FLECHIER, ESPRIT. 



FLETCHER, ANDREW. 



930 



: Shield of Achilles,' first modelled in 1818, afterwards east iu silver- 

 gilt for George IV., is certainly one of the most splendid achieve- 

 ments of the art in modern times. To this period belong also hia 

 'Psyche,' and group of the 'Archangel Michael and Satan' (at 

 Petworth), both of them stamped with his genius. The interruptions 

 he experienced from illness or infirmity were but few and brief; and 

 until three days before his death he was able to employ himself in 

 hia usual pursuits and studies without particular inconvenience. He 

 died on the 7th of December 1826, and on the 15th he was followed 

 to the grave (in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields) by the 

 president and council of the Royal Academy. 



It is difficult to do justice to the character of Flaxman as a man 

 or as an artist without the semblance of overstrained panegyric. In 

 some of the mechanical parts of his art he did not greatly excel, 

 neither do his works display that high finishing and delicacy of 

 execution which captivate the eye and often mislead the judgment. 

 " If Flaxman," says Cicognara, "had possessed skill in modelling and 

 execution equal to his talent in invention and composition, he would 

 certainly have had a great share in the prosperous revolution which 

 has taken place in the art. Nevertheless it is greatly indebted to 

 him, since, as far as we are acquainted with his productions, we may 

 affirm that they have mainly contributed to awaken sculpture from a 

 certain monotonous lethargy, and to restore the golden style the 

 severity of the antique which he knew how to apply to his own 

 designs." This praise, if not very warm, is sufficiently discriminating 

 and just upon the whole. Flaxman helped to restore the art from 

 the inanity and soulless, though occasionally graceful, mannerism into 

 which it had fallen, and in which it appeared inclined to remain. 

 He rendered it more poetic, taught it to address itself to the heart, to 

 touch the noblest feelings of our nature, and, while it impressed, to 

 elevate them. 



Flaxman, though he lived frugally, was barely able to secure a 

 decent competence during the larger part of his life, and it was 

 probably only by means of the highly-paid commissions he received 

 from government during his later years, that he was enabled to save 

 something beyond what sufficed to provide for his moderate daily 

 wants. At his death his property was sworn at under 4000J., while 

 his far inferior contemporary Nollekens, the portrait sculptor, died 

 worth nearly 150,000i. He left his property chiefly and all the 

 contents of his studio to his wife's younger sister, Miss Maria Denman, 

 whom he had long adopted as a daughter. The contents of his 

 studio included nearly all his working models, casts of all his chief 

 works, &c. ; Miss Deuman preserved the collection entire with affection- 

 ate reverence for five-aud-twenty years after the death of the great 

 sculptor; regarding herself as she declared but as a trustee for the 

 public until a fitting depository for these most valuable works should 

 be found. At length a not unsuitable museum was found though 

 unfortunately not a national one : the Council of University College 

 having consented to have the cupola of the college adapted to their 

 reception. It was accordingly altered by Mr. Donaldson and con- 

 verted into a very good sculpture gallery, and there, in what is now 

 called Flaxm.in Hall, the working models and casts of about one 

 hundred and forty of the chief works of our greatest English sculptor 

 are arranged. 



FLE'CHIER, ESPRIT, born in 1632 at Femes, near Carpentras, 

 studied in the college of the ' Fathers of the Christian Doctrine,' of 

 which congregation hia maternal uncle was then the superior. Being 

 ordained, he went to Paris, and became preceptor to a young gentle- 

 man. He made himself favourably known by writing penegyrical 

 orations in honour of saints and also of deceased distinguished con- 

 temporaries, which were much liked at the time as specimens of 

 eloquence. In 1673 the Abbe 1 Flechier was named a member of the 

 French Academy; and in 1682 he was appointed by Louis XIV. 

 almoner to the Dauphinees. In 1685 he was sent at the head of a 

 mission to reclaim to Catholicism the Protestants of Poitou and 

 Brittany. On his return to Paris he was appointed by the king 

 bishop of Lavaur, but was soon after transferred to the see of Nismes. 

 The revocation of the edict of Nantes, 22nd October 1685, had been 

 followed by a species of persecution against the Protestaats, or 

 Huguenots as they were called, who were very numerous at Nismes 

 and in the neighbouring districts. Fiddlier, who was naturally of a 

 mild disposition, while obeying the intolerant orders of the king 

 towards this part of the population, executed them with as much tem- 

 perance as could be expected from one in his situation. His letters 

 contain painful evidence of the oppressions and cruelties committed at 

 that epoch. When the persecuted Protestants rose in 1702-3 against 

 their oppressors, they fearfully retaliated by killing the Catholics and 

 burning their churches. This was followed by Louis XIV. sending a 

 large force under a marshal of France, and the devastation of the 

 mountainous districts of the Cdvennes ensued. Fiddlier repeatedly 

 expressed his astonishment at the boldness and courage of the victims. 

 (Lettre 138, in the last volume of ' Les (Euvres de FMchier.') 

