by Sainte- Beuve and an appendix by M. Cheruel, Paris, 1862). A MS. the F. ench National Library (Suppl. fr., No. 1016, fol.) contains a few com positions by Fléchier, both in prose and in verse, which are as yet unpublished. For Fléchier's biography, see L. Juillard du Jarry, 'raison funèbre d'E. Fléchier, évêque de Nimes, Paris, 1710, 4to; Ch. F. Trinquelague, Eloge d'E. Fléchier, évêque de Nimes, Nisms and Paris, 1777, 8vo.

FLECKNOE, RICHARD, a poet and dramatic writer in the reign of Charles II. He was an Irishman by birth, and was originally a priest of the order of Jesus. Like many of the small wits and minor poets of that day, Flecknoe owes the rescue of his name from oblivion to the satirical genius of Dryden. That satirist availed himself of Flecknoe's name as a stalking horse from behind which to assail the poetaster Shadwell, who had been appointed to replace him in the laureateship. The opening lines of this satire may be quoted as a specimen of the whole :"All human things are subject to decay;

acted.

Aud when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long ;
In prose and verse was owned without dispute
Throughout the realms of nonsense absolute."

ive as this poem is, it is in its application to Flecknos It is but fair, however, to remark, that clever and effectutterly unjust. Flecknoe was the author of several plays, only one of which, Love's Dominion, printed in 1654, was Kingdom, a Pastoral Trage-Comedy. This was not the This piece was republished in 1674, as Love's play as acted, but as re-written and corrected. His minor pieces, though possessing no great merit in the matter of versification, nevertheless contain many happy turns of thought and felicities of expression. His Damoiselles à la Mode, printed in 1677, and addressed to the duke and duchess of Newcastle, and Sir W. Davenant's Voyage to the Other World, are a witty exposure of the literary and dramatic foibles of the day. The characters of the first named, he says in his preface, are "like so many precious stones I have brought out of France, and as a lapidary set in one jewel to adorn our English stage." They are adaptations from Molière. His unpopularity among the players, and the satire of Dryden, upon whom, nevertheless, Flecknoe composed a witty and graceful epigram, must immorality and general worthlessness of the English stage. have been in a great measure owing to his attacks on the is The Idea of His Highness Oliver late Lord Protector, An interesting but almost unknown production of Flecknoe's &c., London, 1659,-an appreciative estimate of Cromwell's character, as ev. Enced in his parliamentary career and his

achievements as soldier and statesman.

1678.

Flecknoe died in

His principal remaining works are-Ermina, or the Chaste Lady; The Marriage of Occanus and Britannia; Epigrams and Enigmatical Characters, 1670, in 8vo; Miscellanca, or poems of all sorts, with divers other pieces, 1653, in 12mo; Diarium, or the Journal, divided into twelve Jornadas, in burlesque verse, London, 1656, in 12mo. See also his Discourse of the English Stage, first published in the volume for 1869 of the Roxburgh Library, edited by Mr W. C. Hazlitt.

FLEETWOOD, or FLEETWOOD-ON-WYRE, a market. town, watering-place, and seaport of Lancashire, England, 22 miles by rail from Preston. It dates its rise from 1836, and takes its name from Sir P. H. Fleetwood, by whom it was laid out. church, the Roman Catholic church, the Whitworth The principal buildings are St Peter's institute, and the Euston barracks, which have quarters for 300 men and 60 officers. The harbour is safe and extensive, and the shipping accommodation was increased in 1877 by the completion of a new dock, with an area of 10 acres and a maximum depth of 34 feet. Steamers ply regularly from Fleetwood to Belfast and the Isle of Man. The value of the imports in 1876 was £162,984 and of the exports of British produce £507. Population in 1871, 4428.

