Chapter 19

The last complete edition of Fléchier’s works is by J.P. Migne (Paris, 1856); theMémoires sur les Grands Jourswas first published in 1844 by B. Gonod (2nd ed. asMém. sur les Gr. J. d’Auvergne, with notice by Sainte-Beuve and an appendix by M. Chéruel, 1862). His chief works are:Histoire de Théodose le Grand,Oraisons funèbres,Histoire du Cardinal Ximénès,Sermons de morale,Panégyriques des saints. He left aportraitorcaractèreof himself, addressed to one of his friends. TheLife of Theodosiushas been translated into English by F. Manning (1693), and the “Funeral Oration of Marshal Turenne” in H.C. Fish’sHistory and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence(ii., 1857). On Fléchier generally see Antonin V.D. Fabre,La Jeunesse de Fléchier(1882), and Adolphe Fabre,Fléchier, orateur(1886); A. Delacroix,Hist, de Fléchier(1865).

FLECKEISEN, CARL FRIEDRICH WILHELM ALFRED(1820-1899), German philologist and critic, was born at Wolfenbüttel on the 23rd of September 1820. He was educated at the Helmstedt gymnasium and the university of Göttingen. After holding several educational posts, he was appointed in 1861 to the vice-principalship of the Vitzthum’sches Gymnasium at Dresden, which he held till his retirement in 1889. He died on the 7th of August 1899. Fleckeisen is chiefly known for his labours on Plautus and Terence; in the knowledge of these authors he was unrivalled, except perhaps by Ritschl, his life-long friend and a worker in the same field. His chief works are:Exercitationes Plautinae(1842), one of the most masterly productions on the language of Plautus; “Analecta Plautina,” printed inPhilologus, ii. (1847);Plauti Comoediae, i., ii. (1850-1851, unfinished), introduced by anEpistula critica ad F. Ritschelium; P. Terenti Afri Comoediae(new ed., 1898). In his editions he endeavoured to restore the text in accordance with the results of his researches on the usages of the Latin language and metre. He attached great importance to the question of orthography, and his short treatiseFünfzig Artikel(1861) is considered most valuable. Fleckeisen also contributed largely to theJahrbücher fur Philologie, of which he was for many years editor.

See obituary notice by G. Götz in C. Bursian’sBiographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde(xxiii., 1901), and article by H. Usener inAllgemeine deutsche Biographie(where the date of birth is given as the 20th of September).

FLECKNOE, RICHARD(c.1600-1678?), English dramatist and poet, the object of Dryden’s satire, was probably of English birth, although there is no corroboration of the suggestion of J. Gillow (Bibliog. Dict. of the Eng. Catholics, vol. ii., 1885), that he was a nephew of a Jesuit priest, William Flecknoe, or more properly Flexney, of Oxford. The few known facts of his life are chiefly derived from hisRelation of Ten Years’ Travels in Europe, Asia, Affrique and America(1655?), consisting of letters written to friends and patrons during his travels. The first of these is dated from Ghent (1640), whither he had fled to escape the troubles of the Civil War. In Brussels he met Béatrix de Cosenza, wife of Charles IV., duke of Lorraine, who sent him to Rome to secure the legalization of her marriage. There in 1645 Andrew Marvell met him, and described his leanness and his rage for versifying in a witty satire, “Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome.” He was probably, however, not in priest’s orders. He then travelled in the Levant, and in 1648 crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, of which country he gives a detailed description. On his return to Europe he entered the household of the duchess of Lorraine in Brussels. In 1645 he went back to England. His royalist and Catholic convictions did not prevent him from writing a book in praise of Oliver Cromwell,The Idea of His Highness Oliver... (1659), dedicated to Richard Cromwell. This publication was discounted at the restoration by theHeroick Portraits(1660) of Charles II. and others of the Stuart family. John Dryden used his name as a stalking horse from behind which to assail Thomas Shadwell inMac Flecknoe(1682). The opening lines run:—

“All human things are subject to decay.And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, youngWas called to empire, and had governed long;In prose and verse was owned, without dispute,Throughout the realms of nonsense, absolute.”

“All human things are subject to decay.

And, 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.”

Dryden’s aversion seems to have been caused by Flecknoe’s affectation of contempt for the players and his attacks on the immorality of the English stage. His verse, which hardly deserved his critic’s sweeping condemnation, was much of it religious, and was chiefly printed for private circulation. None of his plays was acted exceptLove’s Dominion, announced as a “pattern for the reformed stage” (1654), that title being altered in 1664 toLove’s Kingdom, with aDiscourse of the English Stage. He amused himself, however, by adding lists of the actors whom he would have selected for the parts, had the plays been staged. Flecknoe had many connexions among English Catholics, and is said by Gerard Langbaine, to have been better acquainted with the nobility than with the muses. He died probably about 1678.