 Fle'chier died at Nismes in February, 1710. His scattered works have 

 been collected and published : ' (Euvres completes de Fiddlier,' 

 10 vols., NUmes, 1782. They consist of biographies, sermons, pane- 

 gyrics, and ' oraisons funebres,' in which last he was considered to 

 rival and almost to excel Bossuet. Cardinal Maury (' Essai sur 

 ['Eloquence de la Clmire,' vol. i.) examines with a critical eye 



Fldchier's oration in honour of Marshal Tureune, which was con- 

 sidered as his masterpiece, and points out its defects. Fiddlier wrote 

 a life of Cardinal Ximenes, rather too partial according to some 

 critics, and a life of Theodosius the Great. His correspondence above 

 mentioned furnishes some interesting materials for contemporary 

 history. 



FLECKNOE, RICHARD, is said to have been an Irish Roman 

 Catholic priest. He was a minor poet and wit in the time of Dryden, 

 and would have been long since forgotten had not that writer used his 

 name as the title of a severe satire against Shadvvell, and therein 

 proclaims that he 



" In prose and verse was own'd without dispute, 

 Through all the realms of nonsense absolute." 



Of course his name was transmitted to posterity with the same 

 ignominy that has accompanied the heroes of Pope's 'Dunciad.' The 

 reader of satires should not however take too much for granted, nor 

 be too ready to admit as a fact that all objects of ridicule and invective 

 are such fools and knaves as they are represented. Party feeling and 

 private animosity may have occasioned the attacks directed by a 

 powerful opponent, rather than a cool judgment and a rational inquiry 

 into merits. In the case of the satires of Pope and Dryden, the 

 satires themselves are in the hands of every gentleman possessing a 

 moderate library, while the works of the persona satirised are utterly 

 unknown, excepting to those who take an active interest in studying 

 the literature of the period. Hence a vast number of persons are by 

 name familiar to the mass of readers, on account of their having been 

 by our great satirists denounced as the writers of unredeemed trash, 

 without any opportunity being given of examining the justice of the 

 sentence. Flecknoe, in particular, is a victim to these partial views. 

 There is no doubt that the mere readers of Dryden take it for granted 

 that Flecknoe was an almost unqualified idiot, yet it is a fact that 

 though he did not possess what can be called genius, and was sadly 

 defective in his versification, he still possessed much fancy, and wrote 

 some small pieces which for happy turns of thought would not mar 

 an eminent name. Fleckuoe wrote some plays of no value : his 

 ' Damoisells,' a comedy, was printed in 1667, but not played. 'Love's 

 Dominion' (1654), 'The Marriage of Oceauus and Britannia,' and 

 'Ermina, or the Chaste Lady,' are the title* of some of his other 

 dramatic pieces. The date of Flecknoe's birth is nowhere stated ; he 

 is believed to have died somewhere about 1678. 



FLEETWOOD, CHARLES, was descended from a private family 

 in Lancashire, from which several distinguished persons had sprung. 

 From a trooper iu the earl of Essex's forces he rose to be colonel of 

 infantry, and was made governor of Bristol. In October 1645, he was 

 returned to Parliament for Buckinghamshire, and iu 1647 was one of 

 the commissioners named to treat with the king. At the battle of 

 Worcester, Fleetwood distinguished himself so much that he gained 

 great favour both with Oliver Cromwell and the army iu general : 

 indeed afterwards, when the king was executed, and the parliamentary 

 army became more powerful, he was inferior to few in the influence 

 that he possessed among the soldiery. Fleetwood had married Frances, 

 the daughter of Thomas Smith of Winston, Norfolk, by whom he had 

 three children, but this lady being dead, he was fixed upon by Crom- 

 well, from political motives, to marry Bridget, his eldest daughter, thp 

 widow of Ireton. Soon after he became his son -la-law the Protector 

 nominated him commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, where ho 

 was also invested with a commissionership for the civil department. 

 Cromwell however feeliug that his interests were not perfectly secure 

 in the hands of Fleetwood, who was a thorough republican, and 

 strenuously opposed to the Protector being made king, sent his son 

 Henry Cromwell to watch over his conduct. Some enmity was thus 

 produced, and with the view of putting an end to it, Cromwell 

 created Fleetwood one of the new lords, and made him the chief of 

 the fourteen major-generals to whom the government of the nation 

 was arbitrarily committed and who were deputed to search for such 

 royalists as had borne arms under Charles I., or were disaffected to 

 the present government, with power to imprison them, and to deci- 

 mate their estates. When Richard Cromwell became Protector, 

 Fleetwood strove to obtain his title, and to supplant him in his 

 authority; but while he was caballing against him, the nation, wearied 

 with tumult and discord, recalled the exiled king. 



At the immediate time of the Restoration it was supposed that 

 Tleetwood would be executed as a rebel : his life was with difficulty 

 saved, and he retired to Stoke Newington, where he was allowed to 

 spend the remainder of his life in obscurity. He died in 1692. In 

 character he was cunning, but irresolute, and of shallow capacity ; 

 lis iufluence in Cromwell's army is perhaps mainly attributable to the 

 excess of his fanaticism. 



FLETCHER, ANDREW, was the son of Sir Robert Fletcher, of 

 Saltoun, in East Lothian, where he was born in 1653. Sir Robert is 

 faid to have died when his sou was a child. Andrew Fletcher's early 

 education was superintended by Gilbert Burnet, afterwards the 

 celebrated bishop of Salisbury, who was at this time parish minister 

 of Saltoun. To him Fletcher was probably indebted for his first bias 

 '.n favour of those political principles to which he adhered through his 

 ife. When he grew up he spent some time in travelling ou the 

 continent. On his return home he obtained a seat in the Scottish 