FLEETWOOD, CHARLES, lord-deputy of Ireland under the Commonwealth, and son-in-law of Cromwell, was born most probably in 1620. Entering the ranks of the parliamentary forces, he rose in 1644 to the rank of colonel of horse, and in 1645 was appointed governor of Bristol. At

the battle of Dunbar in 1650 he was lieutenant-general of the horse; and at the battle of Worcester in 1651, the division commanded by him contributed chiefly to the victory of the parliamentary army. After the death of his first wife he was married to Bridget, eldest daughter of Cromwell and widow of Ireton; and in the same year he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland. In 1654 he became lord-deputy, but manifested such weakness and irresolution in dealing with the different political parties of Ireland that Cromwell in 1655 found it necessary to. recall him. He was honoured shortly afterwards, however, by being nominated one of the fourteen major-generals to whom the internal administration of the Commonwealth was entrusted. On the death of the Lord Protector he made an attempt, by means of his influence with the troops, to supplant Richard Cromwell; but he wanted sufficient ability and energy to carry out his purpose, and in the midst of his intrigues the nation recalled the exiled Stuarts. Fleetwood's prominent position marked him out as an object of vengeance to the restored king, and it was only with very great difficulty that he escaped with his life. Not long after the Restoration he died in wretchedness and obscurity at Stoke Newington, whither ho had retired. That defect in his character which helped to ruin both him and the Protectorate did not escape the shrewd observation of Cromwell, who, in a letter written shortly after Fleetwood's marriage to Bridget Cromwell, gives him the exho.tation, "Take heed of your natural inclination to compliance."

FLEETWOOD, WILLIAM (1656-1723), a learned English bishop, was descended of an ancient family in Lancashire, and was born in the Tower of London, January 21, 1656. He received his education at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. About the time of the Revolution he entered into holy orders, and was shortly afterwards made rector of St Austin's, London, and lecturer of St Dunstan's in the West. He became canon of Windsor in 1702, and in 1706 he was nominated to the see of St Asaph, from which he was translated in 1714 to that of Ely. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on the 4th August 1723. Bishop Fleetwood was regarded as the best preacher of his time, and his character stood deservedly high in general estimation. In liberal and enlightened piety he was considerably in advance of his age.

His principal writings are-Essay on Miracles, 1701; Chronicum Preciosum, 1707; and Free Sermons, 1712, containing sermons on the death of Queen Mary, the duke of Gloucester, and King William. A collected edition of his works was published in 1737.

FLEMING, PAUL (1609-1640), a German poet, was born at Hartenstein, a village in Saxony, on October 5, 1609. His father, a clergyman, was transferred while Paul was still a child to a higher post at Wechselburg; and here, on the charming banks of the Mulda, Fleming grew to boyhood, being treated with great affection by a kind and intelligent stepmother. From about the age of fourteen he attended school in Leipsic, and five or six years later he became a student at the university of that town. He was a youth of manly and generous character, and soon gave evidence of poetical talent in the occasional verses he was already fond of writing. He had many friends among his fellow-students, and keenly enjoyed his life in Leipsic; but in 1633 he was driven away by the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. It happened that about this time the duke of Holstein had resolved to send an embassy to Persia, with the view of opening for his subjects new channels of trade. Through Olearius, who was made secretary of the embassy, and afterwards wrote an interesting account of its proceedings, the young poet heard of the duke's purpose. Fired by the prospect of foreign travel, and with a vague idea that great results might be achieved by bringing East

and West into closer contact, he went to Holstein and offered the duke his services. The offer was accepted'; and when, a few months later, the embassy started, Fleming accompanied it as a subordinate official. Difficulties arose at Moscow, and the chiefs of the expedition returned to Holstein for instructions, leaving the inferior members, among them Fleming, at Revel. Here they were detained for more than a year, but he had no reason to regret the fact, since there were in Revel many cultivated German families who received him with pleasure. In the spring of 1636 the embassy set off anew, and it was absent rather more than three years, reaching Ispahan in 1637, and passing through many stirring adventures on the way. The pleasure of the enterprise was marred by the tyrannical disposition of one of the leaders; but if we may judge from the buoyant tone of the poems written during the journey, Fleming must have had many happy hours amid the strange scenes he visited. In April 1639 he found himself once more in Revel, and as a lady who had promised to become his wife had married during his absence, he now wooed a certain Fräulein Anna, who had been too young during his former visit to attract his notice. At Leipsic he had attended lectures in medicine, and after his betrothal it occurred to him to settle in Revel as a physician. He went to Leyden, and obtained a diploma; but the fatigues of travel had helped to undermine his constitution, and on his way back to Revel he died at Hamburg, April 2, 1640, when little more than thirty years of age.