ADiscourse of the English Stage, was reprinted in W.C. Hazlitt’sEnglish Drama and Stage(Roxburghe Library, 1869); Robert Southey, in hisOmniana(1812), protested against the wholesale depreciation of Flecknoe’s works. See also “Richard Flecknoe” (Leipzig, 1905, inMunchener Beiträge zur ... Philologie), by A. Lohr, who has given minute attention to his life and works.

FLEET,a word in all its significances, derived from the root of the verb “to fleet,” from O. Eng.fleotan, to float or flow, which ultimately derives from an Indo-European root seen in Gr.πλέειν, to sail, and Lat.pluere, to rain; cf. Dutchvliessen, and Ger.fliessen. In English usage it survives in the name of many places, such as Byfleet and Northfleet, and in the Fleet, a stream in London that formerly ran into the Thames between the bottom of Ludgate Hill and the present Fleet Street. From the idea of “float” comes the application of the word to ships, when in company, and particularly to a large number of warships under the supreme command of a single officer, with the individual ships, or groups of ships, under individual and subordinate command. The distinction between a fleet and a squadron is often one of name only. In the British navy the various main divisions are or have been called fleets and squadrons indifferently. The word is also frequently used of a company of fishing vessels, and in fishing is also applied to a row of drift-nets fastened together. From the original meaning of the word “flowing” comes the adjectival use of the word, swift, or speedy; so also “fleeting,” of something evanescent or fading away, with the idea of the fast-flowing lapse of time.

FLEET PRISON,an historic London prison, formerly situated on the east side of Farringdon Street, and deriving its name from the Fleet stream, which flowed into the Thames. Concerning its early history little is known, but it certainly dated back to Norman times. It came into particular prominence from being used as a place of reception for persons committed by the Star Chamber, and, afterwards, for debtors, and persons imprisoned for contempt of court by the court of chancery. It was burnt down in the great fire of 1666; it was rebuilt, but was destroyed in the Gordon riots of 1780 and again rebuilt in 1781-1782. In pursuance of an act of parliament (5 & 6 Vict. c. 22, 1842), by which the Marshalsea, Fleet, and Queen’s Bench prisons were consolidated into one under the name of Queen’s prison, it was finally closed, and in 1844 sold to the corporation of the city of London, by whom it was pulled down. The head of the prison was termed “the warden,” who was appointed by patent. It became a frequent practice of the holder of the patent to “farm out” the prison to the highest bidder. It was this custom which made the Fleet prison long notorious for the cruelties inflicted on prisoners. One purchaser of the office was of particularly evil repute, by name Thomas Bambridge, who in 1728 paid, with another, the sum of £5000 to John Huggins for the wardenship. He was guilty of the greatest extortions upon prisoners, and, in the words of a committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the state of the gaols of the kingdom, “arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons,and destroyed prisoners for debt, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws of this kingdom.” He was committed to Newgate, and an act was passed to prevent his enjoying the office of warden or any other office whatsoever. The liberties or rules of the Fleet were the limits within which particular prisoners were allowed to reside outside the prison walls on observing certain conditions.

Fleet Marriages.—By the law of England a marriage was recognized as valid, so long as the ceremony was conducted by a person in holy orders, even if those orders were not of the Church of England. Neither banns nor licence were necessary, and the time and place were alike immaterial. Out of this state of the marriage law, in the period of laxness which succeeded the Commonwealth, resulted innumerable clandestine marriages. They were contracted at first to avoid the expenses attendant on the public ceremony, but an act of 1696, which imposed a penalty of £100 on any clergyman who celebrated, or permitted another to celebrate, a marriage otherwise than by banns or licence, acted as a considerable check. To clergymen imprisoned for debt in the Fleet, however, such a penalty had no terrors, for they had “neither liberty, money nor credit to lose by any proceedings the bishop might institute against them.” The earliest recorded date of a Fleet marriage is 1613, while the earliest recorded in a Fleet register took place in 1674, but it was only on the prohibition of marriage without banns or licence that they began to be clandestine. Then arose keen competition, and “many of the Fleet parsons and tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood fitted up a room in their respective lodgings or houses as a chapel,” and employed touts to solicit custom for them. The scandal and abuses brought about by these clandestine marriages became so great that they became the object of special legislation. In 1753 Lord Hardwicke’s Act (26 Geo. ii. c. 33) was passed, which required, under pain of nullity, that banns should be published according to the rubric, or a licence obtained, and that, in either case, the marriage should be solemnized in church; and that in the case of minors, marriage by licence must be by the consent of parent or guardian. This act had the effect of putting a stop to these clandestine marriages, so far as England was concerned, and henceforth couples had to fare to Gretna Green (q.v.).

TheFleet Registers, consisting of “about two or three hundred large registers” and about a thousand rough or “pocket” books, eventually came into private hands, but were purchased by the government in 1821, and are now deposited in the office of the registrar-general, Somerset House. Their dates range from 1686 to 1754. In 1840 they were declared not admissible as evidence to prove a marriage.

