Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 131

Overflowing with a humor as peculiar in its way as the humors of Andrew Fairservice.--_London Athenaeum_.

FAIRSTAR _(Princess)_, daughter of Queen Blon'dina (who had at one birth two boys and a girl, all "with stars on their foreheads, and a chain of gold about their necks"). On the same day, Blondina's sister Brunetta (wife of the king's brother) had a son, afterwards called Cherry. The queen-mother, wis.h.i.+ng to destroy these four children, ordered Fein'tisa to strangle them, but Feintisa sent them adrift in a boat, and told the queen-mother they were gone. It so happened that the boat was seen by a corsair, who brought the children to his wife Cor'sina to bring up. The corsair soon grew immensely rich, because every time the hair of these children was combed, jewels fell from their heads. When grown up, these castaways went to the land of their royal father and his brother, but Cherry was for a while employed in getting for Fairstar (1) _The dancing water_, which had the gift of imparting beauty; (2) _The singing apple_, which had the gift of imparting wit; and (3) _The green bird_, which could reveal all secrets. By this bird the story of their birth was made known, and Fairstar married her cousin Cherry.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Princess Fair-star," 1682).

[Ill.u.s.tration] This tale is borrowed from the fairy tales of Straparola, the Milanese (1550).

FAITH _(Brown)_, wife of Goodman Brown. He sees her in his fantasy of the witches' revel in the forest, and calls to her to "look up to heaven."--Hawthorne, _Mosses from an Old Manse_ (1854).

_Faith_ (_Derrick_). A beautiful, unsophisticated girl, whose accomplished tutor instructs her in belles lettres, natural philosophy, religion and love. He becomes a clergyman and she marries him.--Susan Warner, _Say and Seal_ (1860).

_Faith Gartney_. A city girl whose parents remove to the country before she has an opportunity to enter society. She is partially betrothed to Paul Rushleigh, but under the influence of nature, and a.s.sociation with an older and n.o.bler man, outgrows her early lover, and marries Roger Armstrong.--A.D.T. Whitney, _Faith Gartney's Girlhood_ (1863).

FAITHFUL, a companion of Christian in his walk to the Celestial City.

Both were seized at Vanity Fair, and Faithful, being burnt to death, was taken to heaven, in a chariot of fire.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim's Progress_, i. (1678).

_Faithful_ (_Jacob_), the t.i.tle and hero of a sea tale, by Captain Marryat (1835).

_Faithful_ (_Father of the_), Abraham.--_Rom_. iv.; _Gal_. iii. 6-9.

FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS _(The)_, a pastoral drama by John Fletcher (1610). The "faithful shepherdess" is Clorin, whose lover was dead.

Faithful to his memory, Clorin retired from the busy world, employing her time in works of humanity, such as healing the sick, exorcising the bewitched, and comforting the afflicted.

(A part of Milton's _Comus_ is almost a verbal transcript of the pastoral.)

FAKAR (_Dhu'l_), Mahomet's scimitar.

FAKENHAM GHOST _(The)._ An old woman, walking to Fakenham, had to cross the churchyard after nightfall. She heard a short, quick step behind, and looking round saw what she fancied to be a four-footed monster. On she ran, faster and faster, and on came the pattering footfalls behind. She gained the churchyard gate and pushed it open, but, ah! "the monster" also pa.s.sed through. Every moment she expected it would leap upon her back. She reached her cottage door and fainted.

Out came her husband with a lantern, saw the "sprite," which was no other than the foal of a donkey, that had strayed into the park and followed the ancient dame to her cottage door.

And many a laugh went through the vale.

And some conviction, too; Each thought some other goblin tale Perhaps was just as true.

R. Bloomfield, _The Fakenham Ghost_ (a fact).

FALCON. Wm. Morris tells us that whoso watched a certain falcon for seven days and seven nights without sleeping, should have his first wish granted by a fay. A certain king accomplished the watching, and wished to have the fay's love. His wish was granted, but it proved his ruin.--_The Earthly Paradise_ ("July")

FALCONER (Mr.), laird of Balmawhapple, friend of the old baron of Bradwardine.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ time, George _Falconer_ (_Major_), brother of Lady Bothwell.--Sir W. Scott, _Aunt Margaret's Mirror_ (time, William III.).

_Falconer_ (_Edmund_), the _nom de plume_ of Edmund O'Rourke, author of _Extremes or Men of the day_ (a comedy, 1859).

FALIE'RO (_Marino_), the doge of Venice, an old man who married a young wife named Angioli'na (3 _syl_.). At a banquet, Michel Steno, a young patrician, grossly insulted some of the ladies, and was, by the order of the doge, turned out of the house. In revenge, Steno placarded the doge's chair with some scurrilous verses upon the young dogaressa, and Faliero referred the matter to "the Forty." The council sentenced Steno to two months' imprisonment, and the doge deemed this punishment so inadequate to the offence, that he looked upon it as a personal insult, and headed a conspiracy to cut off, root and branch, the whole Venetian n.o.bility. The project being discovered, Faliero was put to death (1355), at the age of 76, and his picture removed from the gallery of his brother doges.--Byron, _Marino Faliero._