His fame was not very great in his own day; but it has steadily increased ever since, and he is now universally admitted to have been the most brilliant German poet of the 17th century. After the Reformation, poetry almost died out in Germany; it could not make itself heard amid the noise of contending theological sects. Martin Opitz, the founder of the so-called First Silesian school, heralded the approach of a new literary epoch. Fleming began his career as a disciple of this author, whose methods of versification he adopted; and without being aware of it he speedily rose far above his master. The younger poet had genius, of which there is no trace in the correct but tedious compositions of Opitz. Some of the rudeness of his age still clung to Fleming; but his feeling is always intense, and he often gives it voice in lines of exquisite melody. Although he docs not seem to have searched laboriously for appropriate epithets, he is justly famous for the wealth, aptness, and beauty of his phraseology. Ilis genius was purely lyrical, and he never sought to pass beyond the limits which nature had imposed upon him. Within these limits, however, the range of his Geist und Weltliche Poëmata is unusually wide. In his religious poetry—notably in the well-known hymn beginning "In allen meinen Thaten "the sorrows of a generation tormented by a fearful war found pathetic utterance; but this did not hinder him from writing some of the gayest and most alluring love verses in the German language. His sonnets breathe a spirit of lofty independence, betokening a mind which has grappled seriously with the hardest problems of life, but which has lost none of the confidence, ardour, and charm of youth.

Fleming's writings were admirably edited by the late T. M. Lappenberg. As, however, a large number of them relate to special events, and the poet did not always succeed in giving these events an ideal interest, most readers will be satisfied with the ample selecDeutsche Dichter des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, cited by K. tion from his works in the second volume of the series entitled Gödeke and J. Tittmann (Leipsic, 1870). A valuable study of the poet will be found in Varnhagen von Ense's Biographischen Denkmalen, bd. iv. (Berlin, 1826).

FLEMISH LITERATURE. See HOLLAND.

FLEMMING, or FLEMMYNGE, RICHARD (died 1431), bishop of Lincoln, and founder of Lincoln College, Oxford,

volume entitled Sorrow's Joy. He was a bachelor of divinity of Trinity College, and remained at the university until 1617 or later. In 1610 he published his great poem of Christ's Victory and Triumph, of which a second edition appeared in 1632. In 1612 he edited the Remains of his cousin Nathanial Pownoll. It is not known in what year he was ordained, but he became a famous preacher from the pulpit of St Mary's, and was popular for the florid religious rhetoric then in vogue. He left Cambridge to accept, it is supposed from the hand of Lord Bacon, the rectory of Alderton, on the coast of Suffolk, where "his clownish and low-parted parishioners valued not their pastor according to his worth, which disposed him to melancholy and hastened his dissolution." In 1623 he published The Reward of the Faithful, a theological treatise in prose, and died in the same year, leaving a widow. The principal work by which Giles Fletcher is known is one of the most remarkable religious poems in the language. Its full title is Christ's Victory and Triumph, in Heaven, in Earth, over and after Death. It is in four cantos, divided according to the suggestion of the title; the metre is an eight-line stanza adapted from the Spenserian by the omission of the seventh line. Giles Fletcher, like his brother Phineas, was a disciple of Spenser, whom he follows with more vigour and brilliance than any poet of his time. His style has much more nervous strength, terseness, and melody than his brother's, and he had his subject far more thoroughly under control. In his very best passages Giles Fletcher attains to a rare sublimity, and to a rich, voluptuous music which charmed the ear of Milton. It was his misfortune to live in an age which considered the poems of Marini and Gongora insuperable, and he strives too often to outdo these his patterns in grotesque conceit. But when he is carried away by his theme, and forgets to be ingenious, he attains an extraordinary solemnity and harmony of style. His description of the Lady of Vain Delight, in the second canto, has been greatly admired; the portrait of Justice is even nobler still, and of the first order of poetry. Milton did not hesitate to borrow very considerably from the Christ's Victory and Triumph in his Paradise Regained. Fletcher died in 1623. The poetical writings of the Giles Fletchers, father and son, have been edited by Dr A. B. Grosart, who has succeeded in clearing up a great deal of the obscurity that till lately lay around their careers. The Russ Commonwealth has been reprinted and edited by Mr Bond. The prose works of Giles Fletcher the younger have never been reprinted.