Authorities.—J.S. Burn,The Fleet Registers; comprising the History of Fleet Marriages, and some Account of the Parsons and Marriage-house Keepers, &c. (London, 1833); J. Ashton,The Fleet: its River, Prison and Marriages(London, 1888).

FLEETWOOD, CHARLES(d. 1692), English soldier and politician, third son of Sir Miles Fleetwood of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and of Anne, daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend, Bedfordshire, was admitted into Gray’s Inn on the 30th of November 1638. At the beginning of the Great Rebellion, like many other young lawyers who afterwards distinguished themselves in the field, he joined Essex’s life-guard, was wounded at the first battle of Newbury, obtained a regiment in 1644 and fought at Naseby. He had already been appointed receiver of the court of wards, and in 1646 became member of parliament for Marlborough. In the dispute between the army and parliament he played a chief part, and was said to have been the principal author of the plot to seize King Charles at Holmby, but he did not participate in the king’s trial. In 1649 he was appointed a governor of the Isle of Wight, and in 1650, as lieutenant-general of the horse, took part in Cromwell’s campaign in Scotland and assisted in the victory of Dunbar. The next year he was elected a member of the council of state, and being recalled from Scotland was entrusted with the command of the forces in England, and played a principal part in gaining the final triumph at Worcester. In 1652 he married1Cromwell’s daughter, Bridget, widow of Ireton, and was made commander-in-chief in Ireland, to which title that of lord deputy was added. The chief feature of his administration, which lasted from September 1652 till September 1655, was the settlement of the soldiers on the confiscated estates and the transplantation of the original owners, which he carried out ruthlessly. He showed also great severity in the prosecution of the Roman Catholic priests, and favoured the Anabaptists and the extreme Puritan sects to the disadvantage of the moderate Presbyterians, exciting great and general discontent, a petition being finally sent in for his recall.

Fleetwood was a strong and unswerving follower of Cromwell’s policy. He supported his assumption of the protectorate and his dismissal of the parliaments. In December 1654 he became a member of the council, and after his return to England in 1655 was appointed one of the major-generals. He approved of the “Petition and Advice,” only objecting to the conferring of the title of king on Cromwell, became a member of the new House of Lords; and supported ardently Cromwell’s foreign policy in Europe, based on religious divisions, and his defence of the Protestants persecuted abroad. He was therefore, on Cromwell’s death, naturally regarded as a likely successor, and it is said that Cromwell had in fact so nominated him. He, however, gave his support to Richard’s assumption of office, but allowed subsequently, if he did not instigate, petitions from the army demanding its independence, and finally compelled Richard by force to dissolve parliament. His project of re-establishing Richard in close dependence upon the army met with failure, and he was obliged to recall the Long Parliament on the 6th of May 1659. He was appointed immediately a member of the committee of safety and of the council of state, and one of the seven commissioners for the army, while on the 9th of June he was nominated commander-in-chief. In reality, however, his power was undermined and was attacked by parliament, which on the 11th of October declared his commission void. The next day he assisted Lambert in his expulsion of the parliament and was reappointed commander-in-chief. On Monk’s approach from the North, he stayed in London and maintained order. While hesitating with which party to ally his forces, and while on the point of making terms with the king, the army on the 24th of December restored the Rump, when he was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for his conduct. The Restoration therefore took place without him. He was included among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally incapacitated from holding any office of trust. His public career then closed, though he survived till the 4th of October 1692.

1He had lost his first wife, Frances Smith; and later he had a third wife, Mary, daughter of Sir John Coke and widow of Sir Edward Hartopp.

FLEETWOOD, WILLIAM(1656-1723), English divine, was descended of an ancient Lancashire family, and was born in the Tower of London on New Year’s Day 1656. He received his education at Eton and at King’s College, Cambridge. About the time of the Revolution he took orders, and was shortly afterwards made rector of St Austin’s, London, and lecturer of St Dunstan’s in the West. He became a canon of Windsor in 1702, and in 1708 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 of August 1723. Fleetwood was regarded as the best preacher of his time. He was accurate in learning, and effective in delivery, and his character stood deservedly high in general estimation. In episcopal administration he far excelled most of his contemporaries. He was a zealous Hanoverian, and a favourite with Queen Anne in spite of his Whiggism. His opposition to the doctrine of non-resistance brought him into conflict with the tory ministry of 1712 and with Swift, but he never entered into personal controversy.

His principal writings are—-An Essay on Miracles(1701);Chronicum preciosum(an account of the English coinage, 1707); andFree Sermons(1712), containing discourses on the death of Queen Mary,the duke of Gloucester and King William. The preface to this last was condemned to public burning by parliament, but, as No. 384 ofThe Spectator, circulated more widely than ever. A collected edition of his works, with a biographical preface, was published in 1737.

