FABLIAUX 



3060 



FABRONI 



traditionally ascribed to Aesop are 

 but variants of those found on 

 ancient Egyptian papyri. Many, 

 too, are traced to the Arabs, by 

 whom they may have been brought 

 from India. 



It is probable that tales of a 

 fabulist character are common to 

 most primitive peoples, mark, 

 indeed, a definite stage in race- 

 culture ; the addition of a " moral" 

 to any beast tale being a natural 

 development, and not peculiar to 

 one originating writer or people. 

 Of later fabulists the French 

 writer La Fontaine is perhaps the 

 most celebrated. See editions of 

 Bidpai, 1888, and Aesop, 1889, by 

 Joseph Jacobs : The Big Book of 

 Fables, ed. Walter Jerrold, 1912. 



Fabliaux. Short tales in verse, 

 almost always octosyllabic coup- 

 lets, dealing from the comic point 

 of view with incidents of ordinary 

 life. The fabliaux appeared in 

 France in the 12th century, and 

 remained popular for about 200 

 years. The tales are licentious both 

 in subject and treatment, fre- 

 quently satirising priests or women 

 or both in language that is gener- 

 ally coarse, but many of them have 

 real humour and the best are free 

 from objection. The fabliaux were 

 first collected and published by 

 Barbazan in the 18th century, and 

 were re-collected and issued in six 

 volumes by Anatole de Montaiglon 

 and Gaston Raynaud ha 1872-90. 

 Averaging 200-300 lines in length, 

 the fabliaux, with their smallness 

 of range, delicacy of argument, 

 wit, irony, and provocative treat- 

 ment, are the direct ancestors of 

 the French short story. 



Fabre, FERDINAND (1830-98). 

 French novelist. Born at Beda- 

 rieux, Herault, he studied for the 

 priesthood, medicine, and the law 

 in turn before producing his first 

 novel, Les Courbezon, 1862. He 

 died in Paris, Feb. 11, 1898. A 

 moderate realist, he depicted with 

 minute fidelity the people and 

 manners of the Cevennes, as in Le 

 Chevrier, and excelled particularly 

 in studies of clerical life, as in 

 L'Abbe Tigrane, 1873, and Mon 

 Oncle Celestin, 1881. See French 

 Profiles, E. W. Gosse, 1905. 



Fabre, JEAN HENEI( 1823-1915). 

 French entomologist. .' Born at 

 Sainte-Leone, Aveyron, his early 

 years were passed in great poverty. 

 At 18 he was in charge of a primary 

 school, where he improved his 

 knowledge of mathematics and 

 physics in his spare time, and 

 where he bought his first book on 

 entomology. ^/Becoming professor 

 of philosophy in the college of 

 Ajaccio and hi the Lycee at Avig- 

 non, he turned his attention to the 

 study of insects. His earliest ob- 



servations appeared in the Annales 

 des Sciences Naturelles, 1855-58, 

 subsequently enlarged in Souvenirs 

 Entomologiques, 10 vols., 2nd ed. 

 1914, etc. The earlier volumes 

 are remarkable for their close and 

 painstaking observations on living 



Jean H. Pabre, 

 French entomologist 



insects, bring- 

 ing to light 

 many unsus- 

 pected habits 

 and instincts 

 of wasps and 

 bees in par- 

 ticular. H i s 

 work, though 

 gaining the 

 praise of Dar- 

 win, failed to 

 win popular attention. 



The insect's Homer, as he has 

 been called, Fabre' s reputation has 

 been steadily increasing. A curious 

 blend of White of Selborne and 

 Darwin, he displays not only most 

 amazing powers of minute and 

 careful observation, but his writ- 

 ings have an unusually high liter- 

 ary quality. He died Oct. 11, 1915. 

 See Works, complete Eng. trans. 

 A. Texeira de Mattos, 1912, etc. 



Fabre d'glantine, PHILIPPE 

 FRANCOIS NAZAIRE (1750-94). A 

 French revolutionary and drama- 

 tist. Born at Carcassonne, July 28, 

 1750, he became a member of the 

 National Convention and for a 

 time was secretary to Danton. His 

 play Philinte attracted some at- 

 tention in 1790, but perhaps his 

 most successful literary achieve- 

 ment was the renaming of the 

 months for the revolutionary 

 calendar, 1793. He was guillotined 

 on a false charge of forgery, April 

 5, 1794. 