FLETCHER, JOHN (1579-1625). See BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

FLETCHER, PHINEAS (1582-c. 1665), English poet, and brother of Giles Fletcher the younger, was the eldest son of Dr Giles Fletcher. He.was born at Cranbrook, in Kent, in April 1582. He was admitted a scholar of Eton, and in 1600 entered King's College, Cambridge. In 1603 he contributed verses to Sorrow's Joy. He was in. priest's orders in 1611. In 1614 his pastoral drama of Sicelides was acted before the university. He left Cambridge to become chaplain to Sir Henry Willoughby in 1616; the same patron presented him in 1621 with the rectory of Hilgay in Norfolk; in the same year he married. He named his eldest son Edmund, in honour, no doubt, of Edmund Spenser, for whom he preserved an intense admiration. In 1627 he published his long poem, in Latin and English, of Locust, or the Apollyonists, a furious invective against the Jesuits. Next year appeared a fine but sensuous poem, entitled Britain's Ida, which was attributed on the title-page to Spenser; but many critics, and particularly Dr A. B. Grosart, consider it to be the work of Phineas Fletcher. The drama of Sicelides was printed in 1631. In 1632 he brought out a theological treatise in prose, entitled Joy in Tribulation, and in 1633

his magnum opus, the famous poem of The Purple Island. His Piscatory Eclogues and Miscellaneous Poems appeared on the same occasion. It is believed that in 1650 he was ejected from his living, but nothing is known of the date or circumstances of his death. In the preface to his posthumous prose work, A Father's Testament, published in 1670, he is spoken of as having been some years dead. The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man, is a poem in twelve cantos, describing in cumbrous allegory the whole physio logical and intellectual construction of the human body. The veins are spoken of as rivers, the bones as mountains, and the ingenuity as well as scientific knowledge displayed is very considerable. The manner of Spenser is preserved throughout, though not so closely as to destroy the distinct flavour of original genius. The allegory itself is found very tedious and prosaic at the present day; but some of the reflective passages, and the rich, jewelled descriptions of Arcadian scenery possess living charm. Five cantos are occupied with the phenomena of the body, and seven with those of the mind. The Piscatory Eclogues have nothing to do with fishing; they are simply pastorals in the usual style, the characters being supposed to be fisherboys reposing by the river Cam. The poetry of Phineas Fletcher never approaches the occasional sublimity of that of his brother Giles; it carries the Marini manner to a still more tasteless excess; but it is generally fluent, luxurious, and lacking neither colour nor music.

A very complete edition of the poetical works of Phineas Fletcher, in 4 vols., was privately printed by Dr Grosart in 1868. It is the only careful reprint that has been issued.

FLEURANGES, ROBERT (III.) DE LA MARCK, Seigneur DE (1491-1537), marshal of France, historian, was born of an ancient family at Sedan in 1491. A fondness for military exercises displayed itself in his earliest years, and at the age of ten he was sent to the court of Louis XII., and placed in charge of the count of Angoulême, afterwards King Francis L In his twentieth year he married a niece of the Cardinal d'Amboise, but after three months he quitted his home to join the French army in the Milanese. With a handful of troops he threw himself into Verona, then besieged by the Venetians; but the siege was protracted, and being impatient for more active service, he rejoined the army. He then took part in the relief of Mirandola, besieged by the troops of Pope Julius II., and in other actions of the campaign. In 1512, the French being driven from Italy, Fleuranges was sent into Flanders to levy a body of 10,000 men, in command of which, under his father, he returned to Italy in 1513, seized Alexandria, and vigorously assailed Novara. But the French were defeated, and Fleuranges narrowly escaped with his life, having received more than forty wounds. He was rescued by his father and sent to Vercellæ, and thence to Lyons. Returning to Italy with Francis I. in 1515, he distinguished himself in various affairs, and especially at Marignano, where he had a horse shot under him, and contributed so powerfully to the victory of the French that the king knighted him with his own hand. He next took Cremona, and was there called home by the news of his father's illness. In 1519 he was sent into Germany on the difficult errand of inducing the electors to give their votes in favour of Francis I.; but in this he failed. The war in Italy being rekindled, Fleuranges accompanied the king thither, fought at Pavia (1525), and was taken prisoner with his royal master. The emperor sent him into confinement in Flanders, where he remained for some years. During this imprisonment he was created marshal of France. He employed his enforced leisure in writing his Histoire des choses mémorables advenues du règne de Louis XII. et de François I., depuis 1499 jusqu' en l'an 1521. In this work he designates himself Jeune Adventureux. Within a small

IX.