FLEETWOOD,a seaport and watering-place in the Blackpool parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, at the mouth of the Wyre, 230 m. N.W. by N. from London, the terminus of a joint branch of the London & North-Western and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1891) 9274; (1901) 12,082. It dates its rise from 1836, and takes its name from Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, by whom it was laid out. The seaward views, especially northward over Morecambe Bay, are fine, but the neighbouring country is flat and of little interest. The two railways jointly are the harbour authority. The dock is provided with railways and machinery for facilitating traffic, including a large grain elevator. The shipping traffic is chiefly in the coasting and Irish trade. Passenger steamers serve Belfast and Londonderry regularly, and the Isle of Man and other ports during the season. The fisheries are important, and there are salt-works in the neighbourhood. There is a pleasant promenade, with other appointments of a watering-place. There are also barracks with a military hospital and a rifle range. Rossall school, to the S.W., is one of the principal public schools in the north of England. Rossall Hall was the seat of Sir Peter Fleetwood, but was converted to the uses of the school on its foundation in 1844. The school is primarily divided into classical and modern sides, with a special department for preparation for army, navy or professional examinations. A number of entrance scholarships and leaving scholarships tenable at the universities are offered annually. The number of boys is about 350.

FLEGEL, EDWARD ROBERT(1855-1886), German traveller in West Africa, was born on the 1st of October 1855 at Wilna, Russia. After receiving a commercial education he obtained in 1875 a position in Lagos, West Africa. In 1879 he ascended the Benue river some 125 m. above the farthest point hitherto reached. His careful survey of the channel secured him a commission from the German African Society to explore the whole Benue district. In 1880 he went up the Niger to Gomba, and then visited Sokoto, where he obtained a safe-conduct from the sultan for his intended expedition to Adamawa. This expedition was undertaken in 1882, and on the 18th of August in that year Flegel discovered the source of the Benue at Ngaundere. In 1883-1884 he made another journey up the Benue, crossing for the second time the Benue-Congo watershed. After a short absence in Europe Flegel returned to Africa in April 1885 with a commission from the German African Company and the Colonial Society to open up the Niger-Benue district to German trade. This expedition had the support of Prince Bismarck, who endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to obtain for Germany this region, already secured as a British sphere of influence by the National African Company (the Royal Niger Company). Flegel, despite a severe illness, ascended the Benue to Yola, but was unable to accomplish his mission. He returned to the coast and died at Brass, at the mouth of the Niger, on the 11th of September 1886. (See furtherGoldie, Sir George.)

Flegel wroteLose Blatter aus dem Tagebuche meiner Haussaafreunde(Hamburg, 1885), andVom Niger-Benue. Briefe aus Afrika(edited by K. Flegel, Leipzig, 1890).

FLEISCHER, HEINRICH LEBERECHT(1801-1888), German Orientalist, was born at Schandau, Saxony, on the 21st of February 1801. From 1819 to 1824 he studied theology and oriental languages at Leipzig, subsequently continuing his studies in Paris. In 1836 he was appointed professor of oriental languages at Leipzig University, and retained this post till his death. His most important works were editions of Abulfeda’sHistoria ante-Islamica(1831-1834), and of Beidhawi’sCommentary on the Koran(1846-1848). He compiled a catalogue of the oriental MSS, in the royal library at Dresden (1831); published an edition and German translation of Ali’sHundred Sayings(1837); the continuation of Babicht’s edition ofThe Thousand and One Nights(vols. ix.-xii., 1842-1843); and an edition of Mahommed Ibrihim’sPersian Grammar(1847). He also wrote an account of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian MSS. at the town library in Leipzig. He died there on the 10th of February 1888. Fleischer was one of the eight foreign members of the French Academy of Inscriptions and a knight of the GermanOrdre pour le mérite.

FLEMING, PAUL(1609-1640), German poet, was born at Hartenstein in the Saxon Erzgebirge, on the 5th of October 1609, the son of the village pastor. At the age of fourteen he was sent to school at Leipzig and subsequently studied medicine at the university. Driven away by the troubles of the Thirty Years’ War, he was fortunate enough to become attached to an embassy despatched in 1634 by Duke Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp to Russia and Persia, and to which the famous traveller Adam Olearius was secretary. In 1639 the mission returned to Reval, and here Fleming, having become betrothed, determined to settle as a physician. He proceeded to Leiden to procure a doctor’s diploma, but died suddenly at Hamburg on his way home on the 2nd of April 1640.

Though belonging to the school of Martin Opitz, Fleming is distinguished from most of his contemporaries by the ring of genuine feeling and religious fervour that pervades his lyric poems, even his occasional pieces. In the sonnet, his favourite form of verse, he was particularly happy. Among his religious poems the hymn beginning “In allen meinen Taten lass ich den Höchsten raten” is well known and widely sung.