Fabriano. City of Italy, in the 

 prov. of Ancona. It stands on the 

 E. slopes of the Apennines, at an 

 alt. of over 1,000 ft., 45 m. by rly. 

 S.W. of Ancona. It has a cathe- 

 dral, a town hall, and some of the 

 churches contain pictures of the 

 Fabriano school. The city is cele- 

 brated for its paper mills, estab- 

 lished hi the 13th century. Gun- 

 powder, glue, parchment, and felt 

 are also made, and there is trade 

 in cattle and cereals. It is the rly. 

 junction for Urbino. Pop. 23,752. 

 Fabric (Lat. fabrica, workshop, 

 skilled production). Word used for 

 any kind of manufactured cloth. 

 By an extension it is also used for 

 the outer body of a building, as the 

 fabric of a church or, figuratively, 

 the fabric of the constitution. See 

 Textiles. 



Fabricius Luscinus, GAITJS (c. 

 280 B.C.). Roman general. He 

 won notable victories over the 

 Lucanians, Bruttians, and Sam- 

 nites, and in the war with Pyrrhus 

 twice conducted negotiations with 



that monarch. After the Roman 

 defeat at Heraclea in 280 B.C. 

 Pyrrhus tried hard to buy Fab- 

 ricius* over, but the stern Roman 

 was incorruptible. " Later, after 

 Fabricius had delivered up a 

 traitor who had offered to poison 

 Pyrrhus, negotiations were re- 

 sumed, with the result that in 278 

 satisfactory terms of peace were 

 arranged. During his censorship 

 in 275 he made great efforts to 

 check the growing tendency to 

 luxury and extravagance. He him- 

 self died so poor that his daughters 

 had to be provided with dowries by 

 the state. Fabricius was lauded by 

 subsequent generations as the em- 

 bodiment of the old republican 

 virtues. Pron. Fab-rish-ius. 



Fabricius, JOHANN ALBERT 

 (1668-1736). German classical 

 scholar. Born at Leipzig, Nov. 11, 

 1668, at the age of 25 he removed 

 to Hamburg, where shortly after 

 publishing his Bibliotheca Latina, 

 1697, he became a professor at the 

 gymnasium. His later works on 

 classical bibliography, storehouses 

 of learning and still indispensable, 

 included Bibliotheca Graeca, 1705- 

 28 ; Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, 1718; 

 and Bibliotheca Latina Mediae et 

 Infimae Aetatis, 1734. He died at 

 Hamburg, April 30, 1736. Pron. 

 Fab-reets-ioos. 



Fabrizi, NICOLA (1804-85). 

 Italian patriot. Born at Modena, 

 April 4, 1804, he was implicated in 

 the Carbonari insurrection of 1831. 

 He fled to Marseilles and thence to 

 Spam, where he fought against the 

 Carlists, 1837. One of Mazzini's 

 most trusted agents, he moved to 

 Malta, whence he assisted the 

 Sicili an insurrection of 1848. When 

 revolution broke out in Italy, he 

 fought at Venice and Rome, retir- 

 ing to Malta after the fall of Rome. 

 He raised a revolt in Sicily in 1860 

 and joined forces at Palermo with 

 Garibaldi, who made him governor 

 of Messina and war minister. He 

 opposed Garibaldi's Rome cam- 

 paign of 1862, but in 1867 fought 

 at Mentana. He died March 31, 

 1885. Pron. Fab-reet-si. 



Fabroni, ANGELO (1732-1803). 

 Italian biographer, called " the 

 Plutarch of modern Italy." Born 

 at Marradi, Tuscany, Sept. 25, 

 1732, he became prior of San Lo- 

 renzo, Florence, in 1767, and was 

 appointed tutor to the sons of 

 Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany, 

 in 1773. His chief work was Vitae 

 Italorum Doctrina Excellentium 

 qui Saeculis XVII et XVIII florue- 

 runt, hi 20 vols., 1778-1805, vol. 

 19 containing his autobiography. 

 He also wrote biographies of Lo- 

 renzo de' Medici, 1784 ; Cosimo de' 

 Medici, 1788-89 ; and Petrarch, 

 1799. He died Sept. 22, 1803. 