Fleming’sTeutsche Poëmataappeared posthumously in 1642; they are edited by J.M. Lappenberg, in the Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins (2 vols., 1863; a third volume, 1866, contains Fleming’s Latin poems). Selections have been edited by J. Tittmann in the second volume of the series entitledDeutsche Dichter des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts(Leipzig, 1870), and by H. Österley (Stuttgart, 1885). A life of the poet will be found in Varnhagen von Ense’sBiographische Denkmale, Bd. iv. (Berlin, 1826). See also J. Straumer,Paul Flemings Leben und Orientreise(1892); L.G. Wysocky,De Pauli Flemingi Germanice scriptis et ingenio(Paris, 1892).

FLEMING, RICHARD(d. 1431), bishop of Lincoln, and founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, was born at Crofton in Yorkshire. He was descended from a good family, and was educated at University College, Oxford. Having taken his degrees, he was made prebendary of York in 1406, and the next year was junior proctor of the university. About this time he became an ardent Wycliffite, winning over many persons, some of high rank, to the side of the reformer, and incurring the censure of Archbishop Arundel. He afterwards became one of Wycliffe’s most determined opponents. Before 1415 he was instituted to the rectory of Boston in Lincolnshire, and in 1420 he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln. In 1428-1429 he attended the councils of Pavia and Siena, and in the presence of the pope, Martin V., made an eloquent speech in vindication of his native country, and in eulogy of the papacy. It was probably on this occasion that he was named chamberlain to the pope. To Bishop Fleming was entrusted the execution of the decree of the council for the exhumation and burning of Wycliffe’s remains. The see of York being vacant, the pope conferred it on Fleming; but the king (Henry V.) refused to confirm the appointment. In 1427 Fleming obtained the royal licence empowering him to found a college at Oxford for the special purpose of training up disputants against Wycliffe’s heresy. He died at Sleaford, on the 26th of January 1431. Lincoln College was, however, completed by his trustees, and its endowments were afterwards augmented by various benefactors.

FLEMING, SIR SANDFORD(1827- ), Canadian engineer and publicist, was born at Kirkcaldy, Scotland, on the 7th of January 1827, but emigrated to Canada in 1845. Great powers of work and thoroughness in detail brought him to the front, and he was from 1867 to 1880 chief engineer of the Dominion government. Under his control was constructed the Intercolonial railway, and much of the Canadian Pacific. After his retirement in 1880 he devoted himself to the study of Canadian and Imperial problems, such as the unification of time reckoning throughout the world, and the construction of a state-owned system of telegraphs throughout the British empire. Afteryears of labour he saw the first link forged in the chain, in the opening in 1902 of the Pacific Cable between Canada and Australia. Though not a party man he strongly advocated Federation in 1864-1867, and in 1891 vehemently attacked the Liberal policy of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States. He took the deepest interest in education, and in 1880 became chancellor of Queen’s University, Kingston.

He publishedThe Intercolonial: a History(Montreal and London, 1876);England and Canada(London, 1884); and numerousbrochuresand magazine articles on scientific, social and political subjects.

FLEMING, SIR THOMAS(1544-1613), English judge, was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, in April 1544, and was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1574. He represented Winchester in parliament from 1584 to 1601, when he was returned for Southampton. In 1594 he was appointed recorder of London, and in 1595 was chosen solicitor-general in preference to Bacon. This office he retained under James I. and was knighted in 1603. In 1604 he was created chief baron of the exchequer and presided over many important state trials. In 1607 he was promoted to the chief justiceship of the king’s bench, and was one of the judges at the trial of thepost-natiin 1608, siding with the majority of the judges in declaring that persons born in Scotland after the accession of James I. were entitled to the privileges of natural-born subjects in England. He was praised by his contemporaries, more particularly Coke, for his “great judgments, integrity and discretion.” He died on the 7th of August 1613 at his seat, Stoneham Park, Hampshire.

See Foss,Lives of the Judges.

FLEMISH LITERATURE.The older Flemish writers are dealt with in the article onDutch Literature; after the separation of Belgium, however, from the Netherlands in 1830 there was a great revival of Flemish literature. The immediate result of the revolution was a reaction against everything associated with Dutch, and a disposition to regard the French language as the speech of liberty and independence. The provisional government of 1830 suppressed the official use of the Flemish language, which was relegated to the rank of a patois. For some years before 1830 Jan Frans Willems1(1793-1846) had been advocating the claims of the Flemish language. He had done his best to allay the irritation between Holland and Belgium and to prevent a separation. As archivist of Antwerp he made use of his opportunities by writing a history of Flemish letters. After the revolution his Dutch sympathies had made it necessary for him to live in seclusion, but in 1835 he settled at Ghent, and devoted himself to the cultivation of Flemish. He edited old Flemish classics,Reinaert de Vos(1836), the rhyming Chronicles of Jan van Heelu and Jan le Clerc, &c., and gathered round him a band of Flemish enthusiasts, the chevalier Philipp Blommaert (1809-1871), Karel Lodewijk Ledeganck (1805-1847), Fr. Rens (1805-1874), F.A. Snellaert (1809-1872), Prudens van Duyse (1804-1859), and others. Blommaert, who was born at Ghent on the 27th of August 1809, founded in 1834 in his native town theNederduitsche letteroefeningen, a review for the new writers, and it was speedily followed by other Flemish organs, and by literary societies for the promotion of Flemish. In 1851 a central organization for the Flemish propaganda was provided by a society, named after the father of the movement, the “Willemsfonds.” The Catholic Flemings founded in 1874 a rival “Davidsfonds,” called after the energetic J.B. David (1801-1866), professor at the university of Louvain, and the author of a Flemish history of Belgium (Vaderlandsche historie, Louvain, 1842-1866). As a result of this propaganda the Flemish language was placed on an equality with French in law, and in administration, in 1873 and 1878, and in the schools in 1883. Finally in 1886 a Flemish Academy was established by royal authority at Ghent, where a course in Flemish literature had been established as early as 1854.

The claims put forward by the Flemish school were justified by the appearance (1837) ofIn’t Wonderjaar1566 (In the Wonderful year) of Hendrik Conscience (q.v.), who roused national enthusiasm by describing the heroic struggles of the Flemings against the Spaniards. Conscience was eventually to make his greatest successes in the description of contemporary Flemish life, but his historical romances and his popular history of Flanders helped to give a popular basis to a movement which had been started by professors and scholars.

The first poet of the new school was Ledeganck, the best known of whose poems are those on the “three sister cities” of Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp (Die drie zustersteden, vaderlandsche trilogie, Ghent, 1846), in which he makes an impassioned protest against the adoption of French ideas, manners and language, and the neglect of Flemish tradition. The book speedily took its place as a Flemish classic. Ledeganck, who was a magistrate, also translated the French code into Flemish. Jan Theodoor van Rijswijck (1811-1849), after serving as a volunteer in the campaign of 1830, settled down as a clerk in Antwerp, and became one of the hottest champions of the Flemish movement. He wrote a series of political and satirical songs, admirably suited to his public. The romantic and sentimental poet, Jan van Beers (q.v.), was typically Flemish in his sincere and moral outlook on life. Prudens van Duyse, whose most ambitious work was the epicArtavelde(1859), is perhaps best remembered by a collection (1844) of poems for children. Peter Frans Van Kerckhoven (1818-1857), a native of Antwerp, wrote novels, poems, dramas, and a work on the Flemish revival (De Vlaemsche Beweging, 1847).

Antwerp produced a realistic novelist in Jan Lambrecht Damien Sleeckx (1818-1901). An inspector of schools by profession, he was an indefatigable journalist and literary critic. He was one of the founders in 1844 of theVlaemsch België, the first daily paper in the Flemish interest. His works include a long list of plays, among themJan Steen(1852), a comedy;Grétry, which gained a national prize in 1861;De Visschers van Blankenberg(1863); and the patriotic drama ofZannekin(1865). His talent as a novelist was diametrically opposed to the idealism of Conscience. He was precise, sober and concrete in his methods, relying for his effect on the accumulation of carefully observed detail. He was particularly successful in describing the life of the shipping quarter of his native town. Among his novels are:In’t Schipperskwartier(1856),Dirk Meyer(1860),Tybaerts en Kie(1867),Kunst en Liefde(“Art and Love,” 1870), andVesalius in Spanje(1895). His complete works were collected in 17 vols. (1877-1884).

Jan Renier Snieders (1812-1888) wrote novels dealing with North Brabant; his brother, August Snieders (b. 1825), began by writing historical novels in the manner of Conscience, but his later novels are satires on contemporary society. A more original talent was displayed by Anton Bergmann (1835-1874), who, under the pseudonym of “Tony,” wroteErnest Staas, Advocat, which gained the quinquennial prize of literature in 1874. In the same year appeared theNovellenof the sisters Rosalie (1834-1875) and Virginie Loveling (b. 1836). These simple and touching stories were followed by a second collection in 1876. The sisters had published a volume of poems in 1870. Virginie Loveling’s gifts of fine and exact observation soon placed her in the front rank of Flemish novelists. Her political sketches,In onze Vlaamsche gewesten(1877), were published under the name of “W.G.E. Walter.”Sophie(1885),Een dure Eed(1892), andHet Land der Verbeelding(1896) are among the more famous of her later works. Reimond Stÿns (b. 1850) and Isidoor Teirlinck (b. 1851) produced in collaboration one very popular novel,Arm Vlaanderen(1884), and some others, and have since written separately. Cyril Buysse, a nephew of Mme Loveling, is a disciple of Zola.Het Recht van den Sterkste(“The Right of the Strongest,” 1893) is a picture of vagabond life in Flanders;Schoppenboer(“The Knave of Spades,” 1898) deals with brutalized peasant life; andSursum corda(1895) describes the narrowness and religiosity of village life.

In poetry Julius de Geyter (b. 1830), author of a rhymed translation ofReinaert(1874), an epic poem on Charles V. (1888), &c., produced a social epic in three parts,Drie menschen van in de wieg tot in het graf(“Three Men from the Cradle to the Grave,” 1861), in which he propounded radical and humanitarian views. The songs of Julius Vuylsteke (1836-1903) are full of liberal and patriotic ardour; but his later life was devoted to politics rather than literature. He had been the leading spirit of a students’ association at Ghent for the propagation of “flamingant” views, and the “Willemsfonds” owed much of its success to his energetic co-operation. HisUit het studenten levenappeared in 1868, and his poems were collected in 1881. The poems of Mme van Ackere (1803-1884),néeMaria Doolaeghe, were modelled on Dutch originals. Joanna Courtmans (1811-1890), née Berchmans, owed her fame rather to her tales than her poems; she was above all a moralist, and her fifty tales are sermons on economy and the practical virtues. Other poets were Emmanuel Hiel (q.v.), author of comedies, opera libretti and some admirable songs; the abbé Guido Gezelle (1830-1899), who wrote religious and patriotic poems in the dialect of West Flanders; Lodewijk de Koninck (b. 1838), who attempted a great epic subject inMenschdon Verlost(1872); J.M. Dautzenberg (1808-1869), author of a volume of charmingVolksliederen. The best of Dautzenberg’s work is contained in the posthumous volume of 1869, published by his son-in-law, Frans de Cort (1834-1878), who was himself a song-writer, and translated songs from Burns, from Jasmin and from the German. TheMakamen en Ghazelen(1866), adapted from Rückert’s version of Hariri, and other volumes by “Jan Ferguut” (J.A. van Droogenbroeck, b. 1835) show a growing preoccupation with form, and with the work of Theodoor Antheunis (b. 1840), they prepare the way for the ingenious and careful workmanship of the younger school of poets, of whom Charles Polydore de Mont is the leader. He was born at Wambeke in Brabant in 1857, and became professor in the academy of the fine arts at Antwerp. He introduced something of the ideas and methods of contemporary French writers into Flemish verse; and explained his theories in 1898 in anInleiding tot de Poëzie. Among Pol de Mont’s numerous volumes of verse dating from 1877 onwards areClaribella(1893), andIris(1894), which contains amongst other things a curious “Uit de Legende van Jeschoea-ben-Jossef,” a version of the gospel story from a Jewish peasant.

Mention should also be made of the history of Ghent (Gent van den vroegsten Tijd tot heden, 1882-1889) of Frans de Potter (b. 1834), and of the art criticisms of Max Rooses (b. 1839), curator of the Plantin museum at Antwerp, and of Julius Sabbe (b. 1846).

See Ida van Düringsfeld,Von der Schelde bis zur Maas.Das geistige Leben der Vlamingen(Leipzig, 3 vols., 1861); J. Stecher,Histoire de la littérature néerlandaise en Belgique(1886);Geschiedenis der Vlaamsche Letterkunde van het jaar 1830 tot heden(1899), by Theodoor Coopman and L. Scharpé; A. de Koninck,Bibliographie nationale(3 vols., 1886-1897); andHistoire politique et littéraire du mouvement flamand(1894), by Paul Hamelius. TheVlaamsche Bibliographie, issued by the Flemish Academy of Ghent, by Frans de Potter, contains a list of publications between 1830 and 1890; and there is a good deal of information in the excellentBiographisch woordenboeck der Noord- en Zuid- Nederlandsche Letterkunde(1878) of Dr W.J.A. Huberts and others.

(E. G.)

1See Max Rooses,Keus van Dicht- en Prozawerken van J.F. Willems, and hisBrievenin the publications of the Willemsfonds (Ghent, 1872-1874).

FLENSBURG(Danish,Flensborg), a seaport of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, at the head of the Flensburg Fjord, 20 m. N.W. from Schleswig, at the junction of the main line Altona-Vamdrup (Denmark), with branches to Kiel and Glücksburg. Pop. (1905) 48,922. The principal public buildings are the Nikolai Kirche (built 1390, restored 1894), with a spire 295 ft. high; the Marienkirche, also a medieval church, with a lofty tower; the law courts; the theatre and the exchange. There are two gymnasia, schools of marine engineering, navigation, wood-carving and agriculture. The cemetery contains the remains of the Danish soldiers who fell at the battle of Idstedt (25th of July 1850), but the colossal Lion monument, erected by the Danes to commemorate their victory, was removed to Berlin in 1864. Flensburg is a busy centre of trade and industry, and is the most important town in what was formerly the duchy of Schleswig. It possesses excellent wharves, does a large import trade in coal, and has shipbuilding yards, breweries, distilleries, cloth and paper factories, glass-works, copper-works, soap-works and rice mills. Its former extensive trade with the West Indies has lately suffered owing to the enormous development of the North Sea ports, but it is still largely engaged in the Greenland whale and the oyster fisheries.

Flensburg was probably founded in the 12th century. It attained municipal privileges in 1284, was frequently pillaged by the Swedes after 1643, and in 1848 became the capital, under Danish rule, of Schleswig.

See Holdt,Flensburg fruher und jetzt(1884).

FLERS,a manufacturing town of north-western France, in the arrondissement of Domfront, and department of Orne, on the Vère, 41 m. S. of Caen on the railway to Laval. Pop. (1906) 11,188. A modern church in the Romanesque style and a restored château of the 15th century are its principal buildings. There is a tribunal of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a communal college and a branch of the Bank of France. Flers is the centre of a cotton and linen-manufacturing region which includes the towns of Condé-sur-Noireau and La Ferté-Macé. Manufactures are very important, and include, besides cotton and linen fabrics, of which the annual value is about £1,500,000, drugs and chemicals; there are large brick and tile works, flour mills and dyeworks.

FLETA,a treatise, with the sub-titleseu Commentarius juris Anglicani, on the common law of England. It appears, from internal evidence, to have been written in the reign of Edward I., about the year 1290. It is for the most part a poor imitation of Bracton. The author is supposed to have written it during his confinement in the Fleet prison, hence the name. It has been conjectured that he was one of those judges who were imprisoned for malpractices by Edward I. Fleta was first printed by J. Selden in 1647, with a dissertation (2nd edition, 1685).

FLETCHER, ALICE CUNNINGHAM(1845- ), American ethnologist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1845. She studied the remains of Indian civilization in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, became a member of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1879, and worked and lived with the Omahas as a representative of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. In 1883 she was appointed special agent to allot lands to the Omaha tribes, in 1884 prepared and sent to the New Orleans Exposition an exhibit showing the progress of civilization among the Indians of North America in the quarter-century previous, in 1886 visited the natives of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands on a mission from the commissioner of education, and in 1887 was United States special agent in the distribution of lands among the Winnebagoes and Nez Percés. She was made assistant in ethnology at the Peabody Museum in 1882, and received the Thaw fellowship in 1891; was president of the Anthropological Society of Washington and of the American Folk-Lore Society, and vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and, working through the Woman’s National Indian Association, introduced a system of making small loans to Indians, wherewith they might buy land and houses. In 1888 she publishedIndian Education and Civilization, a special report of the Bureau of Education. In 1898 at the Congress of Musicians held at Omaha during the Trans-Mississippi Exposition she read “several essays upon the songs of the North American Indians ... in illustration of which a number of Omaha Indians ... sang their native melodies.” Out of this grew herIndian Story and Song from North America(1900), illustrating “a stage of development antecedent to that in which culture music appeared.”

FLETCHER, ANDREW,of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish politician, was the son and heir of Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), and was born at Saltoun, the modern Salton, in East Lothian. Educated by Gilbert Burnet, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, who was then the parish minister of Saltoun, he completed his education by spending some years in travel and study, entering public life as member of the Scottish parliament which met in 1681. Possessing advanced political ideas, Fletcher was a fearless and active opponent of the measures introduced by John Maitland, duke of Lauderdale, the representative ofCharles II. in Scotland, and his successor, the duke of York, afterwards King James II.; but he left Scotland about 1682, subsequently spending some time in Holland as an associate of the duke of Monmouth and other malcontents.

Although on grounds of prudence Fletcher objected to the rising of 1685, he accompanied Monmouth to the west of England, but left the army after killing one of the duke’s trusted advisers. This incident is thus told by Sir John Dalrymple:

“Being sent upon an expedition, and not esteeming times of danger to be times of ceremony, he had seized for his own riding the horse of a country gentleman (the mayor of Lynne) which stood ready equipt for its master. The master hearing this ran in a passion to Fletcher, gave him opprobrious language, shook his cane and attempted to strike. Fletcher, though rigid in the duties of morality, yet having been accustomed to foreign services both by sea and land in which he had acquired high ideas of the honour of a soldier and a gentleman and of the affront of a cane, pulled out his pistol and shot him dead on the spot. The action was unpopular in countries where such refinements were not understood. A clamour was raised against it among the people of the country, in a body they waited upon the duke with their complaints; and he was forced to desire the only soldier and almost the only man of parts in his army, to abandon him.”

Another, but less probable account, represents Fletcher as quitting the rebel army because he disapproved of the action of Monmouth in proclaiming himself king.

His history during the next few years is rather obscure. He probably travelled in Spain, and fought against the Turks in Hungary; and having in his absence lost his estates and been sentenced to death, he joined William of Orange at the Hague, and returned to Scotland in 1689 in consequence of the success of the Revolution of 1688. His estates were restored to him; and he soon became a leading member of the “club,” an organization which aimed at reducing the power of the crown in Scotland, and in general an active opponent of the English government. In 1703, at a critical stage in the history of Scotland, Fletcher again became a member of the Scottish parliament. The failure of the Darien expedition had aroused a strong feeling of resentment against England, and Fletcher and the national party seized the opportunity to obtain a greater degree of independence for their country.

His attitude in this matter, and also to the proposal for the union of the two crowns, is thus described by a writer in the third edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica:—

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